When the World Feels Too Heavy to Hold

Some moments leave us speechless.
Some grief is just too big for words.

I don’t know if you can relate, but there have been a lot of days lately when something happens in the world, and it takes the words right out of me. No caption feels right. No statement feels like enough. Nothing seems to capture the grief, the trauma, the pain, the fear, the rage. It’s all just… too much.

Sometimes the pain lands somewhere so deep in the body that words can’t reach it. And even saying that feels like a cop-out. But it’s true, at least for me. Maybe for you too. We just feel it. We sit in it. We carry it around, unsure what to do with it. That ache in our chest, the lump in our throat, the exhaustion in our bones. The restlessness. The helplessness. The heartbreak.

You try to help, but it still hurts. You try to rest, but your nervous system won’t settle. You try to make sense of it, but there’s no map for this kind of grief. It doesn't matter that the pain didn’t happen to you directly. Your body still reacts. Your heart still breaks.

And that matters.

When Grief Lives in the Body

Grief isn’t just something we think about. It lives in us. In our breath. In our appetite. In how safe or unsafe we feel in our own skin. It can hit just as hard when it’s collective, when it’s happening around us, as when it’s personal.

Sometimes we forget what we were doing five minutes ago. We struggle to return a text or focus on work. Even the simplest task can feel impossible when your whole system is trying to carry the weight of the world.

This doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re human. It means you care.

Five Gentle Things to Try When It Feels Like Too Much

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, shut down, or lost in the swirl of it all, here are five small things that might help. Not to fix it. Just to help you take one breath at a time.

1. Pause.
   Turn off the news. Set your phone down. Just stop for a moment and breathe. Let your system rest before taking in anything else.
   

2. Name what you’re feeling.
   You don’t have to explain it or say it out loud. Even a quiet whisper to yourself, grief, fear, rage, helplessness, can help you feel less alone inside it.
   

3. Care for your body.
   Drink some water. Stretch your arms. Hold something warm. Lay down. Let your body know it’s allowed to soften.
   

4. Reach out to someone.
   You don’t have to talk about what’s going on. Just don’t carry it alone. A shared silence can be just as healing as a conversation.
   

5. Do one small act of care.
   Send a kind message. Light a candle. Give what you can. Say a prayer. Even a whisper of kindness is enough to remind you that you still have power. That connection still exists.
   

You Don’t Have to Carry It All

You were never meant to hold all of this on your own. It’s okay to take breaks. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. It’s okay not to know what to say or do.

What matters is that you’re still showing up. That you haven’t gone completely numb. That your heart still aches, even when it feels like too much to bear.

Somehow, in all this mess, we still belong to each other. We still find our way back to solid ground, even if it’s just one steady breath at a time.

So if your heart feels shaken lately, let this be a place to land.
Not a fix. Not an answer. Just a moment to rest.

I'm right here with you.