Feeling Burned Out? This Might Be Why You Are Tired

Feeling a little over-committed, over-worked or overwhelmed? Here is what is helping right now to enjoy a busy season and still move forward.

Dreams are funny aren’t they?

It’s not often that I try to recall and share my dream story out loud, from the slumber hours just before.

But recently I found myself sharing with Shawn a rather odd dream, where I had swallowed a large cap full of liquid laundry detergent.

Yep.

Bright blue laundry detergent down the hatch, shot style.

I mean what in the absolute heck.

I realized, that whenever I do attempt to recall a dream out-loud to someone, it usually begins with something like this:

“We were somewhere…and for some reason…”

Have you ever recounted a dream out-loud to someone?

Certainly, every detail made perfect sense, while in the middle of dream land.

But now?

Now, that you are attempting to share or explain the details of the dream, while awake?

You find yourself lost in your own story.

Friend, I don’t know the details of the wide awake circumstances you are stepping through right now.

I don’t know what you are going through, emotionally, physically, mentally, or spiritually.

Perhaps your inner self dialogue sounds a little like me attempting to explaining my dream.

You are somewhere, but you’re not sure where..

You are doing something but you’re not sure why.

Maybe you recognize within yourself…

A little uncertainty around the context and direction of the personal situations you are juggling.

A little fuzzy on the details of what to do right now or where you are going next.

A little untethered.

Foggy.

Fragile even.

As Spring starts her finish line sprint and prepares to slide us into Summer, and schedules begin to bend, or give way to the forced flex around more people, spending more time at home…

Like my dream…

My mind and wide awake thoughts are not quite connecting with the little blurry details of how this whole next season of life moving in fast forward motion, is going to go down…heck even tomorrow.

My brain feels a little fuzzy, while trying to cup the edges of a squealing schedule from overflowing…

While also handling the fast pace brain waves working overtime to bat down the emails, check lists and have a fingerprint touch and intake of all the information of work and home life.

Maybe you too?

Want to know what is helping me right now?

There is something so small that you can easily do too, that is helping me to find a soft place to land for my overtired brain, and hold onto a sense of peace, in the midst of ever changing schedules, unexpected bumps and rocky routines right now.

I think it will help you too.

Follow me friend.

Feeling Burned Out? This Might Be Why You Are Tired

It’s wild to me, that while we sleep our brains are still building, creating and working.

And so, it occurred to me…

That if sleep is the only way we rest?

Well then, we’re doing it wrong. 🙂

And?

It’s no wonder why we find ourselves still feeling a little lost and tired, when we wake up.

What I’m realizing afresh is…

It’s up to us to seek and receive a quick brain break in the middle of breaking down our days.

Rest cannot be reserved for perfect conditions, snuggled inside our lights out nests and nighttime routines.

Whether you are feeling stuck in the mud or stationed with purpose in this post pandemic season of life…

It’s still worth noting that there were some hard to believe details and dynamics of the very much wide-awake season of wilderness that we all endured over the last three years.

And now?

While we continue to strain ahead, stretching our arms wide as we can reach…

Reclaiming and re-igniting our lives, inside the light…

It is natural to still be feeling a little…restless.

Uncertain.

Different.

Because?

We are different.

We have changed.

And?

What we need from our days…

Well that has changed too.

Our day to day resilience depends on our willingness to not be in production mode every second of the day.

Let me say that one more time.

Our resilience in how we move forward from all that we have been through, depends on the lessons we have learned in what we went through.

And if we learned anything over the last three years?

It’s that we were moving too fast.

Leaving little margin in our day to day moments…to catch our breath.

And our breath…it’s what bands our life together.

We actually do our best work…

When we zoom out a little.

Actually lean back in our chair.

Move your eyes farther away from the screen.

Take a deep cleansing breath of fresh oxygen.

Step away and drink a glass of water.

Open a window near your desk and stare at the scenery for 60 seconds.

ZOOM OUT of the details that are dictating…well – everything…for just five minutes.

Release the grip of constant management.

Give ourselves permission to rest our hearts inside of the imperfect situations we are handling…

…and let some of the pieces fall into place.

Because…our job is obedience to what we are called to in this moment…and God’s job is…everything else.

Perhaps we have picked up and carrying or managing something He never asked us to carry or handle in the first place…but we just reverted back to our old ways.

And now?

We are worn out and tired…all over again.

What if…

What if we received and accepted this type of REST-CUE…a 1-5 minute brain break just once in the middle of the motion of our days?

Right smack in the middle of whatever it is we are waiting for…hoping for.

Clarity.

Discernment.

Results.

Answers.

A plan.

A next right move.

REST-cue.

A word that dropped into my head a few years ago during Covid.

A word I find myself coming back to more and more as we increase the miles between the day when the world stopped spinning as it was…and the days when we began to re-gain our stride…anew.

What is a REST-CUE moment?

A moment when we…

Turn the music off in the car and allow the silence to speak louder than the world.

Take walk around our office building or house during our lunch break.

Walk to the school bus stop to greet our kids and leave our phone at home.

Hop in the car for carpool pick up and bring the pup, let her stick her head out the window and stroke her back.

Take a break from the screen and simply stare out the window for 60 seconds and notice what you see.

Notice the sky on our drive home from work in the evening.

Get up from the desk and pour a glass of water.

Hold hands with someone you love.

Take 3 long deep REST-CUE breaths and exhale.

In short –

Rest-Cue is receiving and respecting the messages from your body…

and being mindful of what it needs in that moment.

So what now?

Let’s normalize – needing a minute.

Yes and yes…Let’s continue the forward pace progress and regain our strides.

Yes – let’s go…

And with the same feet beneath us that carried us through the unprecedented three years of history.

But?

Recognize that the body the feet are holding up…has changed.

A body, that yes, is stronger from the experiences.

But a body that also learned…

The value of taking a minute.

And the need for rest…beyond the sleeping hours.

While the pandemic offered us a forced rest…it is now our turn to take the cues from our bodies and…to rest into those cues…in small doses throughout our demanding days.

The cues that dangle in the middle of the day…are quiet invitations, to pause just for a moment or more and…

To be here now.

Honoring the code of what our body is trying to tell us.

Because?

This noisy and big swinging world…will just keep shouting…if we don’t hold up our hand and say:

I need a minute.

A minute of resting our eyes.

And no I do not mean napping my sweet friend!

But zooming out on picture of the blessings we have and hold.

Even amidst the details of what can be a demanding season of life…a season where we may just be teetering on…burn out.

When we purposefully seek out the ordinary moments and give them a proper moment to breathe, within the busy, we change the soundtrack of their channel.

From being mundane music that bumps right into the next song, into a track that can transform and inform the traffic in our brain, of what’s next and what deserves our attention right now.

When we chose a moment of resting into presence versus plowing ahead…

We invite new clarity and refreshment of creative energy to be able to do the next right thing…and move forward into the next right now moments.

And?

When we lift our eyes up, we might just experience a moment, in the middle of nowhere special…

meant just for you.

You already know that our culture thrives off of beating on the chest of the beast that is busy mode.

We get tangled up, channeling our value straight from the connected cord of busy. 

What we do and how much we do equals how valuable I am to the people around me.

Right?

WRONG.

I love how an essay by the Magnolia Journal puts it:

“We rest because it allows us to separate our identity from what we produce in a day.“

“We rest because we can’t put our best foot forward running on fumes.”

“We rest because there is good work still to be done.”

MAGNOLIA JOURNAL WINTER 2020 EDITION

Remember self care is not selfish…it is smart.

If this season feels exhausting to you…it is because it IS exhausting. 

If it feels hard…it’s because it IS hard.

Recognizing our need for a “needing a minute” is not weak…

It is necessary oxygen to the heartbeat of a healthy spirit soaked soul.

Rest into the cue of what your body is sharing with you.

Be mindful of the cue that is being called forward in your footsteps.

This alone will help your heart and body to catch up with one another…and exhale as one connected soul.

Rest-cue is on the way friend.

Living on a prayer,

Heather