Little Ava turned to me and sighed “Aunt Neen, I SO tired” – same girl, same.
- “Neen, I am exhausted”
- “My team are exhausted”
- “I think I might be burned out”
- “Zoom sucks”
Standing at dusk waiting for the evening Light Parade at Disney one summer with my goddaughters (shout out to my incredible bestie who is a superhero, and God Bless every parent who braves Disney to give their kids these memories), me, I was just a helper.
Miss Ava (3 at the time) looked up, totally exasperated, and sighed “Aunt Neen, I SO tired” complete with rolling eyes, slumping shoulders, and that facial expression we all know that means “I am DONE”.
Same, same.
That’s how people are feeling right now.
Long Zoom days, countless rescheduling, constantly changing news cycles, school is on again/off again, and we are all just tired. Simple really.
When we are tried, we struggle to focus.
We’d love to take a vacation, but where would we go?
We’d love to lounge around and watch Netflix all day but who would get all the work done?
We’d love to sleep for days, but there are mouths to feed, meetings to attend, and emails to return.
Something that was making me tired was seeing my unused ‘go’ bag staring at me in the closet (reminding me my travel days were over for now) so I finally unpacked it (after 15 years of being on the road) … and it made me cry – want to read why: click here
We are all looking for things we can control in such uncertain times.
We may need to accept it’s OK (and totally normal) to be scared and maybe even excited at the same time.
It’s not weird that we long for things we miss, realizing they won’t ever return in the way we knew them.
Feel all the feelings, that’s helpful. We ride that Corona-coaster daily!
Here are a few ideas to try if you are feeling over-tired:
- Find yourself one win today and then try to find another one tomorrow
- Get yourself to bed a little earlier to aim for a deep night’s sleep
- Try some meditation before you go to bed to help calm your mind
- Consider camomile tea before bed or even a melatonin tablet
- Turn all the lights down an hour before bed
- Avoid screen time 30 minutes before you sleep
- Do a braindump of your mental to-do list before sleep
- Reassure yourself, tomorrow is a new day and you can’t change what happened today
What are your best ideas for overcoming being tired or maybe even getting a good night’s sleep?
Share them with me here
If you’re looking for ideas on how to cope with COVID from a psychologist’s perspective, read what Dr. Erin Cornelius suggests – click here.
If you are looking for more ideas to share with your team on how to work remotely – click here
Maybe you feel like Miss Ava, I get it. I see you. You are not alone.
We can only focus on what we can control and one of the things we can control is setting ourselves up for a good night’s sleep to try and manage our crazy tiredness, who is with me?
Sending big virtual Aussie cuddles to you.
