There is a difference between tired and tired. There’s a tired that a good night’s sleep fixes. Then there’s a tired that no amount of sleep or rest seems to fix. We move through our days in a weird sort of haze. We’re not quite as sharp as we would normally be. Not able to respond to things quite so quickly.
It’s as though there’s always an extra beat between someone else stopping or pausing and us responding. We make more mistakes. We drop things. Spill stuff. Accidentally put our keys in the fridge. Send an email to the wrong person. Pour pasta down the sink when draining it.
While all of this is going on… we berate ourselves.
Every slip, every mistake, every single human response to being utterly exhausted, is accompanied by a mental ‘telling off’.
We might try to speed up to make amends for how ‘rubbish’ we’re being. We’ll maybe work longer hours because we know our thinking has slowed down. We have housework to do… and because we’re so tired that we can’t veer from our plan, we just carry on going, even if it means cleaning the kitchen at 11pm.
We are totally, utterly, completely drained. Empty… but rest less than normal to ‘make up’ for our ‘failings’.
When we’re so tired that we’re past it, we sometimes need another person to encourage us to pause. To take our hand, guide us to the sofa, and make us a cuppa. We need care. Unfortunately, we can’t teleport to you and make you a cuppa. (We would if we could!)
But we can be the outside voice encouraging you to pause.
To stop. To take a break.
The times when self-care is the last thing on our mind, the times when we feel like we don’t have the time nor energy to look after ourselves, the times when we have nothing left, when energy has drained out of every muscle in our body… these are exactly the times when self-care is particularly important.
Pause.
Everything else can wait, for now.
Give yourself that hug.
Make that cuppa.
Guide yourself to that sofa.
Make yourself comfortable.
Consider cancelling or postponing non-essential commitments.
Create some pockets of rest.
Be gentle with yourself.
We’re sending oodles of quiet comfort your way.
Source: https://www.blurtitout.org/