Practicing Mindfulness When You Feel Tired

How do you deal with yourself when you are tired? Do you simply give up everything you need to do and just sleep? Or do you consider fatigue management techniques and allow yourself to try to work things out?

Every person has his/her own way of coping with tiredness and fatigue. The good news is that the options with dealing with tiredness are bountiful. The choice is really up to you.

Mindlessness Vs. Fatigue

There are several causes of stress in the workplace and at home. It is not just about dealing with the pressure of keeping up with the demands of the times, but the tiredness of the mind also happens when one lacks the motivation to go on with the work that they do. 

How do you differentiate what work fatigue is and what being mindfully tired is? If you have to choose which one to feel, it is best to feel mindfully tired. This means that you steer away from all the negative aspects of feeling tired. 

Instead, you recognize the fact that you are exhausted, but then you focus more on improving that feeling instead of thinking of the bad things or how unproductive you have become. 

How do you know that you’re in a state of mindlessness fatigue? Here are some repercussions, you might want to steer away from:

You’ve become grumpy

But that’s not the worst part. It is when you start to take it out on others that make it really bad. 

Food cravings

Most of these cravings are for junk food, while others may make you feel good for a moment; they lack the nutrients that truly gives your body the energy boost that it needs. 

Depression, anxiety, or worry

When you start feeling low, down in the dumps, or the worst, complacency, you may be mentally or emotionally exhausted. 

Social withdrawal

When you start to avoid being around other people, it means your condition has gotten worse. Withdrawal from society, especially those that matter to you, can put you in an awful place.

Negative thoughts

Repetitively thinking negative thoughts is a sign that you have given into mindlessness and chaos. You are tired, and you don’t care -- that makes for a bad combination. 

When you are mindfully tired, you won’t understand why you’re feeling so apathetic. On the other hand, mindful awareness will make you feel tired and anxious at times, but you will also feel hopeful that all will be well in time. 

How Do You Practice Mindfulness and Revive Your Life?

While meditation is considered the most effective way to calm your mind, there are other ways to help you be mindful despite exhaustion. There is always another way to help you deal with fatigue, and they all begin with mindfulness. 

A fatigue management plan is what every individual should have. Not only will this help you stay focus on helping you deal with your exhaustion, but it will help you understand what could be causing the feeling. With better understanding, you would be able to deal with it appropriately. 

How do you help calm the mind? Here are five ways to help you deal with tiredness that does not require as much energy as meditation:

Engage in something complex, but not too difficult

It takes a powerful person to get up despite the feeling of being lazy. When you are feeling anxious or just simply tired, your mind starts to wander a lot and may walk into negative self-talk. 

There are two things that you can do to help yourself deal with a wandering and exhausted mind. First, you can engage in meditation to help calm the brain. The second one is to be more mindful of what you are doing. If you take on something a bit complex but not hard to do, your mind calmly starts to work. It tackles just enough work to keep it busy. At the end of the day, you’ll be surprised at how many tasks you have completed. Try taking on small projects that you’ve meant to do, like reorganizing the medicine cabinet, dusting the blinds, or cleaning out the car. You can listen to a calming or funny podcast or some fun music at the same time. These things will help ground you, but not exhaust your mind.

Do something to help someone else

When you are obviously exhausted from doing things, then stop and tell yourself for whom you are doing it. Perhaps your body has grown tired of following a routine and doing things for yourself. So instead, engage in activities that you can perform for others. You can make it a habit to help others. Spend some time volunteering. Not only will your volunteer work help strengthen the community, but it will allow you to build bridges with others who can help you improve yourself in the long run. 

Do something creative and fun 

Exhaustion usually comes from doing activities that have become part of a routine, but are no longer as fun as they used to be. When you are trying too hard and exerting too much effort, but are not enjoying what you are doing, it becomes all the more difficult to be mindful and productive. For example, you can set aside some time to color or paint. It would be a good twenty minutes of your time spent on something productive, but not difficult. It is creative, but it helps relax the mind too. 

Sleep and exercise

When you are tired, it becomes even more challenging to exercise, but it is the time that will best help the body and the self. The type of exercise may vary from person to person, depending on the level of exhaustion, so you may try several exercise routines to help you get to it. Then, allow yourself to get good uninterrupted sleep. This will nourish the body with energy. Calm down, meditate if you must, to help your sleep soundly at night. 

Engage with others

Exhaustion can indeed be draining you of energy, but it should not remove your desire to be around people. Make an effort to talk to someone or be around someone with whom you can interact. While being alone may be good for us sometimes, engaging in activities that will expose us to others could help achieve long term solutions. 

Apart from meditation, how else do you quiet your mind?