#7 Self-Care for the Exauhsted: Practical tips to beat tiredness

#5 Self Care: Tips to help with always feeling tired

[: 00:00:00

[00:00:28] Natalie: I'm trying to sound a little bit more natural and not so scripted and just continue to show up, right? I think that as I continue to do this, it will get better and better, but honestly, for anybody out there that's listening, I appreciate you and I.

[: 00:00:44

[00:01:05] Natalie: Cause that's not a title. Um, you know, so anyways, my title last week was called Navigating Adult Relationships and Friendships, and that was a part of the podcast, but. You know, then I attended, um, a women's networking event from the forum and the event was called Community and Connection, and I was like, oh man, that's like a really good name.

[: 00:01:27

[00:01:44] Natalie: You know, these are the things that happen in my mind. These are the dilemmas. Anyways, whatever the title is, I hope that the message came across that it's so important for us to have relationships and connections with others and just be in community with others. Today's episode is just talking about tiredness. Why are you tired? Is this a season of tiredness? What can you do about the tiredness? What self-care tips can you practice to alleviate the tiredness? Okay. And before we get into this, I just wanna take a moment. I'm gonna call this the Action Activation Celebration.

[: 00:02:36

[00:02:55] Natalie: Wild things and some pretty bold things and a lot of things that I've had zero preparation for or zero planning. But you just gotta do it. So these people might be, uh, my friends or just people I've talked to and, and had conversations with, or they might be clients of mine. Or they might be podcast listeners who submitted an email or some kind of feedback to me. But basically, I'm celebrating people who are able to take action in some area of their life and move the needle forward because this is what excites me.

[: 00:03:29

[00:03:57] Natalie: And I'm just so proud of her. She had this idea and she was waiting for things to be perfect, and then she was like, you know what? We had a conversation. She's like, you know what, I'm gonna do it. And next thing you know, Paige was up. So, you know. Just take action, my friends. Just take action. All right, so as I said, today we're talking about tiredness, and recently I've been feeling very tired and there's a lot of different reasons why.

[: 00:04:25

[00:04:51] Natalie: Now I don't know if he actually understood my question or not, but my husband and I just stared at him. We could not believe.

[: 00:05:02

[00:05:21] Natalie: Anyways, back to me being tired. I just realized I'm doing a lot right now. Okay. Your girl is busy and not like ile busy, like I'm doing things with no value, but like a very productive, deliberate and intentional busy. And I was talking to my friend Julisa and she reminded me, Natalie, you're doing a lot. I have my speaking engagements, my wellness coaching.

[: 00:05:43

[00:06:05] Natalie: It's so many hats I can't even remember now. As I said, all these things are on my place strategically, and they all bring me great joy and align with the goals that I have for now and for my future. But at some point your body gives out and you have to take notice. So this weekend I was at the hospital because my dad had been admitted and he had gone to a specific room for an x-ray with a medical assistant, and I was sitting outside the room waiting for him to come back out.

[: 00:06:30

[00:06:58] Natalie: When I explained to one of the nurses that I couldn't find my dad and that I had fallen asleep outside the X-ray room, she just gave me this look and I was like, yep, I know this is bad. I need to do better. And I need to address this tiredness. So this episode is as much for you as it is for me.

[: 00:07:19

[00:07:41] Natalie: Then you have mental tiredness. So this is when you're not alert, you're in a brain fog, you start to get sloppy. You start to make mistakes. You're not connecting all of the dots. Then you have emotional tiredness. This is when you feel drained. You're unable to take anything on other than neutral. So even if the situation is positive or negative, you just don't have the capacity to release that kind of emotion, especially if it's a negative situation.

[: 00:08:09

[00:08:15] Natalie: There are several risks of tiredness. The National Safety Council says that chronic sleep deprivation causes reduced mental and physical functioning. You can experience weight gain, reduced immune system, imbalance of hormone levels. An impairment of judgment and concentration, a lowering of motivation, slowing reaction time, and increasing risk, taking behavior separately from that.

[: 00:08:43

[00:09:27] Natalie: Headaches, loss of appetite, digestive problems, and increase SU increased success, increased susceptibility, suscept, susceptibility to illness.

[: 00:09:41

[00:09:55] Natalie: In the area of tiredness, what do you notice? Do you feel tired? Do you feel exhausted?

[: 00:10:05

[00:10:27] Natalie: It's not bad. It's okay if you're tired, it's okay. I got you. I see you. I am right there with you. Okay. It's just, it's just a reality. Okay, so I don't want you to put a feeling to this. It's just we need to get an idea of where you're at. We're just taking a pulse, and so if you are tired, how is this tiredness affecting you, and why do you feel tired?

[: 00:10:52

[00:11:14] Natalie: What would you do differently?

[: 00:11:20

[00:11:29] Natalie: Sometimes they're negative, though, so you might think, well, life is hard. You're supposed to be tired all the time. That's just a part of being an adult. And don't get me wrong, life has several hard moments, but I truly believe we were meant to have rest, to have peace, and to have periods of slowness. Life is a cycle. Everyone needs that winter season, a time to slow down and recharge a time where the water ebbs and then it flows again.

[: 00:11:58

[00:12:46] Natalie: And you know, another thought is that, oh, you know, sleeping is lazy and you have to work hard. There's no time to rest. And a lot of times you can feel guilty about this because of your family members and maybe because of their perception around rest and work and productivity.

[: 00:13:04

[00:13:23] Natalie: But, and you know what, I used to look at my husband who would take naps in the middle of day or after. He would take naps in the middle of the day or after work, and I'd be so confused and low key upset, like, how is this man sleeping? When there's stuff to do around the house or businesses to work on, or places to go.

[: 00:13:42

[00:14:02] Natalie: Now, maybe some of those thoughts resonated with you or maybe not. But once we understand what's going on in our minds, we then need to look to our reality. So what is holding us back in terms of our tiredness? We need to understand why are we tired? And one thing I like to do too is figure out, well, how much sleep do you even need?

[: 00:14:25

[00:14:49] Natalie: Like for instance, the other day I had a weekend overnight speaking engagement. Then I had a two day leadership forum, and then I have my son. There was just a lot happening in that week, but I knew if I could just get to Saturday evening, things would slow down .

[: 00:15:02

[00:15:32] Natalie: So evaluate what is the season of tiredness that you're in, and how long is

[: 00:15:37

[00:15:38] Natalie: going on for, and is it going to end? Do you see it anticipated end?

[: 00:15:44

[00:16:11] Natalie: Okay, because teachers get very stressed during a report card season. Maybe it's an unexpected season, like your kids just get sick out the blue. Oh my goodness. I could never have imagined how my child getting sick would throw me off so much in life. Or maybe the unexpected situation is that you have to take care of an alien parent or a colleague at work quits, and you're stuck with their low temporarily.

[: 00:16:41

[00:17:09] Natalie: Okay, so after you've thought about the season of tiredness that you're in, I want you to evaluate the season of tiredness. Ask yourself, is this sustainable? Is it productive? Is it aligned to my goals? And if I died tomorrow, would it have been worth it?

[: 00:17:37

[00:17:58] Natalie: You know, as a teacher, one thing I love is that I get to see my students living that free, fun life, and sometimes they're sitting in your class and you can just tell, you can just look at them and you can see that they've gone somewhere in their mind. Like very far. Like they've gone into the Marvel multiverse and you're trying hard to bring them back.

[: 00:18:17

[00:18:45] Natalie: And so this is what's really causing me to be like, Natalie, you have to figure this out. I want us to think of how can we move forward? So what are some ways that we can improve on our tiredness? So the first one is to reduce the load.

[: 00:19:00

[00:19:30] Natalie: Or maybe it's that you're going to outsource some of your responsibilities. Maybe it's you're going to get your groceries delivered to you, or you're gonna ask somebody to help you with some of the things that you need to get done, some of the errands you need to get done, or maybe you're gonna hire a babysitter to watch the kids so that you can just take some time for yourself and rest.

[: 00:19:53

[00:20:16] Natalie: And this leads me to my second point. A practical strategy you can do is take a nap and a lot of adults don't nap. And I don't know why, because napping is fantastic This week. If you're tired, your body's communicating to you, so don't ignore it. And you have to do what's realistic for you. Right? So maybe everybody can't nap, but if you can just try, even if it's for 10 or 15 minutes, it might be between meetings.

[: 00:20:46

[00:21:09] Natalie: But going back to the nap thing, something I can suggest, you know, sometimes I take a nap at work. And you know what? I learned this from my mom when I think my mom still does it to this day, and I mean, my mom is retiring next year. She takes a nap every single lunch. So if you call her work during lunchtime, they'll be like, I'm sorry, she's napping right now.

[: 00:21:30

[00:21:45] Natalie: And so for me, sometimes at work on my break, I would just take a nap. I'd set my alarm to make sure I wake back up because you know, otherwise that nap is going to become a full out sleep. And I would just snooze, I'd turn off the lights, close my eyes, and go for it. Now maybe you work in an environment where you can't just nap or you don't have your own room or your own office.

[: 00:22:05

[00:22:25] Natalie: Another strategy you can do, and I remember learning this several years ago, is just to go to sleep earlier. So in Ayurveda, which is a mind body system of healing, um, that was created thousands of years ago in India, 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM provides the best quality of sleep. And I remember learning that the hours of sleep that you have before midnight are multiplied.

[: 00:22:49

[00:23:18] Natalie: So the quality of sleep reduces. So even if you can only get five hours of sleep, just try getting five hours where the hours start prior to midnight, as early before midnight as possible.

[: 00:23:35

[00:23:45] Natalie: And this causes melatonin, which is a hormone that helps us regulate our sleep patterns to be reduced by up to 50%. So this is ha. This causes us to have difficulty with our circadian rhythm as we're trying to now get to sleep. Again, our body needs those cycles so we don't wanna disrupt the natural ebbs and flows of our body, the natural circadian rhythms of our body that are helping us to get to sleep.

[: 00:24:12

[00:24:32] everyone.

[: 00:24:33

[00:24:40] Natalie: So your eyes are starting to get used to the fact that it's time to go to sleep, and you can use the nighttime mode on your devices if you still do wanna use a device.

[: 00:24:49

[00:25:08] Natalie: Cuz there's a lot of value in that. And I do remember doing that at a certain point in life. However, at this stage of life, I don't journal every single day. However, I journal whenever I notice something. So if I notice something, Good. Like a light bulb idea comes to me or I notice I'm off balance, or I notice I'm feeling out of sorts, or I notice I'm feeling great, I will just journal about it.

[: 00:25:35

[00:25:55] Natalie: And by journal I mean write a couple sentences on a Google doc. I'm over the period of having the super nice notebooks and. Uh, reading through pages and pages because the point of me journaling is to go back and use that information to help me. And your girl does not have time to be slipping, flipping through, you know, notebook after notebook, page after page, trying to figure it out.

[: 00:26:14

[00:26:39] Natalie: Not relief to leave. I think it's a leave. Anyways, so I went back and I got more information. And so these are the changes that I'm gonna make cuz these are changes that worked for me before. And sometimes you just forget, like you're on a good track, you've made some changes, you're moving forward, and then you go on vacation or you get sick or life gets busy and you just forget the things that you were doing.

[: 00:27:00

[00:27:35] Natalie: This is why it's good to just pause and like ask yourself what's going on, because sometimes. You know, you're blaming the tiredness on, on external factors, but it's, it could be cuz of you like you changed things or you stopped doing things.

[: 00:27:48

[00:27:57] Natalie: . And I think the last thing that I, I know I should do this, is to increase my vitamins, specifically vitamin D and vitamin b12.

[: 00:28:08

[00:28:32] Natalie: I hon in my whole pregnancy, I think I maybe missed two days. So that, for me is truly miraculous. Um, so, you know, we're gonna try, we're gonna try that Vitamin D, we're gonna try that Vitamin B12 and, uh, We're gonna see, we're gonna see if it helps because you just gotta try the thing. But you know, as I said, you gotta find what works for you.

[: 00:28:56

[00:29:15] Natalie: Make it easier for me, such as putting it on my bathroom counter, having a water bottle available, um, things like that. So I'll report back and yeah, those are some more, I guess, natural. Okay. And then the last thing I wanna say is you can't make all of these changes at once. It's not wise. And it's not sustainable and it's not even effective.

[: 00:29:46

[00:30:13] Natalie: And then see, do you need to tweak it or can you know now and then see if you need to tweak it, or can you now add on and do a few more things? Okay? Please, please don't try to do all these things at once. Just start with one thing . Okay, and, and then you keep pausing, you keep reevaluating, you keep going back to your journal, documenting, assessing where you're at again.

[: 00:30:37

[00:30:46] Natalie: . Now it's important to note. Tiredness is a cue. It's an indicator that something in your body is not imbalance. So if you're trying these strategies and you don't see a difference, you might need to dig deeper. Maybe there's an imbalance in the foods you're eating in your vitamins or in your exercise and movement, or your water intake is reduced.

[: 00:31:06

[00:31:26] Natalie: And if you need support, then seek out a resource that can help support you.

[: 00:31:32

[00:31:55] Natalie: Sometimes you just gotta push through. You gotta push through to the anticipated end and sometimes you gotta push through and you don't know when that end is coming. So how can you get through this? One thing I like to do is to sing a little song or, or a little theme song to help me. So you know that theme song.

[: 00:32:22

[00:32:42] Natalie: Just gotta get to the end of the day. Just gotta get to the end of the week. Just gotta get to the end of the month, and you just gotta push yourself, right? Because that's life sometimes and you just gotta keep showing up. And then there's other times where it's just not sustainable and you need to sit and you need to pause and be like, this is not working.

[: 00:33:01

[00:33:28] Natalie: I can do this. I'm gonna keep showing up, even if I'm tired, I'm gonna keep showing up. So how is it gonna feel when you take that step? Okay. You audit your tiredness and you evaluate what can be done about it. I hope it will help you be more informed. Cause you really can't make changes if you don't have the information and the awareness of what's going on.

[: 00:33:47

[00:34:10] Natalie: It shouts. No, that is a lie. I am enough. I am worthy now and always because I'm here. That's so powerful.

[: 00:34:26

[00:34:42] Natalie: Trisha also goes on to say, rest is a meticulous love practice. Rest is care. And I'll leave the link in the show notes if you wanna purchase that book, and I'll leave the link in the show notes for her book. Rest is resistance. Remember it comes back to self-care and what you're doing for yourself, and I invite you to say today's affirmation with me.

[: 00:35:05

[00:35:35] Natalie: And I would love if you leave a podcast, and I would love if you left a five star review for this podcast. The other day I happened to be on somebody else's phone seeing my podcast, and three people left five star reviews and I almost cried. Cause I don't know who those three people are, and it meant so much to me.

[: 00:35:55

[00:36:15] Natalie: This podcast is brought to you by Captivate, and if you're looking to start a podcast, you can have a free trial with Captivate by clicking the link in the show notes. Until next time, continue to serve yourself, your loved ones, and your community from a full cup.