Overwhelmed by a Bunch of Grapes

We all feel overwhelmed from time to time. Sometimes we use the phrase, “ever have one of those days?”  So many times I want to change that phrase to, “ever have one of those lives?” The daily grind can accumulate a tremendous amount of pressure which can paralize us. This environmental, social, mental paralysis can become procrastination of epic proportions.  So much so that we are completely overwhelmed. Even the littlest things can seem like they take too much effort.

My personal experience as well as in my private practice has taught me that it is the individual perspective that matters here. People try to be helpful by offering solutions, even actual help with said projects and responsibilities. However, it is the person who is afflicted, they have lost hope. They have lost courage.

Homework, housework, bills to be paid, yardwork, dog poop to pick up, lose weight, eat better, exercise, letters to be written, phone calls, emails, dinner to cook, clothes to wash, people to see, reports to turn in, and on, and on, and on, and on! The list can seem endless. Most people see the mountain of chores and responsibilities as insurmountable. They fall into despair. And every day the mountain gets bigger. So big the lost of hope turns to helplessness and depression.

I have seen certain animals eat things bigger than one would thing possible. Snakes for instance, can unhinge their jaw to swallow prey bigger than their head! Humans, not so much. I have never once witnessed a human unhinge their jaw and swallow an entire bunch of grapes in one bite. But…I have seen humans eat an entire bunch of grapes, one at a time.

I call this strategy, debunching, which I often recommend to my clients. By taking it one grape at a time we can debunch our overwhelming tasks. Life is a process. One thing at a time. One step at a time. Whatever our responsibilities or our goals, we can accomplish great things if we debunch the problems and take it one grape at a time.

We don’t need the couage to climb the whole mountain, we only need the courage to take one step. We don’t need to eat the whole bunch in one bite, we only need the courage to eat one grape at a time. That is the courage to thrive.

So take a deep breath, and have a grape.