Before you read this, take a moment to breathe. Really–it’s fine—just take one small moment to put all of your thoughts and concerns in a box. Now, lock it up.
Give yourself a few seconds to just breathe. Breathe freely without thinking. Turn off all the negative energy. You’re tired—and guess what? That’s okay.
There’s a common misconception that we always have to be ready to face anything life throws at us; we expect to always feel fully energized, efficient, ready and on-the-go. This framework is impossible to achieve without at least ten coffees a day, and you don’t need that.
Society also expects us to master at anything we do. And if you find that something’s not for you, people consider you a failure in that field. I want you to know that’s not true.
It’s time to realize that you don’t always need to be perfect, you don’t always have to complete all your desired tasks in one day, and you don’t need to feel fully-energized at every second of your life.
People are busy. More and more we find ourselves promising our time to our work, our friends and our family. And although it’s okay to want to share your energy with others, it’s not okay to forget about yourself.
We push ourselves into situations that don’t truly make us happy, and that exhausts us more. Then we feel stuck in a place in our life just because we’re expected to be there; we expect ourselves to ride it out and hope that something better will come along. So we force ourselves to stay put and exhaust our mind every day we continue to push in a direction that feels so wrong.
How about taking a path that feels right for once?
We forget to take a moment to breathe, and then we endlessly work ourselves until we break down, become miserable and completely exhausted. The problem with this is that others don’t understand. Everyone’s so completely consumed with their own personal lives that they forget to try and understand the hecticness of yours. So when you feel tired and cranky, people villainize you because you don’t harness the same energy that the 10-coffee-a-day drinkers produce.
I want you to know that I know you feel tired, and that’s okay.
If you’ve given your energy away to so many different areas that you feel tired, miserable, depressed, anything—it’s okay. You can absolutely feel whatever way you wish. You have a right to feel any emotion that presents itself to you in the time.
Don’t let the world tell you that you can’t be tired. Whether you’re a worker, a parent, a child or anyone, you are in your every right to feel tired.
If you don’t want to talk to anyone, if you want to be miserable, if you want to feel sad, or if you want to just cuddle up with your dog and watch Netflix alone, it’s fine. Go ahead. This is how you regenerate.
You need to regenerate, and however you decide to do that is your choice. So when someone questions you for how you’re acting, don’t let it tire you further. When you’re in a situation that isn’t bringing out the most positive, energetic version of you, don’t force yourself to stay.
And when you’re tired, damnit, you get to be tired, and that’s okay.
Previously Published on Thought Catalog
Photo by Stacey Gabrielle Koenitz Rozells on Unsplash
