If you feel overly tired and burned out, you are not alone. Almost everyone I encounter in my personal and professional life is experiencing these exact feelings, and we are all trying to figure out why we feel this way. I describe it as a deep tiredness that reaches your bones – you go to bed tired, wake up the same way, barely make it to three o’clock in the afternoon, and then by eight o’clock are back in bed, but you can’t sleep. So what is really going on? Why are so many people so tired, and what can we do about it?
The Cost of Living In Constant Fight or Flight
I am not a doctor, so I can’t diagnose anything, but I work with enough people who are all feeling this same tiredness that I have spent time evaluating the problem. First, we must assess all that has happened to us in the past few years. We were all humming along – business was good, the market was great – then the pandemic came, everything shifted, and we all had to pivot. Whether or not we stop and think about it, we have been living in a fight-or-flight situation for three years now, which has taken a toll on our nervous system. We learned to live in a continual type of fear – fear for ourselves, our families, our community, and our financial well-being and careers.
Just when you began figuring out how to exist in this atmosphere, everything shifted again. Everything opened up, people were everywhere, and there were jobs galore. People were being hired at astronomical rates, switching jobs, and relocating to get the best opportunities. Now, everyone is being laid off again — pivot after pivot after pivot. And your system needs help dealing with these wide pendulum swings.
Perpetual Uncertainty Creates Vulnerability
Living in perpetual uncertainty creates a type of whiplash and vulnerability that becomes exceptionally tiresome. We are wired for safety and trust and often feel entitled to these feelings. This is why we have relationships, homes, friends, and community – they provide nice cocoons that allow us to feel that safe feeling we crave. When this becomes threatened, our layers of protection become ripped apart, creating a rawness and leaving you feeling alone, incredibly vulnerable, and tired – myself included.
So, What Can You Do To Ease The Tiredness?
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Give Yourself Some Grace
This may sound like common sense, but now is the time to give yourself some grace. When you feel tired or exhausted, pause and make a cup of coffee, or go down to your favorite coffee shop – not to go somewhere, but to sit down. Then actually take five or ten minutes to sit down and enjoy the coffee. Not at your desk, not driving down the road, but sitting in a quiet spot. When you typically hit your slump at three o’clock, pause and celebrate that moment. Make a cup of tea and take another 10 minutes to break and reinforce a positive mindset.
Overcoming this tiredness requires you to carve out moments in your day where you are intentional about having an enjoyable experience. This allows you to shift from the mindset that you are rushing, rushing, rushing, which compounds that heavy feeling of tiredness. Take some time to self-reflect and remove yourself from the constant noise around you that is fueling your exhaustion.
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Recognize Your Thought Patterns
Be gentle with your thought process and the expectations you place upon yourself. It is almost impossible to work 12 hours a day for three years trying to avoid a disaster while rebuilding from a financial crisis. There comes the point where your system gives out, so you have to have faith and trust in yourself that what is in front of you is doable. This all starts with you taking care of yourself so you can get up tomorrow and move forward. You can still help other people, but first and foremost, you must take care of yourself. Now is the time to acknowledge that this time has been difficult, and if you want to overcome this overwhelming feeling of tiredness – you have to allow yourself some time and grace.
At the Growth Architect, we want to help you break through this tiredness that keeps you feeling overwhelmed and provide you with the strategies and tools to shift you into a season where you gain some energy and momentum. That’s what we do! If you enjoyed this article, watch my video.
Let’s grow!
Beate
Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect & Founder of The Women’s Code, and provides visionaries and leaders with strategies, blueprints and results-oriented, tangible tools and techniques that give clear steps to improve business systems, strengthen leadership skills and teams so that you can scale your impact.
A first-generation immigrant who found herself $135,000 in debt as a single parent, Beate bootstrapped her passion for photography into a highly successful global business and eventually sold it to Bill Gates in a multimillion-dollar deal. She is amongst the “Top 100 Global Thought Leaders” by PeopleHum and “One of 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” by HuffPost.
Recent clients include Amazon, Reckitt (the maker of Lysol), Chevron, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, the Women’s Legislative Caucus of California Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Shelter Inc., Mental Health First Aid and thousands of small businesses.
Beate is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome” –a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.”
To book Beate to speak or train please connect here. Your Time Is Valuable!
