15 | 5 ways to take care of your exhausted human body

July 22, 2019

Exhaustion is not a badge of honor. Go-getters today, whether they know it or not, see exhaustion as productivity, accomplishment, and success. However, exhaustion really means you not taking care of your body. How can we take care of our bodies and not let them get exhausted? The easy answer could be getting more sleep, but how has that really worked out when life is demanding so much of us? In this episode, I share the five strategies I've used to take care of my tired body with the busyness of life.

Transcript:

I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and I saw a quote that had me stop dead in my tracks. It was one of those quotes that you think yes to with all capital letters and you will most likely post it on your Instagram story.

The quote was, “Exhaustion is not a badge of honor.”

Exhaustion, we totally wear it like a badge of honor.

Why do we give ourselves a badge? We give ourselves a badge for being exhausted because go-getters correlate exhaustion with productivity, accomplishment, and success. Exhaustion equals productivity, accomplishment, and success.

Think about it like this. On Sundays, it is typical for us to figure out what our week is going to look. How can I fill every hour of the week? How can I do the most things? How can I fulfill every person’s request this week? You may not literally ask yourself those questions, but you subconsciously do.

Once you finish carefully placing every workout, every social event, every work meeting, you feel on top of the fricken world. You feel like Wonder Woman because somehow you were able to fill every hour of the schedule, do the most things possible, and fill every person’s request. Fricken Wonder Woman or Superman. What is a better feeling than that!

I remember a specific time when I felt like Wonder Woman in college. There was this one week, Monday, I had flown to California for a supply chain conference. There is a 3-hour time change difference from east to west coast. My concept of time was all messed up when I got there. The conference was all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and very much involved being on top of my game and networking with a bunch of people. I flew back to Ohio Thursday evening and as soon as I got off the plane, I drove an hour from Cincinnati to Oxford and made in time to attend a close friend’s twenty-first birthday party. Yes, there were some drinks consumed. Friday morning, I proceeded to get myself up to run since I was training for a half-marathon at the time. Then, I went to the library, since I was also studying for the GMAT at the time. That Friday afternoon, I drove 2 hours to Columbus because we were having a dinner with my family.

Let me remind you, on Sunday I felt like super woman about this plan for the week. I thought I was so strategic for getting everything lined up just right and was being so productive with my time. But, I will tell you that by the end of the week, after that dinner, I was not feeling like a super woman. After dinner, I went to my parents house and just started bawling. My body had shutdown and did not let me go any farther. I laid on the couch not moving and just bawled in total exhaustion.

Is there a moment popping in your head right now of a time (or a hundred times) where you just remember feeling exhausted? Maybe not bawling like me, but you know that feeling of being completely done with everything and not being able to move. Some have been there more than others, but I think a lot of us are pretty familiar with what it is like to feel exhausted.

I figured out real fast on Friday night, after a long week, that exhaustion does not equal productivity, accomplishment, or success. Exhaustion means you are not taking care of yourself. Exhaustion does not give your mind or body what it needs. You thought your mind and body needed every hour filled, every tasks checked off, every person’s request fulfilled, but it does not. What your mind and body needs is for you to take care of it and not let it get to the point of exhaustion.

It can still be hard not get to the point of exhaustion because we don’t want to waste time, we want to do everything, and please everyone. But remember, you’re not fricken Wonder Woman or Superman. Not to discredit your abilities because I know everyone can do great things, but you’re human. Humans get tired and we have to deal with that reality. It may not seem like every human gets tired. You watch people on social media do anything and everything, but they get tired too. This is where we give ourselves a badge of honor. Society does too. They are impressed by all the things you are doing. But you’re human and exhaustion is the reality of being a human.

What do we do about this? How do we train our bodies, our brains, and especially our weekly schedules that exhaustion is not the goal? Taking care of yourself is the goal. Guess what, if we train our bodies, brains, and schedules to understand that the goal is to take care of yourself, you will be able to do more things with more energy and more quality. That will lead to more productivity, accomplishment, and success.

What can we do to take better care of ourselves and make sure you don’t get to the point of exhaustion? The easy answer is to tell yourself to get more sleep, but there is more to taking care of your body. Sometimes you won’t get enough sleep because life is crazy with work projects, kids with weird sleeping schedules, delayed flights when travelling, and more. You have to understand how else to take care of your body.

I’m going to give you five strategies I’ve used or am using to help me take care of my body. Hopefully, you can find one, or a few, that you can give you the confidence and satisfaction that you’re putting your best foot forward to taking care of your body.

Know your body and mind. Anticipate what it’s going to need or not need.

Take a look to see if there is a reoccurring theme of when you get tired or your body is not having it. Think about how you feel after certain activities or how you feel during the current schedules you have.

Working out 3 days a week.

My body doesn’t do well traveling several weekends in a row. I try to spread them out

I’m super sensitive to caffeine. I have to have coffee before noon or I will be up all night

I shouldn’t do something late at night if I have an important work day the next day because I will be tired.

If I got in late from flight, I probably should move my morning workout to evening workout.

Know your body and mind and anticipate what it’s going to need or not need.

Get disciplined about sleep when you can.

If there is a rare night where there isn’t something keeping you up, take advantage and go to bed. No Netflix and no social media.

I know you all get caught up in the scrolling through your phone before bed. I have a rule of no screen time after 10pm. Is this hard to do? Yes, but, I get to bed much earlier and sleep much better.

Grab a buddy. My roommate Emily and I talk about this. How one person getting up from the couch and going to bed makes you feel like you should too. At the end of the show you’re watching both go to sleep.

Get disciplined about sleep when you can.

Schedule unscheduled time in your week.

We are addicted to our schedules and calendars. We treat them as our bible. We run around adding all these tasks and events to the schedule, but do we ever schedule in a break? An actual break?

I recommend scheduling unscheduled time.

Schedule thirty minutes each day to do whatever you want.

It can’t be a task you need to check off.

It can’t be multitasking.

It can be listening to a podcast and just laying there.

Journaling.

Reading a book.

Take a walk.

Make a string bracelet.

There isn’t a load of laundry, something is cooking in the oven, or the TV is on.

It puts your mind at ease and allows you to just be. How often do we get to do that in our day? Never, so schedule it.

I do mine at the end of the day. I get that time to look back at everything I’ve accomplished in the day.

I’ll admit, I struggle with this one because by nature, I am a multitasker. Seriously, try it. The moments I do it, I have never felt more refreshed.

There is this really great quote in this book I read called How to Not Always Be Working by Marlee Grace. This quote comes from yoga teacher Rachelle Knowles. The quote says, “Schedule unscheduled time in your week.”

If your schedule is busy and you get a choice to yes or no, only say yes to the things you’re hell yes about.

Go-getters are yes people. We want to do everything and say yes to everything.

If you’re finding your schedule is overwhelming, start only saying yes to the things you’re hell yes about. You’re all about spending your time wisely. Don’t say yes to the things that you don’t need to do or want to do. Make room for the things that add value to your life.

My wellness coach said something to me the other day that was interesting. She said that you don’t need to provide an explanation of why you’re saying no. We always follow up with “No, I’m unavailable,” or “No I can’t,” because of this, this, and this. In reality, we shouldn’t have to explain ourselves. The receiving person should honor our answer, point blank. Who is the person receiving your answer? They are not in a position to approve whether your reason of “I needed some me time” is good enough. They’re not. That resonated with me and made me have a new perspective. There shouldn’t be any hard feelings or negative feelings on either side.

If you ind yourself overwhelmed with busyness, only say yes to the things you’re hell yes about. Realize how much kinder your schedule is to your body and mind.

Change your attitude if you’re tired.

There will be times that exhaustion will sneak up on you. If you keep telling yourself you’re tired you will become more tired.

It helps not using “I’m so tired” as a conversation starter. Think Monday morning, the first thing that comes out of peoples mouths is “I’m tired,” and it’s such a negative way to start out the week. You can even instead say things like “Hmm this coffee is giving me life,” to help convince yourself you’re not tired while lighting the mood in the room.

I know a lot of us wake up Monday morning ready to schedule our nap for the day. If thats what you need, then do it. Push through the day and keep that attitude.T he nap will end up feeling the biggest reward ever.

Change your attitude if you’re tired.

Remember, exhaustion is not a badge of honor. Exhaustion is not productivity, accomplishment, and success. It means you’re not taking care of yourself. Taking care of yourself can lead to more productivity, accomplishment, success, and a happier, healthy life.

I like to give you additional perspectives other than my own and resources you can check out. As I mentioned before, a really great book that has helped me hone in on this topic is called How to Not Always Be Working by Marlee Grace. Is that not the greatest title ever? This is totally a book for go-getters. I’ve bought the book for my friends that I know are working sixty-hour weeks or running their own businesses. Its a cute little tiny pink book (yes, its pink, but guys you can read it too) and its only about one hundred pages. It is an easy read and a perfect book for your downtime. Marlee gives so many good tips and strategies on how to wind down and take a break from working and the craziness of life. I will link it in the show notes so you can get it.

I encourage you to try one, or a few, of these strategies as you head into this week. Let me know if you are. If this episode spoke to you, share it with others by telling them about it or sharing on your Instagram story. Maybe you or a friend can integrate my podcast into you unscheduled, non-multitasking down time, and lay there listening to my show. Just a thought.