We have been in this world of upheaval and change of 2020 for ten months. I know that I hit a rough spot around American Thanksgiving and it’s taken two weeks of pausing to take care of myself in order to find my grounding again. It’s all about self-care!

And it’s normal right now. From what experts are sharing to the stories I hear from my clients, to talking with friends and family.  We are all emotionally tired. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just how a lot of us are feeling right now.

Coming to acceptance of where you are at is the foundation to being able to take action. (And ‘action’ might be in the form of inaction).  Acceptance is part of STAY CALM, the keys to turning inwards and healing from within, rather than going outside of ourselves to avoid, distract and escape.  Those very things we’ve been taught to “manage emotions” instead of just facing them, dealing with them and then moving on.

In Brené Brown’s podcast “Unlocking Us,” she interviews David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, who’s awesome at sharing research in a way that’s understandable. He stated, “I would say in this sense that it’s no surprise that we feel weary, not just physically, but also mentally. It’s because our brains are trucking along everyday trying to refashion their understanding of the world and that doesn’t leave a lot of energy left over for relaxed enjoyment.” (For the entire podcast, click here).

YES, THE BRAIN GETS TIRED

David Eagleman, from his knowledge about the brain, shared that, yes indeed, the brain does get tired.  When we are faced with a challenging task, the brain goes through a lot more ‘juice’ or glucose and if we have another challenging task come at us, we just don’t do as well because of that depletion.

Taking that information and applying it to 10 months of facing our world being turned upside down…it’s no wonder most of us feel emotional exhaustion. Everything we take for granted, or the things we assume will be how they’ve always been, has changed. Our ways of dealing with the ever present uncertainty and constant change in life has changed.

What do you do when your body is exhausted?  Sleep, do less physically, eat well, stay hydrated, take hot baths with Epsom salt, do less period until energy comes back, etc.

Well, what do you think would be wise to do when we are mentally exhausted…?

HOW TO MEET MENTAL EXHAUSTION

Coming back to my last two weeks and personal self-care, this is what I did:

• I allowed myself to sleep more, either going to bed earlier or sleeping in later.
• I moved slower and got really realistic with the ‘to do’ list. This is a great practice to incorporate anyways to decrease the likelihood of mental exhaustion. I’d look at my list and identify the priority of the day. Once I was finished, if there was space, both time and mentally, I might start on the next priority.
• I set time boundaries with mental activities, working less.
• My sadhana each day was even more about moving slowly. I slowed down my Yoga asana practice and added facia rolling. I spent more time on breath awareness and pranayama. And since my body was sore from the emotional exhaustion, I allowed myself to be supine for some of my meditation practice.  
• I took Epsom salt baths.
• I took a weekend of silence. Yes, silence. I turned off all electronics, stayed separate from my husband, focused on more spiritual related reading and reflecting, and did my Yoga practice (slow movement a couple times each day and pranayama and meditation 3 times).
• I allowed myself to be with my emotions. Lots of crying (emotional release) and just watching what came up in my thoughts and body sensations. No judgment, no trying to fix, no avoiding. Being with it.
• I made time to cook all my meals. Yummy, warm, nourishing meals.
• I made sure that I had hot water and tea (non-caffeinated) to drink all day.
• I did what was ‘enough’ for my work and let go of getting it all done.
• I took more walks to get sunshine and fresh air, bundling up to stay warm.

I have to let you know that I’ve been working on all of the above habits since 2012, so it’s not like I wasn’t doing any of it and then just incorporated it all at once. No way!!  

Meeting mental exhaustion and working on incorporating lifestyle habits to change how I live day to day, lessen the likelihood I will reach mental exhaustion. This has been a top priority to change my highly anxious and worrying mind.  I was able to increase all of these practices BECAUSE I’ve changed my life to be able to make my self-care a top priority…and it continues to be a practice.

CHANGE TAKES TIME!

In the past, if I had not started changing my life to make Yoga a way of life, right now I would be in a long-lasting, anxious and depressed state. (Any of you been feeling this way)?  Anxiety and Depression, in my personal experience and in working with people on their mental health for over 15 years, comes more from the way we are viewing the world (our beliefs and thoughts) and our lifestyle choices (how we treat our bodies and live day to day) than a “chemical imbalance.”  

(BTW, there’s actually no such thing as a chemical imbalance that causes depression until we put chemicals into our bodies that create an imbalance that the brain has to adjust to. Our bodies are AMAZING at doing the work to find balance and homeostasis. We are the ones that make our body’s job much, much harder by the choices we make. We take for granted what our bodies do for us each day to manage the junk and toxins we put into it and expose it to each day).

What works best is to start of with intention and one-thing-at-a-time. Start with just one area I have listed and focus on one action for 1-3 months, until it becomes a part of your lifestyle habit.  I recommend if you have an anxious, worrying mind to start with eliminating caffeine. LOL – Why on earth, when we have a mind that is going, going, going, going, not able to relax would we ever put a stimulant in our system on top of it???  

And take your time with it, be kind to yourself. There definitely can be withdrawal symptoms from caffeine, so slowly reduce your intake of coffee, caffeinated tea, and caffeinated soft drinks – wean yourself. And add in more herbal teas and water. (Notice I list herbal teas. Black, White, and Green teas all have caffeine in them. Yes, science has shown benefits of green tea, but if your mind is highly anxious then those benefits most likely don’t outweigh the stimulant effect on the mind for you. Explore this for yourself.)

Once you’ve got the new habit down, try another one. Take your time, have patience and practice the new habit.  Over time, you will be able to manage mental exhaustion better and reduce it all together because all these incremental changes add up over time. 

If this past year is to be learning about anything, I hope it will be about assessing what you’d like to change and then start walking down that path, taking action one step at a time.

“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction , disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all humanity and nature.” – Sonja Renee Taylor