8 minute read

Feeling tired is most likely a sign that you’ve introduced more resistance in your life. If you’re looking to understand why you’re feeling exhausted, or burned out and the mindset and some tools to mitigate that energy expenditure and redirect it back into yourself, that way you feel energized to complete the things you want to. 

In this blog post we are going to cover how feeling tired, or fatigued is a sign of resistance, how to release that resistance and ways to understand where effort vs effortlessness can be better understood to use to your advantage. 

 Resistance is a state in which you are not allowing things to happen or to come to you. There is friction, friction causes things to move more slowly and in order for it to move at the rate you want it to, it’s going to require more energy. The more energy that is expended, the faster you will tire yourself out. 

Your life if you were a car

One of my favorite analogies that I use when displaying efforting, is that of a car. If you always find yourself redlining, trying to go as fast as you can and pushing yourself to the max, your engine is going to fail. And the cost and time that it will take to repair a damaged engine is far more costly than for someone who slows down and cruises at a more enjoyable speed. The person who is cruising, is still going to get where they are going, (not to mention avoiding causing chaos to others along the way and possibly getting a ticket or getting into an accident) and the engine is preserved with far less maintenance and repairs on the backend. 

Effort vs Effortlessness

There is a time and place for practicing effortfulness and effortlessness. With growing demands of more productivity, better performance, and striving for the stars, the need for exogenous substances to improve focus and efficiency has increased substantially. The pressures of working in healthcare has people being prescribed stimulants, more than ever in order to function. And with the body finding ways to adapt to those exposed levels of stimulants, there is a continuous need for more. 

Less IS more

Almost always something that doesn’t require as much energy, feels rather effortless. It comes easy, you’re not trying so hard to make something happen. That’s how you know that you’re in a state of allowing, and non resistance. What is something that feels pretty effortless to you? I like to think of breathing as something that is effortless most of the time, you just inhale and exhale. The exception would be of course physiologic conditions that decrease our ability to breathe. (Then you can argue that breathing is not effortless, and rather effortful). 

There are instances where it is more appropriate to put in effort to help someone, or to make things happen. Under circumstances where you are heavily under pressure, and you have to make quick decisions I will tell you that almost always a person does not feel like they are putting a ton of effort into executing their actions. Putting in effort can feel effortless. If you have ever worked in acute care settings or there is a true emergency response, the easier thing to do in those moments is to act in haste. It would be more tiring to you and your patient (or the situation you’re responding to) if you purposely tried to move slower. 

Does that make sense? :) 

Energy leaking

It’s also a good indicator that your energy is “leaking” into something that is not serving you (aka bringing you the results you truly desire). For example, if you have something that is constantly running in the background (take for example your apps on your phone are still running even though you aren’t actually in them) some of your phone’s battery is being diverted to that app. Is it serving you at that moment? Well no because you’re not using it. It’s the same concept of our mental and physical bandwidth. 

Friction 

Are you obsessing or ruminating over something that is completely out of your reach? Or perhaps you are ruminating about an instance that has happened and you find yourself in a loop on repeat in your mind. This has all happened to us at some point and still can. You are putting energy into something that you have absolutely no control over, you will tire out quickly. The trick to these obsessive thoughts that are costing you valuable daily energy, is to disrupt the pattern of thinking. 

Momentum (you have some energy, you’re just not in the flow)

This doesn’t always mean that you’re going to not feel tired, especially if you’ve been feeling tired. You’ve kept the momentum going and therefore it’s been on the forefront of your mind. And your mind is so powerful it believes what you tell it. All you have to do sometimes is get the ball rolling, and it will kickstart your desire for more energy. 

So what do you need to do to get momentum going? Start with a task that truly feels easy to you. 

Meditation

Mediation will allow you to release the resistance that you’re holding in your vibration. It’s like closing those open tabs on your computer that have been sitting there for days or weeks (if you’re like me). And it takes more time to click through those tabs to figure out what page you’re looking for, rather than just searching for it directly again. You think you’re saving time, however you’re causing more unnecessary work for yourself.

Meditation is something that you might feel like you need to make an effort to do, and while yes, the purpose of mediation can vary sometimes, it can be rather effortless also. One of my favorite types of meditations I like to do whenever I feel exhausted is to simply close my eyes, and focus on a soothing sound. If thoughts come into my mind, I don’t resist them, I allow them to be and simply refocus my attention on the soothing sound. I take notice of how good that sound feels and how relaxed it makes me feel. 

Sometimes more appropriately taking a nap can also give you the same benefit as mediation. Of course this will depend on your circumstances if they allow you to nap. However you will want to limit your napping time to 30-45 minutes. You want it to be just enough time where the absence of thought has occurred. This will allow you to be replenished with enough energy to continue doing what it is you are wanting to do. 

How much energy should I be giving into tasks in my life?

I want to make it clear that having tiredness doesn’t mean that you’re doing something wrong, it just means that you’re putting too much of your energy into something that doesn't require it. Think of a bucket as the capacity of how much energy something needs, and water is the amount of energy you’re pouring into it. Eventually the bucket is going to overflow, and it’s not going to make much difference to how much water you’re pouring into it, it will simply spill over. And that water will be ‘wasted’. Think of the categories in your life as these buckets. Some buckets are bigger and others are smaller. Some lose water faster and others not so much. The point I’m trying to make here is that we need to realize where enough energy is enough. And you will feel that by how satiated you feel pouring into something/someone that you are giving your energy towards. 

Letting go

There is a capacity of how much something needs your energy and attention, and once you feel like the energy you’re putting towards something isn’t putting energy back to you, it’s time to take a step back and let the universe do some of that work for you. 

Did you find this post helpful? Please share some of your biggest takeaways!

What questions do you still have about releasing resistance for cultivating more energy?