It’s the end of the day or the end of the week and you’re exhausted. You can hear the echoes of every conversation, request, meeting, order, and question that connected with you like music turned up just a little too loud. Everything we’ve done, got left to do, should be doing, need to get done all clamor like a crowd at a concert between sets and we’re the next performer. We drag ourselves through the last things to get done for the day and then collapse only to get up feeling unrested and frustrated with ourselves.
We feel tired and worn out, but from what? Did we have to put all of our mental focus into keeping up with everything we had to get done? Did we have to hold emotional space for others, be of service to other’s needs, put other’s desires and feelings above our own? Have we had to put up a brave front from sun up to sun down? Have we struggled to get through situations that are soul crushing, spiritually numbing, or just bogglingly boring? Or did we do something which leaves our back and feet aching at the end of the day, chapping our hands, burning our faces, leaving us bent or broken?
Our body doesn’t care. Each one of these is an energy expenditure which needs to be dealt with. Each tired, for the body, is just tired. Hence each has a physical effect, but not necessarily a virtuous one. Physical activity has the benefit of possibly causing muscles and bones to build and expends calories which can aid in maintaining our health. Mental/emotional/spiritual expenditures burn no calories, cause the body to go through the preparation for action without requiring action thereby creating stress with no release, can cause short-term imbalances which require things like caffeine or carbs to get through or fatty/salty foods to soothe. This of course brings on weight gain which can cause emotional and mental stress which just reinforces the whole process. If things continue long-term the body will begin to signal about the imbalance causing more difficulties.
So while we may be tired, it’s important to know what kind of tired we are. The remedy to being tired might actually be to get up and do something physical so we can be tired in body as well as spirit. Being physical gives our other aspects a break, allowing them to rest so when we sleep, the body’s rest, we can wake up truly refreshed and able to take on a new day.