The Non-Definitive Guide to Staying Sane (Online) in an Age of Overwhelm- Part One

Reclaiming our Attention Span and Using Values as a Decision Making Tool.

Hello all,

And Happy March! I love this time of year as spring nudges its limbs out, and at either end of the day, the light pockets itself, occasionally in sunset hue.

The post I have for you today comes in two parts. The first part, for all subscribers, speaks to the issue of overwhelm which so many of us are facing these days, and offers a simple tool from design thinking to flip our thinking into more open, collective possibilities.

The second part of the post, is Part One of my ‘Non-Definitive Guide to Staying Sane (Online) in an Age of Overwhelm’. In it I’ll share more tools, tips and tales from the trenches in trying to navigate these days with some resemblance of balance and grace. Parts Two to Four will be released in the coming weeks. The guide is for paid members of The Wild Edge, as a way of honouring my time, their investment, and the ongoing development of this work. (Membership is €1.53 per week, based on annual membership, or €1.84 based on monthly. It would be lovely to have you along. )

Hope you enjoy today’s offering.

Clare. x

On the Rise of Overwhelm

Over the last few weeks, in my work in universities and social change organisations, and then again in conversations with clients and friends, there is a word, and a corresponding feeling, which I have been hearing on repeat, and that is ‘overwhelmed’.

‘I’m just so overwhelmed’, many are saying directly, or it is coming out another way. ‘I feel so scattered’, ‘I can’t seem to focus’, or, ‘I feel like I’m numbing to it all’. What is clear is that we are not built for the endless news cycles of dread, and our human faculties can hardly take in the scale of the off-kilteredness at the moment. So, I am not surprised when I hear people are overwhelmed, because frankly, it is overwhelming. To be alarmed or concerned about the climate, humanitarian or political state of affairs is, I believe, a very human response. But overwhelm is not a sustainable place to find ourselves either, for our nervous systems, nor for the kind of action, energy and solutions required for these times. How might we move from overwhelm reactionary responses, to more centred or grounded ones? I think this is an important question for these times.

As regular readers here will know, among other things, I am interested in translating the wisdom and rituals of the seasons into our daily lives, with a particular focus on the Celtic seasons, since this is the land which informs my heritage and my belonging. Wherever you find yourself however, embedded into every season and the land which hosts it, is a set of questions and invitations which I believe can help us navigate this very question of overwhelm with fluidity and resilience.

With that in mind, and as the days lengthen and we edge closer towards the equinoxes, Spring or Vernal in the Northern Hemisphere, and Autumn in the Southern, we are gifted a series of invitations which bring with it their questions of equality, equanimity or composure, and balance. As the day and night begin to equalise, we are invited into examining how the perceived opposites of light and dark, masculine and feminine, may be integrated into wholeness. For me, the equinoxes, offer chance to think about how I might work with the opposing forces of what may feel off kilter, and rather than try to ignore them, or override them with sheer will, instead find ways to realign with what matters most.

So while the scale of the challenge may feel beyond our comprehension, let along our reach, I do believe that there are so many things within our own sphere of influence which we can adjust: how were spend our time; how and where we direct our energy, focus and attention; how we choose to earn, invest and spend our money; what story we choose to tell; whose narratives we hold accountable. Within these questions are routes back towards a recalibrated, and rebalanced sense of ourselves, efforts that can help us feel less overwhelmed and more ready for the world again.

I’m very wary of ‘How To’ guides which claim to have a definitive answer, to anything. I’m more open to the non-absolutes, as they leave room for nuance. Over the next few weeks leading up to the Spring equinox, I will be sharing my Non-Definitive Guide to Staying Sane (Online) in an Age of Overwhelm.

This is more a ‘How Might We Guide’ rather than a ‘How To Guide’, mostly because I think we each need to find our own way, and figure out what suits our very particular context. What works for me may not work for you, but by sharing tips and practices, I think we can inspire each other. For my own effort, I will be drawing on the wisdom of the Celtic cycle, alongside creative mentoring methodologies, values based principles, and news from the trenches of my own attempts to reclaim my often frayed attention in an effort to feel less overwhelmed.

To begin, I am turning to Design Thinking, an innovation process methodology, where I borrow a simple but very useful question opener. It is one which quickly slips us into experimentation mode and helps us see the system, or context, in which we are trying to solve.

I love this way to open a question for several reasons.

How is process orientated. It is about the ways things are done and the iterative path to get there.

Might is a maybe. It questions things, brings us to beginners mind and steers us away from absolutes and certainties. It is about curiosity, trial and error.

We carries us to the collective, reminding us that we need not do this alone. It works at the level of field intelligence, collective insight, pattern recognition and systems. While we may experience the problem ourselves, it’s often not an isolated incident, and the solution might reside in a collective response too. ‘I’ might feel overwhelmed, but ‘we’, might be able to do something about our collective experience.

It is these mindsets embedded into the question of ‘How Might We’, that I carry back to the equinox invitation of equanimity and balance.

How might we…

Refocus and reclaim our attention

Balance our online lives with our offline lives

Recalibrate our inner states to feel less overwhelmed

Create from a place of grounded influence rather than reactionary or retaliatory action.

So, if you are feeling stuck or overwhelmed, or our seeking more balance and equilibrium, may I suggest you take a ‘How Might We’ approach, flipping the issue around, and placing ‘How Might We’ before it.

Instead of an internal critic staying something like ‘I really should just stop scrolling’- a thought wrapped in blame and self criticism, it turns into, ‘How might we reduce my doomscrolling before bed? (Perhaps the solution is a collective one.)

Instead of ‘We are always rushing out the door and never have time to connect’, turns into, ‘How might we cultivate more nourishing creative morning routines as a family?

Instead of ‘I only see my friends online these days’, turns into, ‘How might we, as a group of friends, commit to fostering our connection without the use of social apps?’

Or instead of ‘I feel so overwhelmed with all the news’, it becomes, ‘How might I build in news sabattacials into my week?’ You could also turn put that ‘We’ into the question, and see how the solution might be a shared commitment or with friends, co-workers or family.

See what happens? How Might We opens up possibilities, and the possibilities are multiple. It brings in an experimental, and therefore fun approach. Maybe the solution is closer than we think.

Now over to the Non - Definitive Guide to Staying Sane (Online) in an Age of Overwhelm.

In today’s Part One, I share some context of what is happening to our attention and our time, and then speak about the role of core values in helping us make decisions to keep close to what matters most to us.

In Part Two, I am sharing a series of guiding principles which help us get more intentional about how we chose to spend our time, attention and energy, including what we choose to share online.

In Part Three, I’ll be offering tools for reclaiming our attention span and focus, including around boundaries, online and offline.

In Part Four, I’ll be speaking about cultivating community and connection, digitally and in person.

Depending on the questions which arise, there might be more parts in which I answer these!

A work in progress, as always.

Thank you for being here, and, as ever, I hope you find this useful and nourishing.

Clare.

The Non Definitive Guide to Staying Sane (Online) in an Age of Overwhelm.

(FYI: This post, being relatively long, may cut off in your email. You can find the full post on The Wild Edge main Substack)

Part One: Values as a tool for Decision Making

I’m very wary of ‘How To’ guides which claim to have a definitive answer, to anything. It would, of course, be convenient to read, ‘How to Conquer Fear’, and never again feel the pangs of doubt which keep us from taking the leap we know is waiting for us. If only ‘How to be in a Relationship’ could be universally applied, we may never need ‘How to Date’ or ‘How to be Alone’.

While, ‘How to Boil a Perfect Egg’, may offer a useful set of instructions, I trust that there is more than one way to boil an egg, and many more ways to define perfect. So, when it comes to claims of how one might maintain a level of sanity in this age of turbulence and change, including our relationship to our online lives, any definitive claims of ‘how to’, feel so entirely inadequate, mostly because I think each of us need to find our own way.