SUCKS TO BE HUMAN, DOESN’T IT?

To be stuck in a physical body that is only capable of moving in a linear fashion while multiple streams of creative energies, impulses and inspirations are fighting to come through you, shouting to get your attention, seeking to be born, to be manifested, to be brought into this world.

To be painfully linear. When our inner magic demands otherwise. When all we want to do is everything, AT ONCE. And we get frustrated when we have to divide our attention, to fragment our time and energy, to make sense of the flood of creative abundance that is coming through, to choose. How? How can we possibly choose?

OR RATHER, HOW CAN WE CHOOSE THE RIGHT ONE TO FOCUS ONE? HOW WOULD WE KNOW?

Creativity is abstract. It cannot be boxed in, having no boundaries. It’s raw, it’s transformative, and it is stuff of life. If we could transcend the space-time that is our bodies, we would all be gods, worlds and dimensions springing from our fingertips. Alas, we are bound to earth’s physics. It’s a curse and a blessing. We are forced to sleep, to eat, to prioritize. We cannot achieve omnipotence and do everything at once.

But we are of the stuff of gods. Creativity is in our nature. As human being, we are all born with the power to create.When it comes to creative overwhelm, the real challenge is really how to properly function as an incredibly creative being. How do we contain creativity? How do we organize it? How do work through the overwhelming pressure of creative potential, of things seeking to be born? And most importantly, how can we be productive with our creativity?

RELAX

HAVING A RELAXED ATTITUDE AND OPEN MIND CAN REALLY HELP YOU REFRAME YOUR FRUSTRATION INTO SOMETHING POSITIVE.

If you are experiencing creative overwhelm, it is a sign that you are in the flow of overwhelming creative abundance. It’s a good thing! And something to be grateful for. You are experiencing creative overwhelm because you have cultivated enough space within yourself to open yourself up to creativity. This shows that you are coming from a place of real authenticity and intuitive flow. Think of it this way: instead of dealing with the usual psychological and emotional junk and tendencies that are derailing you from your highest good and honest creative expression, you are struggling to figure out what to do with your creative self. What a problem, right?

Understandably, these impulses are difficult to sort through because they are all a genuine part of you–and can you choose between parts of yourself when they are all, well, you!? Despite the challenge to generate focus and productivity, they are all a reflection of how strong your creativity is, how much you want to do with your life and how much potential that you see with all the trajectories that are being thrown at you, that extend into possible futures that speak to your heart’s desire.

All in all, you are starting at an incredibly righteous place!

HAVE A REALISTIC UNDERSTANDING AND CONCEPT OF TIME

HAVE A REALISTIC UNDERSTANDING AND CONCEPT OF TIME, HOW TIME WORKS, HOW MUCH YOU ARE ABLE TO GET DONE IN A DESIGNATED PERIOD, AND HOW MUCH TIME AN ACTIVITY ACTUALLY CONSUMES.

Most of the time, we are so concerned about productivity, we forget that everything inevitably takes time. When things take time, we lose patience because we lose our sense of progress. We feel like we’re either doing something wrong or not doing enough. We become extremely critical with our time management skills because we know that time is an unchanging commodity. We get 24 hours a day and that’s it, no special favors and shortcuts (and we have the same hours of Beyonce, for Goodness’ sakes!) Which means that when we’re not spending that 24 hours efficiently, we must be wasting time, no?

Things can get very “blamey” and toxic from there, and we don’t want to get into that stressful thought-loop.We need to remember that we can measure our progress with a lot of things: for example, how much happiness and fulfillment we experience, how much useful data we have collected that can be of use later on in the future, how many ideas we have managed to sort through despite not having executed any of those ideas, how many social and emotional connections we have made…etc. These are few of the many things that can be used to validate creative progress and productivity.

THINK LONG TERM.

If you are short-sighted with your goals, you become frustrated when you don’t meet those goals. For example, if you are running an online business and your goal is to “make money”, you become disappointed and discouraged when you don’t make any money because your designated “marker” of progress is money. And no money = no progress.

If you stretch your vision far enough, however, you will know that everything you are doing is for the growth and development of your online business, which includes many things: making money, building an online presence, discovering and growing your brand, creating engaging content, figuring out your creative vision, examining your journey, re-calibrating–these are all valuable “currencies” that may not appear to have met one or few of your goals, but you have to look at how your experiences and your efforts may have served you in the long run, or how they can be useful in different ways.

When you think long term, the decisions you make will become more meaningful because you understand that what you are doing right now are all various forms and levels of currencies that you are investing, which will pay off in different ways and feed off of each other in the future. Not to mention that when you think long term, you will make sure that you are spending your time and energy wisely and at the right places. Having a long term vision will really be a key feature that streamlines your creative and productive process.

SORTING THROUGH THAT BUNDLE OF “WANDS” LIKE A BOSS.

If you recall the RWS depiction of 10 of Wands, you will know how strenuous looking and back-pain inducing that picture is. It seems to portray arduous and difficult labour and burden. However, if you practice reframing this picture into something positive that presents a unique challenge (that you can overcome), your sense of pressure and stress will lighten up significantly. That dude has 10 wands at his disposal. Sure, he’s bitten off more than he could chew by trying to carry 10 of them at the same time (which I’m sure we all do with our grocery bags), but he’s still got 10 incredible power sources within his arms.

So if you’re suffering from creative overwhelm right now, all I can say is: keep calm and carry on. If you stretch the span of time far enough into the future–you will realize that this perceived “burden” is on burden at all. You can figure out how many wands you are able to carry and with how many trips. You can figure out the best ways to store those wands and to utilize their power. You can figure out when you are going to utilize those power and for what.

You can realize that creative overwhelm is, in fact, a sign of incredible abundance and quite honestly is a blessing disguised as a first-world problemcurse.

Does 10 of Wands also signify “creative overwhelm” to you? How do you interpret the 10 of Wands? Do you have any cool tricks or tips for dealing with creative overwhelm? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts below!

And of course, here is a tarot spread to help you make sense of your creative overwhelm and power through it! xo

10 of Wands: Fighting Through Creative Overwhelm + Tarot Spread