You’re Not Stuck—You’re Just Tired: The Power of Knowing When to Rest
Image Credit: Universal Pictures
I was on the phone with my really good friend yesterday, chatting it up as we usually do. She is one of the most talented women I know—beyond smart, incredibly hilarious, creative beyond words. But lately, she had been struggling to find the energy to joyfully create.
She just felt…exhausted. But even in that exhaustion, she still felt the pressure to push her ideas into the world.
A feeling I could strongly relate to.
Where you want to do fifty-eleven things at once, but lack the energy to do even half of one.
Where you keep seeing people doing this and that and this again, and you’re wondering how the hell are they doing it?
Where it seems like everyone is moving fast as hell, and you’re just…stuck. Your ideas hounding you, yet your energy betrays you.
Setting Ourselves Up to Fail
As she spoke about how she was feeling, what inspired me most was how much she understood her own emotions.
She was exhausted. She was comparing. But she also knew she was tripping.
She recognized that her anxiety was directly tied to the pressure she was putting on herself. She had stacked her schedule with so many goals—back to back, no room to breathe—that exhaustion was inevitable. She had done the thing we all do:
Mapped out an unforgiving path.
Loaded it with impossible expectations.
Then, beat herself up for not following it perfectly.
Her realization? So peaceful.
“I am going to give myself a fucking break, because I clearly need it.”
And sometimes, it really is just as simple as that.
Unwrapping Our Hands From Our Own Throats
Somewhere along the journey of chasing our dreams, we became our own prey.
We have become unforgiving, critical, and brutal with ourselves.
It’s not enough.
It’s never enough.
If it was, I would be exactly where I deserve to be.
I am not doing enough, and that’s why I’m stuck.
Other people are moving faster.
Other people will pass me.
I have to push harder.
We hunt our own selves this way, and then wonder why we lack the energy to keep going.
Why every step carries so much weight.
Why we feel so tired all the time.
Why, no matter how much we push, we’re still dissatisfied.
So we force ourselves to keep going, with the little energy we have left.
And when the results don’t match our expectations? We push even harder.
It drains us a little more. And with even less belief, we push again.
I Don’t Have All the Answers, But I Do Know This…
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I have it all figured out.
I, too, would love to fully disconnect from letting how close I am to my goals dictate how I feel about myself.
I, too, would love to be indifferent to comparison and competition.
I, too, would love to chase my dreams without expectation, just pure passion.
I, too, would love to stop hungering for more, instead of appreciating what I already have.
I want to be a self-satisfied girlie so bad…
But to be her, I have to learn:
When to run.
When to walk.
And when to take a fucking nap.
Because contentment isn’t about always moving forward effortlessly.
It’s about learning to go with the flow.
There will be highs. There will be lows. And it won’t always feel easy.
So we have to create space for ourselves in those moments. We have to know when it’s time to sit our own ass down and breathe.
Because how we arrive matters.
The Art of Taking a Step Back
We are human. We will have moments of:
Uncertainty.
Weighted expectations.
Hungering for more.
Because we just want what we want, the way we want it.
But we also have the awareness to realize, reassess, and retreat when the moment calls for it.
We can recognize when we are tripping and take a step back for the good of ourselves.
Our bodies tell us what we need.
If it’s screaming for rest, take it.
Your body doesn’t care about your damn to-do list.
It cares about being a home for you.
And you should feel at peace within it.
Not exhausted. Not running on fumes.
Not using the last vestiges of energy you have to yell at yourself for not being enough.
Girl, Go Plug Yourself In
So, my dear girlie reading this, if you are feeling seen, this is your permission slip to:
IMMEDIATELY GO INTO SELF-NURTURE MODE.
You are like an uncharged phone.
Your low battery light is flickering.
And you need to be on a charger.
Getting your energy back up to 100% is the priority.
Because trust me—those ideas? Those dreams? Those goals?
They will be waiting for you.
And when you’re fully recharged, you will execute them to the best of your ability.
The Most Powerful Realization
You are allowed to rest.
You are allowed to recharge.
You are allowed to be human.
There is so much peace in embracing that.
I love you. X 💖
