WHY AM I ALWAYS TIRED?

When talking with the hundreds of participants I have worked with this year alone, I generally find that all of us are working harder than ever. All of us are tired. All of us are balancing our health and well-being against the other demands of life. Sometimes the odds fall in our favour and we manage it all – triumph! Sometimes they don’t – illness! fatigue! headaches! stress! overwhelm!

Here’s my self-care reminders:

1. Move that body – we are mammals. Mammals require heaps of oxygen for blood circulation, vitality, repair and growth. Increasing our heart rate a little, goes a long way to feeling good. Of course you know that moving our body creates endorphins, which feels awesome.
2. Get out in nature – Remember how the Japanese love forest bathing? A prominent Japanese university released a study on the benefits gained from being in nature. This included a rapid de-stressing, where the body moves quickly in ‘rest and digest’ – aka the parasympathetic nervous system. This system does what it says it does. It allows the body to digest food, repair organs and cleans the body. This of course fights off infection and allows the body to heal and maintain wellness.
3. Reconnect – Be with the ones you love. Facetime, skype work well, in person works best. Truthful and honest conversations that relieve burdens of worry you have is a really good place to start. If you’ve been fighting with this loved one and are desperate to reconnect: Read this.
4. Learning – keep investing in learning. Read an article on a hobby you have, give yourself new tools for your toolkit. This feels good and goes a long way to reducing stress. I define stress as the gap between what resources you have vs what resources you think you need. On-going learning addresses the gap, which reduces stress.
5. Sleep – you know it. The best hours of sleep for repair and rejuvenation happen before midnight. Watch how good you feel on the back of a good nights sleep.

How do you take care of yourself when you are tired?