A snow globe is beautiful! As a kid I loved shaking them up and watching the white pieces fly around – honestly I still do love this as an adult. As an adult I find thoughts can swirl around my head in the same way.
Maybe I’m trying to make a decision and weighing the pros and cons. Or perhaps I’m thinking about my to-do list. And sometimes it’s when analyzing a recent conversation. With any of those scenarios, anxiety can take over and turn on the sympathetic nervous system. So it grows from a decision or contemplation to an overwhelming and urgent swirl. The snow storm in the brain becomes a white out and all you see is white pieces flying all around.
In these moments, the brain insists that you need to keep thinking, analyzing, or planning. In reality, the first step is to help the nervous system move from sympathetic (fight or flight energy) to ventral vagal (safe and regulated energy). This is the equivalent of putting the snow globe down and letting the thoughts settle. It’s accomplished with deep breathing, laughter, regulating the nervous system, externalizing thoughts (journaling is one way), and/or taking a break from the topic.
Next time you’re beginning to feel overwhelmed, try putting the worry aside. When you let all of the pieces in the snow globe fall to the ground you are gifted with seeing the figure in the center of the globe. If you let your thoughts settle, it’s often the case that you’ll gain some clarity and insight that no amount of thinking would have accomplished.
Navigating Today 