It has been a particularly trying time for many of us with Covid and that could mean you feel particularly tired and stressed. First I want to explore why you may be feeling this and then I’ll give you some pointers on how you can alleviate it.
Why you might be feeling more stressed and tired
The body is depleted
The most common reason is actually that your body is depleted. When we feel more stress from a mental head space aspect, the brain will use up more resources. Your body also goes into the sympathetic nervous system response, which means it focuses solely on “keeping things running”.
Digestion can become imbalanced and healing becomes a secondary priority. This means, the main production area for getting your nutrients from is not working optimally – yes, your digestion. Inevitably, this means less of the vitamins, minerals and good things you need to actually feel well. Ironically, when we are depleted we also feel more stressed and tired.
It is almost like playing a computer game and your character has run out of energy because it has been running for so long without a top up.
Now in some instances this top up, could be as simple as replenishing with enough water. In most cases however, you have depleted some key nutrients like the B vitamins which help you do a heap of things – including supporting your liver function.
What to do:
Get into eating or drinking some kind of superfood and in decent quantities and in the freshest version you can get. This could be seaweeds or my new favourite (I will share soon) ta da: wheatgrass. It has to boast heaps of nutrient benefits and you’ve gotta actually commit to drinking/eating it daily.
Stick with it long enough and you will replenish some of those key nutrients and naturally also feel less stressed and tired.
Of course, always explore iron deficiency, thyroid and digestive health to be sure. We do cover proper replenishment within our Drop my Pain Challenge Food Adventure program.
State of Anxiety
Another reason you feel depleted is because you are in a state of some major or minor anxiety. For some of us it is on a scale of 10/10 but for most of us it is probably just kinda sitting there at about 3/10. Either way, we need to stop the anxiety in the body.
Anxiety lowers breathing rate and makes you react to the smallest things with either worry, anger or fear. Anxiety can build from those very thoughts so it can be a catch 22 but there is a way out.
When we have plenty of unknowns, this tends to make us more anxious. What happens is that questions play around and around in our mind. We need to stop the loop and research and find answers to actually release them or simply decide they are not that important and let them go.
I strongly recommend meditation for this. It really does work to reduce feeling stressed and tired. You have to get through the first week and then it becomes easier and part of your routine. It really gives you time to distance yourself from whatever is going on and take a moment to really consider your options without that fear, anxiety and worry setting in before you’ve even had a chance to digest what is happening.
Be here with me
We spend a large amount of time thinking about the past and the future and very few of us are actually really present in the here and now. We worry about things that may or may not happen. We wish we could change things in the past and somehow make up for them with overthinking them.
It is time to let them all go and sing with me… “Que Sera, sera, whatever will be, will be”
What can you do in this very moment to feel calm and happy? What brings you joy that you could spend the next 10minutes doing? Draw? Meditate? Watch the clouds pass in the sky? Feel the soft grass on your toes? Breathe in the sweet smell of flowers? Sing along to Doris Day as I just did? 😉
This is your choice and you have it within every moment and every day.
