This post will start with a brief science lesson. The title, supersaturated, means when too much solute is added to a solvent. Let’s say the solute is sugar and the solvent is water. When the water is saturated it has dissolved all the sugar it can hold, so if more is added it falls to the bottom of the container.

Now let’s apply this to your attention span. When you get bombarded with information, your brain gets overwhelmed by too much stimulus to process it all so it drops the overload from your attention.

If some of the stimuli evokes emotion, then even less stimuli can be processed. Let’s use the example of cooling the water before adding sugar, so less sugar will be dissolved and more will fall out of solution. I will stop there because this is about energy.

I am supersaturated right now. There has been and will be too much media drama for anyone to process. Do not feel badly that you are overwhelmed. I am sharing this because you need to limit what you are trying to process. If you let the media supersaturate your brain with the political drama, you may be too overwhelmed to attend to things that are personally important to you.

You may get caught up in the news blitz and realize later that your bills did not get paid and you forgot to take a shower or pick up your children from school. When this happens, it is time to install a filter.

My filter involves NOT reading any posts from unreliable sources and avoiding any articles that contain certain names and faces that light my head on fire and cause me to stop processing pertinent information. This may seem like “Turtle mode” but that is better than “Hail storm” mode which basically hurts everything BUT the source of the angst.

I am not saying bury your head in the sand. I am saying ONLY do things that matter and bring results, instead of reacting with spewing and venting. My family prefers me in “Turtle mode” because I am processing instead of spewing. I retreat and plan my strategy such as donating to the opposition and other worthy causes that will need my help more than ever.

I am sharing this with you because my circle of concern is huge and my circle of influence is small and I am feeling overwhelmed and a bit hopeless. I am familiar with this quagmire position, so I am passing along my learning from experience to younger folks who feel like the sky is falling for the first time.

Hang on. Keep your head down. Do what you can. Let the rest go for now. This is not being selfish, it is self-care. Do not be bullied into believing otherwise.

Some old people are as baffled as you are right now, but we have lived through hard times so we are focusing on our own little worlds for the time being.

I will spend the rest of the day out in my gardens. Let’s hope I don’t fall down!

FLOW

Posts in the works on ‘Shrub Queen Cindy’ and Schlumbergeras in a bag.