Do you feel like the Red Queen?

Have you ever felt that you are doing so much, and yet not achieving the results you want. Similar to overwhelm, this is a common feeling you might experience when there’s a lot going on in your life. And especially when all this busy-ness doesn’t seem to be getting you anywhere.

I call this the Red Queen syndrome, for the character in Alice Through the Looking Glass. The Red Queen was constantly running as fast as she could, but unable to make any headway.

This is something you might experience with regards to your work: having so many tasks to complete and never feeling like you’re on top of them all. It can also happen in other areas of life, even in your well-being. Sometimes you may be doing all the right things – moving your body, meditating, eating well – and yet you still feel stressed and anxious.

It can happen with self-healing work, too. Sometimes, when you first start working on an issue you’ve had for a while, you expect quick results, but they don’t come.

There can be a couple of reasons for this.

Firstly, it may be that once you finally admit to the issue and start working on it, because your focus is on it you notice it more and it feels worse.

Secondly, it may be that you are expecting an instant cure. However, things don’t always work that way. For example, if you suffer a profound trauma, it may clear up very quickly. This is especially the case if it was something sudden and one-off, such as a car crash or a robbery. There is just one incident to clear up.

However, if your issue is something that has been around for a while and has been reinforced several times, it can take longer to release.

For instance, if you have had repeated issues with self-worth: not feeling loved by your parents, being fired from a job, having a relationship break down. These issues are all different instances that trigger the same negative feelings and beliefs in you. And the weight of them stacks up.

I like the analogy of a scales with sand in one big bucket and a small nugget of gold in another. You can either empty the sand out, or put in new gold nuggets, or better yet do both. But until you tip the balance, the sand bucket will stay uppermost.

Various healing practices are like scooping out sand, such as self-tapping or mindfulness meditation. And when you do deep healing work like hypnosis, matrix reimprinting, or tapping with a practitioner, then that is like adding little nuggets of gold to that bucket.

Anyhow, there are a lot of things that will help scoop the sand a bit: exercise, singing, breathing practices, getting a hug from someone you like or love, stroking a pet, dancing, walking in nature. Little by little, these things help you get into a better place.

As an example of something to help you with that scooping, give this little tapping meditation a go:

Still, to really tip the balance you may need something more. Until you get the scales to a certain balance point you will also still be attracting in more sand to your sand bucket. So, even though you are busy scooping, there is a counterforce.

Keep scooping, and if you still feel stuck consider getting some more in-depth support.