Tired… But Not in a Way Sleep Fixes

Have you ever had the type of tired that sleep doesn’t help fix? You can rest and take breaks. Or you can step away from things but still something lingers on. It’s different from physical exhaustion and it’s often hard to explain to others. It’s often much less visible and noticeable, but it’s equally as real. I’ve come to understand it as just fatigue that grows from a constant movement of our minds. If you think about it, lives are built on an ongoing process of thinking, adjusting, interpreting, and doing our best to hold things together. From all the awareness that we know we have to carry, things becomes heavy. We constantly think about what needs to be done, what needs to be said in certain situations to certain people, and we know what needs to be managed in order to keep things afloat. And we carry all of this around without even saying much about it to others, if at all.

If we take a step back, consider the fact that if anything, we’ve learned how to handle things. We learned how to show up. And we learn how to keep everything in its place. We’ve gotten so good at it that no one even knows what’s really beneath the surface or that we are wearing ourselves out on the inside.

To us on the other hand, the doers, we feel the accumulation of it. While it is not overwhelming, it’s consistent and persistent. It’s always there in some form. So what about it? What about this feeling of fatigue? What do we do about it? The natural instinct is to fix it. We think to rest more. We look to reset so that we can push through it or find some answer in order to solve the problem as quickly as possible. But consider that not everything needs immediate solving. Some things simply need recognition before they can change or shift. Perhaps the kind of tired discussed here doesn’t want you to do more nor does it want you to do less of something. It may simply require that you acknowledge what you’ve been carrying in order to see it clearly. Sometimes the most immediate or most obvious resolution may not be the one prescribed. First comes recognition.

So what does all that mean? That doesn’t feel like a real answer. Well, it may not be. Consider recognition as part of the process of finding a solution. When we find recognition, distortion is found. We can measure it properly, to almost qualify it (how deep it is). It cuts back on the internal conflicts we face. Do we address it as tension, when maybe it’s actually something else or coming from a different place than where we picture it coming from? Learning the root allows us to find the right tools to arm ourselves in the quest to overcome it. In this phase we are naturally freeing ourselves from trying to overcome it immediately. Remember the deeper the issue is, the longer it may take to resolve. Patience is a virtue, indeed.

What’s also really important here is that this recognition reshapes our direction. We become honest with ourselves about what we are dealing with and we can stop guessing at how to beat it. With a Kind Rebirth, our goal isn’t to figure out the answer; the goal is to find the kind of clarity and awareness to respond. This lets the solution emerge rather than forcing a square block in a round hole.

Stay mindful…

Rebirth