I’m sitting on my bed, it’s 10:30pm, and I’ve just finished up work for the day.
My predominant feeling these past few weeks has been overwhelm. A lot of really incredible but very unexpected things have taken place since, well, the start of Aquarius season. The number of projects I’m involved in at my day job went from four or five to…wait am I at eight now? Nine? I’m not going to lie they have started to blur together.
On top of those projects I’m working on three grant applications due this February. The Living Wish Scholarship opened for applications at the end of January and still needs to be promoted. And the Wild Apothecary product line is reaching four weeks of production delays.
Ok now I’m just starting to spiral through my to do list. Maybe you can see why I’m feeling incredibly overwhelmed lately.
So I’ve been reflecting lately on the impact of overwhelm and how to manage it, particularly when nothing can be taken off your plate and your plate can only get so much bigger.
(Transition sound)
It’s 6:41pm the next night. Once again, I’ve just shut down from my work today. And it means this episode is being written in segments which I HATE doing. Writing episode scripts helps my ADHD brain produce stronger episodes and significantly speeds up my editing process. But I still like to write them in a continuous flow, to maintain an organic feel.
This out of the norm process is just another sign that I am in a period of overwhelm. It speaks to how my body and my brain start to react when forced into this type of high-need, high-demand energy for extended periods of time. I begin to jump around from thing to thing in rapid succession, never fully completing one task and never being fully present in the task either.
When this happens, everything feels disjointed and incomplete. It’s a chaotic and unsettling feeling.
Now, my original plan for this episode was to share some of my tips and tricks for managing the feelings of overwhelm when it happens. I had done some research on strategies to back these tips up, all that good stuff reliable and trustworthy things Podcasters do. But after having sat down twice now to write out this podcast and reflect on how I encounter and experience overwhelm, and my cat has come to curl up directly on my chest, I realize this has been the most impactful thing I have done for my energy in a while.
(Transition)
It’s 10:30pm, many days later. This episode will now be posted two weeks late. At least, I hope I get it posted Sunday.
I worry I am actually just documenting a slow decline into a nihilistic depression phase. But with a long weekend ahead, I hope I will have the space and strength to pull myself of out it.
But as I started to say, writing these bits and pieces through this period has been helping me. Reflecting, asking myself difficult questions, naming my emotions and my responses. And identifying where they were coming from. Its helped me stay afloat. And sometimes, that’s a win worth celebrating.
(Transition)
It’s 10:42 the next night. It’s funny how I seem to be called to add to this around the same time every night.
I was originally going to end it with that last reflection. I didn’t know how I’d feel and I was feeling more and more like I needed to prepare for a heavy depression.
But today, despite the clouds in the skies and waking up at noon, I started to feel better. I started to breathe a little easier.
Now for this week’s reading.
Now I am not a professional astrologer - I live my life in flow with the patterns of the cosmos but I rely on others to help me interpret that flow. And based off of what I’m hearing from Astro TikTok, this week’s reading lines up with the transits in the sky.
This week we have the Knight of Cups and the King of Wands. These cards are feeling very personal right now, there’s a strong energy of “this shit is all about you babydoll” coming from those cards, so when I’m talking about the archetype of these two suited minor arcana cards, they are representing you. If you feel an urge to associate things with people outside of yourself, it’s an invitation to honestly reflect on why you don’t want to see those parts in your self.
So with the Knight of Cups in the first placement, we’re embarking on an emotional journey for the weekend ahead. Our actions and motivations will be emotionally driven. We will likely feel more emotionally sensitive. During these times, call forward your emotional maturity to help ride any significant peeks or valleys.
The Knight of Cups, due to their more sensitive nature, tends to be drawn to beauty, wonder, poetry, the arts… they follow the call of their heart. What has your heart been yearning for? What does it yearn for in the week ahead?
With the King of Wands in our second placement, it’s important that we trust our vision for our mental health. Trust in ourselves, trust in our big picture and our bigger why.
The King of Wands is confident and secure in their inner strength. Embody this energy for the week ahead - be stubbornly optimistic in your self. Ignore anyone who tries to make you feel smaller or less than.
That’s everything for this week folks. Thanks for sticking through what turned out to be a more experimental episode for me. If you enjoyed it, let me know! You can slide into my DM’s on IG or tag me on Threads or TikTok at @MegansAWitch.
For your own, personal mental health tarot reading you can book a session with me at www.wildapothecary.ca.
If you’re not already subscribed to the show and you’ve made it this far, conceder following us before you go.
Until we meet again.