Tiredness. We all feel it. Sometimes we’re tired at the end of a long day. Sometimes we haven’t slept well and struggle to get through our to-do list. And sometimes we feel that kind of world-weary tiredness, right down into our bones. The tiredness that makes it hard to wind down, fall asleep and stay asleep, to get the rest needed to restore our spirits.
Most of us have been there. I see a lot of women working through tiredness and restlessness, from some level of malaise through to flat out exhaustion. No matter where you may fall on the tiredness scale, there are some things that you can do right now, today, to bring more comfort and ease into your days, and to embed more restfulness into your life.
We need to learn how to stop pushing so hard, to end the habitual pattern of always driving through with our game face on. We can choose to keep striving. But it’s a recipe for disaster and burnout. Learn to stop. Right here, right now. Commit to ending the battle with your exhaustion. The more you push through it, the thicker the forest will become, until you can no longer see the trees in front of you.
So it serves us well to learn how to surrender. To learn how to yield. To let go. Lay down your arms. It’s not a form of weakness to give up the fight. It’s actually a great sign of courage to say this is enough for now. I’m going to release the struggle. And I’m going to surrender into the journey. This isn’t easy I know, it’s a continual lesson in grace. But especially when you’re tired, learn to find the peace in letting it all go, and seeing what remains.
Once we have surrendered, it’s time to get to the real work: learning to listen to our pain. This may be really uncomfortable. When we’re feeling any kind of discomfort, the first instinct is usually to numb it. Or distract ourselves from it. Push it down, crowd it out, make it go away. But when we sit with the pain under our tiredness, it has secrets to tell us.
What is your exhaustion trying to tell you? What have you been hiding from with your busyness and to-do list? What do you need to learn here? Get quiet, and hear the wisdom that will speak to you if you listen.
We can seek comfort from resting, not quitting. When we hit the wall of tiredness that can feel like we just ran into a freight train, we may want to throw it all in, think it’s all too hard, and quit. Most of us are not so good at resting. At pausing. At drawing breath, reflecting, restoring. But you need to know
this: just because you are having a hard time right now doesn’t mean that it’s forever. It’s just this moment, not the rest of your life. Learn to take a moment and know that most things can be
recovered. You can work your way to the other side.
Don’t make life-changing decisions in those moments when you feel over it. Give yourself the space to breathe. When we give ourselves the gift of rest, it is a beautiful comfort bearer.
AFFIRMATION: I take rest whenever I need to.
Extracted from Simple Soulful Sacred (Hay House $22.99) by Megan Dalla-Camina, now available at all good bookstores and www.megandallacamina.com
