The Kind of Tired That Sleep Doesn’t Fix

The Self Reflection Series #1

I was talking with a woman in session this week about exhaustion, and not just the kind of tiredness that comes from having a busy week or not getting enough sleep, but that deeper kind of exhaustion that so many of us as women carry around without even really noticing how much it is affecting us.

We keep going, we keep showing up, we keep looking after everyone and everything around us, and somewhere along the way we become so used to feeling tired that it almost starts to feel normal.

And I think this is something so many of us do without even realising it.

We push rest to the side because there is always something else that needs doing, someone else who needs us, another job to tick off the list, and we tell ourselves that we’ll slow down later… but later usually comes when our body is already exhausted, overwhelmed and practically begging us to stop.

Sometimes it’s not until we finally book the massage, the session or the time away that we realise just how much we have actually been carrying.

During this conversation, we started talking about what she could do to support herself in between sessions, because while I absolutely love being able to create that space for women to slow down, switch off and receive, I also want women to know that supporting themselves doesn’t have to begin and end when they walk through my door.

And this is where I think we sometimes make rest harder than it needs to be.

We think we need hours to ourselves, a whole day off, a weekend away or the perfect circumstances before we can truly rest, when sometimes the smallest changes to the way we move through our day can actually make a real difference.

One of the things we spoke about was simply creating a pause.

Not waiting until you are completely exhausted. Not waiting until everything is finished, because we both know there will always be something else that needs doing, but intentionally finding a small pocket of time where you allow yourself to stop.

Maybe it’s sitting in the car for five minutes before walking back into the house, having your morning coffee without your phone in your hand, stepping outside and sitting in the sun for ten minutes, or simply lying down in the middle of the day without immediately feeling like you need to justify why you’re doing it.

It sounds so simple, and maybe that’s why we overlook it.

We’re often searching for the big thing that is going to make us feel better when, sometimes, what we actually need is to stop pushing ourselves quite so hard in the moments in between.

Because rest isn’t something we earn after we’ve done enough.

And it’s definitely not something we should only allow ourselves when we’ve reached the point where our body can’t keep going anymore.

I think as women, we have to become more intentional about carving out space for ourselves because the truth is, no one is going to walk into our lives and hand us permission to slow down.

We have to start giving that permission to ourselves.

And maybe the small change you need to make this week isn’t adding another thing to your already overflowing list.

Maybe it’s simply asking yourself, where am I pushing when I could pause?

Where am I telling myself to keep going when I actually need to rest?

And what would change if I stopped waiting until I was completely exhausted before I started taking care of myself?

Because sometimes the smallest shift really can have the biggest impact, and you might be surprised by how different you feel when you start creating these little pockets of rest before your body has to beg you for them.

Love Kimberly x