Tired all the time? What consumes you?

It’s really difficult to make a change in your life when you’re tired. if you’re tired, I suggest you stop beating yourself up for being “lazy” or having “no discipline” from this moment on. Take a new approach instead.

I work as an online coach for clients in the Herotreeni team. A while ago I saw a post in our private FB-group of a client talking about having motivation struggles to eat the right kinds of foods and to get herself to the gym. I think we can all relate to having those feelings during certain times. In addition to this she opened up why it’s been hard and her reason was very simple – she was tired. She didn’t say why she was tired but it was very obvious that because of the constant fatigue, she didn’t find the energy to change her habits into healthier ones.

This is a very interesting subject for me, so I decided to make a blog post about it.

Unfortunately, many people are tired often. Maybe they haven’t slept enough, something is consuming them or they are just overwhelmed by many things.

Many people realize they’re tired only when they take a break from what they’re doing. That might actually be a bit scary. The result might be that they keep filling up their time with events, even unnecessary events, to keep them busy from experiencing exhaustion and facing the facts. Few people actually do something about this constant fatigue as if it would be normal to be tired all the time, but it is not! There are many things you can do to start feeling better.

Being energized is the starting point for making any changes in your life!

I would like to share some of my thoughts of how to understand that your body is trying to communicate with you with the fatigue signs, instead of thinking falsely about why you are “lazy”, of not being “disciplined” enough or some other nonsense like that.

1. Take a day off

You don’t have to clear out your whole schedule (and few of us have to opportunity to do that anyway) but try to arrange at least one full day of doing absolutely nothing for one day. Don’t decide anything in advance for that day, take the day as it comes. When the day is there, first of all, sleep as long as you want to. If it’s the whole day, so be it, then you really needed it. Then continue doing only what you feel like doing, not what you think you should be doing. If you feel like going for a walk, do that. If that’s too much, then don’t. Just do what you want to do – watch TV, read, do some stretching. You don’t have to tell anyone about this, it’s your day.

I listed some examples of what you could do during your day off below, but don’t feel obligated to do one of these, if they don’t meet your way of becoming energized.

• Meditation, yoga, stretching
• Reading a book, listening to music
• Being by yourself in silence
• Being with somebody you like
• Being close to nature – walk in the woods, swim in the ocean, lay down on the grass
• Taking a nap
• Watching a movie, playing a game

The only “rule” is that it should energize you. If it doesn’t, keep searching for what is your thing. Then, when you have gained some energy, do some thinking work as prescribed below.

2. What consumes you?

It’s important to create some room for the fatigue. Don’t fight against it, try to welcome the feelings with open arms for a brief moment. Then ask yourself – Why am I tired? There is always a reason for that. Let the thoughts come, write them down if you want to. What has made you tired for some time now? Is it something physical? Are you running around from one place to another every day, while possibly being stressed? Is it psychological? Do you have a lot of things on your mind and you feel overwhelmed by all of that? Are you worried, anxious, scared or have other strong emotions that need to be expressed? Be brave to have all the feelings that rise up in your mind. Do you have certain circumstances in your life that consumes you? Are you spending time with people who don’t have your best interest at heart? Usually the things that consumes us are both physical and psychological.

Think about these, but don’t pressure yourself just yet to immediately do any changes. Just let the subjects come to your awareness, to the “surface”. Again, write stuff down if you feel like it or talk them out loud by yourself or to someone you trust. Then understand that this might be a long process and you probably won’t find all the answers in a day. Just open yourself up to this kind of thinking and you will start understanding what changes you should be doing to feel better. After all, things are not really as complicated as we like to make them in our mind.

3. Sleep & Nutrition

These are the two things we can’t live without. Also they are the main sources of our energy. Let’s start with sleeping. During sleep your body restores itself so it can function properly the next day. You should wake up energized and well rested. If you don’t, what about investing in your sleep? Change your sleeping habits to earlier, close electronics before 20.00, don’t drink caffeine before going to bed, make sure your bedroom is pleasant – clean and not too hot or cold. When you wake up without an alarm clock and you feel well rested, you know that the quality of your sleep has been good. If you wake up to an annoying alarm, grumpy and tired, then you probably didn’t get the rest you needed.

We can find a lot of knowledge about nutrition. Still so many people get the basics wrong. Going back to the basics with nutrition can be a big help. Drink some water first thing when you wake up and throughout the day, eat regularly and try to add veggies to every meal. Make time for eating instead of rushing around – your body needs some time to digest the food properly. Have a look that your meals contain carbohydrates, protein and good fats. Ditch the heavily processes stuff and look more into herbs, fruits and spices. Start investing in your nutrition and start studying how you react to certain foods. Make sure you’re not undereating or overeating. Respect yourself by giving your body the best fuel possible. You need to learn what’s best for you and there is no shortcut to that. You are the best person to know what you need so start trusting yourself. Also, understand that some of these changes might happen slowly. Seek out some nutritional guidance if you need it.

Now that you have approached things this honest way instead of beating yourself down, you will at some point naturally feel the desire to start moving around more, you WANT to give your body that big glass of lemon water first thing in the morning because you know it will make you feel better and so on. For some this is fixed in one day, but for most of us it takes longer to get into a better place and gaining more energy. Start giving yourself some time off whenever you can. Time off means different for everyone but it means you are clearing your mind to create space for figuring out how you can actually do something about your well being. How could we change something if we don’t even know why we’re feeling a certain way? Starting to listen to YOUR body is key.

Start with small changes and soon you will be in a very positive spiral. Be brave about trying new things in order to find your way back to energy and NEVER beat yourself up for doing “mistakes”!

 

x Steffi