Tired Is OK, Tired Is Not OK

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

If you subscribe to my newsletter you know I’ve been exhausted lately.  The decrease in blog posts and the less enthusiastic updates may have also tipped you off.

So anyway, I’ve been exhausted.  Work, various world crises, allergies, friends and family with COVID, and so on have really piled up.  I’m not saying I’m unique – I’m not – I’m just noting that “yeah, stuff got to me.”

For a while I kept trying to force myself to get active, and as you can guess it failed.  Finally, I had to accept that it’s OK to be tired.  I’m pretty sure some of you out there need to realize that as well.

Look, the state of the world has been dismal and we’ve got plenty else piling on.  I’m trying to catch up on Monkeypox and heat waves, it’s a bit much.  I get that you’re probably tired, and know what it’s fine, you’re human.

I am annoyed that things I want to do aren’t done, but I’ve accepted it.

The funny thing? Now that I’ve been able to admit I’m just tired I’ve tried pushing myself to see what I can get done.  This isn’t done out of guilt or anything, it’s done as a way to see if pushing myself is therapeutic.  I’m actually getting more done!

This isn’t out of guilt or self-loathing, it’s a test of a treatment.  It’s going pretty well!  Though some of my other treatments are things like sleep in more.  However, I’d never get to trying to deal with my tiredness without accepting it.

Next time you’re feeling tired – which might be now considering the state of the world – it’s OK, accept it.  That’s the way for you to start to treat it, because you won’t fix it by ignoring it or berating yourself.  You have to start where you are.

Where you are may be really damn exhausted.

Steven Savage