Welcome to this meditation where we will be focusing on fatigue.
It can be challenging to meditate when we are feeling tired and sometimes it's actually not helpful,
It's more helpful to just give ourselves a bit of a nap.
So if you feel like using this meditation to actually drift off to sleep I encourage you to give yourself a mission to do exactly that.
Sometimes however sleep isn't really the answer that we need to the type of tired that we are feeling.
Fatigue and tiredness has a few different aspects to it.
You may be experiencing physical tiredness,
A kind of heavy sense of tired that we feel after being physically vigorous.
You may be experiencing more mental tired or wired and tired which is when our mind is buzzing but we are so tired and yet we can't fall asleep or rest because the mind is just so busy and it's exhausting.
You may be experiencing emotional tired,
The kind of tired that we often feel in relation to other people.
The kind of tired that comes over us when we see for example somebody calling us and we see their name on the phone and our heart sinks.
And then there is the repeated tired or repetitive tired.
The kind of tired that we have because we're doing the same thing for too long.
Whatever it is whether it's standing too long or sitting down for too long the body isn't designed to be still for too long so when we do we get a certain kind of tired.
The final type of tired or fatigue is in terms of environmental tired.
So this can be the kind of tired that's because there's been a lot of stimulation,
A lot of sounds,
A lot of different lights or smells,
A lot of stimulation.
It can also be the kind of tired that's that just because we've been too cold for too long or too hot for too long anything that is caused by external factors.
Even just having your washing machine on spin it's likely to give you a little bit of fatigue.
You may notice that when the spin stops you breathe a sigh of relief.
So as we move through this meditation knowing that you're feeling fatigued or feeling for tired it can be helpful to zoom in and get curious about specifically what kind of tired you are feeling in this moment.
And it may be that you're experiencing a few different types of tired coming together.
By increasing the detail of your awareness getting more specific you are starting to mind the information that your fatigue is giving you.
Fatigue like all feelings is information.
Yeah.
It can be helpful to pay attention to the self-talk that you have about feeling tired.
Maybe that you're being critical,
That you're wishing you weren't feeling tired.
Whatever it is notice the specific words that you're using and check would you say that to a loved one?
Is it kind?
Is it helpful?
What might be more kind?
What might be more helpful?
We always have thoughts and feelings about our thoughts and feelings.
So given a bit of your focus to the thoughts and feelings that you are having about feeling tired and fatigued it's likely to be helpful.
When we are very critical of ourselves or when we're feeling frustrated or angry about feeling tired that in itself is another level of tiredness.
So when we're tired of being tired that can be doubly exhausting.
And so given that feelings are always information let's zoom in on a little bit more detail.
What does your tiredness feel like from the inside of your experience?
Whereabouts in your body do you feel this fatigue the strongest?
Getting a sense of the shape of it even the weight of it does it feel heavy does it feel sluggish does it feel light?
If this tired or this fatigue were to have a color what color might that be?
And as you start to get more of a sense of the shape and look and feel of your fatigue you start to get a sense of this being an experience rather than something that's inherently you.
And like with all experiences they can ebb and flow become more intense or less intense a bit like the weather comes and goes.
And as always feelings are information and so what is the fatigue telling you?
You might even imagine the fatigue having a bit of a speech bubble coming out of it.
What might that speech bubble say?
What might this fatigue need in order to find ease?
If it's that repetitive kind of tired it might actually need to move around to get the muscles moving get the body back into action.
If it's that more environmental tired it might be that you need a period of very low stimulation very little input to rest your senses.
If it's that more emotional tired you might need to look at your boundaries saying no or maybe even saying yes.
If it's that more wired and tired it might be helpful to practice and getting curious about your thought patterns and your beliefs that are driving those thought patterns.
Actively working with thought patterns like anxiety and beliefs can help you over time ease those experiences and get more in the driving seat of your thinking.
We do thinking rather than we are thinking.
That means that we do our thoughts like we do everything else.
Our thoughts do not define who we are.
More often than not they're habitual patterns that we've picked up along the way.
If it's more physical tired actually having a nap or building in some rest times where you can sleep and catch up.
Yeah.
So for a few breaths just being with your experience.
Recognizing the reality of your experience.
I am feeling fatigued.
I understand that I'm feeling fatigued or even I may not understand that I'm feeling fatigued but I recognize that I am.
Validating your own experience shows that you are here with yourself and for yourself.
That you are in your own corner caring for you.
Listening to this meditation is part of that practice.
It's an example of how you are there and the self-love that you're expressing for yourself in this moment.
So giving yourself this time to observe and absorb the information that you now have.
The insights that you are now having.
This is the reality of your fatigue in your experience now.
And you are here with yourself for yourself.
As always remember it's more helpful to be curious than critical.
Go gently with yourself.
