The alarm goes off and you hit the snooze button AGAIN, you drag yourself out of bed only to be triggered into assault mode as now the rest of the morning is spent in a huge rush in order to get everyone out the door, intact.
BEHIND THE EXHAUSTION
Although you may have poor sleep habits, the way you spent your previous 24-hours are to blame for this feeling of being exhausted before you even get out of bed. This exhaustion can completely disrupt your life, and the sneakiest thing about it is that it doesn’t just come from poor or insufficient sleep patterns.
In fact, it most often is the little things that drain your energy the most.
I spent a great deal of my adult life living like this. When someone would ask me “What gets you up in the morning?” an honest answer would have been—guilt. I secretly hated people who told me they got up early, who couldn’t wait to start their day, who had such big dreams and visions they couldn’t stand to be asleep for another minute.
The little things you do (or don’t do) throughout your day will exhaust you mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It’s these little things that make getting through the day such a grind. No wonder you’d rather stay in bed. There never seems to be enough time to get it all done, much less time to worry about how you might change things.
But it all boils down to the fact that you are either overworking or underserving your body, mind and spirit (I suspect it is ALL of these things).
your biggest drains
When working with my moms, we go through an exercise where they identify the top activities that drain their energy and make them feel ‘less than’ when they started.
Here is a list of the top “energy draining activities” my moms identified. Scan the list below and just notice if you relate to any of these personal “drains”.
Relying on caffeine or energy drinks
Cluttered surroundings at home and/or at work
Saying yes to too many people/commitments
Alcohol or food as a stress reliever
Toxic relationships
Social media
Being a perfectionist
Complaining without any forward action
Participating or creating drama or gossip
Being cooped up inside
Going through your day on autopilot
Your day is spent on all the things that are important to everyone else and not on what is important to you.
This exercise is not designed to make you feel bad, this is just data. Look back through the list with no judgement, notice yourself from a place of deep compassion and objectivity—just awareness of what you are encountering throughout your day. Awareness is the very first step to creating any kind of sustainable change or shift.
pull the plug
The most effective thing to do is to pay close attention to your body, and to think about how you’re treating it, from how you are nourishing your whole self, to the stress you’re enduring. Staying exhausted and running on empty will eventually result in burn-out (if you’re lucky) or worse.
Actively and intentionally do whatever you need to renew your resources.
Your time, energy and vitality are so precious, it’s up to you to protect and cultivate them.
