Notes to Self: Keep Creating

Last week was overwhelming. Completely overwhelming. The kind of overwhelming that sits in your chest and refuses to loosen. The kind that wakes you up at 2 a.m. with a racing mind and a thousand unfinished thoughts.

Too many responsibilities. Too many decisions. Too many things asking for attention.

I did what I usually do. I leaned on my practices. I returned to my body. I breathed. I wrote. I reached for my community and let them hold space with me.

But this time, it wasn’t working. Not the way it usually does. The overwhelm kept circling. My mind kept racing. My nervous system refused to settle. So I tried something different. I stopped.

I stopped trying to solve the overwhelm. Stopped trying to regulate my way out of it. Stopped trying to “do it right.”

I got quiet.

I cried.

I sat in stillness long enough for the noise to soften.

I did the few things that truly needed to be done that day—slowly, quietly.

And then something happened. In the quiet, I heard it. A small voice. Not loud. Not frantic. Just a gentle pull.

Keep creating.

Not for strategy. Not for productivity. Not for the endless list of things that need to be built and launched and shared.

Just create.

An idea arrived. Then another. A new product. A program. A book.

I didn’t rush my response. I didn’t open my laptop or start outlining or map the entire thing out. I waited.

A day. Then another. I let the ideas sit in my body and see if they stayed.

And they did.

The urgency softened. The frantic energy dissolved. What remained was something quieter.

Rooted.

When the impulse returned, it wasn’t pushing me forward. It was inviting me.

So I created.

And something remarkable happened. With each idea, my body softened. With each small act of making, my spirit lifted.

I slept again. I danced in my car. I felt my center return. Creating didn’t remove the responsibilities. It didn’t lighten the workload. Life is still full. The work is still a lot. The world is still heavy. But I am no longer overwhelmed.

Creating reminded me of something I forget sometimes:

Creation is how I weather the storm.

Not by escaping the chaos. But by turning toward the quiet place inside myself where something new still wants to live.

And letting it breathe.