Inside Yoga 85 (21/9/13)
“Life is one long process of getting tired,” said the iconoclastic Victorian-era English author, Samuel Butler. David Johansen, American singer, best known as a member of protopunk band The New York Dolls, said “I’ve been tired since I was 15.” And actress and singer, Britt Ekland, is quoted as saying, “The worst thing in the world is to be tired.”
Tiredness is clearly a major feature of life; and it appears we cannot get away from it, or, can we? Can we acknowledge our tiredness? Are we aware that the stress we have, or the colds we keep getting, are possibly due to, or not helped by, our tiredness?
For many of us, we do not realise how tired we are until we stop – for the weekend, for a holiday or even just for the day when we retire to our sofa or bed at the end of a long and exhausting day. And then it is hard to start again after the so-called rest, which never really seems to be enough.
Is this familiar? It is for many of us: the unrelenting procession of one day after another operating on an energy tank which feels depleted and low on fuel every day. Will it ever feel full again?
Sounds depressing? It is for some of us. Does it make us irritable and angry? It is for some of us. Run down and frequently succumbing to bugs? It is for some of us. Now before you think, thanks that has really brought me down, I am not really trying to be a pessimist, but I would like to think I am being realistic to acknowledge the importance of tiredness in our life. Sometimes it does help to bring awareness to the realities of our life and its lifestyle, rather than living in denial and ignoring what is really happening with our life. And I do have some ideas on how to work with tiredness.
Last week I was reflecting on the dynamic many of us must have with our partners, or perhaps work colleagues, in which it doesn’t feel appropriate to mention how tired we feel. In our domestic situation: how many of us know that if we complain of tiredness to our partner the other half will simply respond: “so am I?”, or simply ignore your comment because they feel just as tired and have not got the energy to feel sympathetic or supportive.
Such is modern life? Or has it always been like this? Did families in the 19th or 15th century feel this way? I think tiredness has always been a major feature of coping with life. Whether it is due to lots of work or looking after our children, or both, we learn to get by and cope with this constant feeling of being tired.
“When I get tired, I start eating things that I wouldn’t normally crave, like biscuits, because they’ll give me a bit of energy to keep going,” said Carol Vorderman, TV celeb and good at maths.
We find different ways to react to being tired, and some might be healthy and some might make it worse for us in the long run. Perhaps we can do what actress, Jada Pinkett Smith, says, “When I’m tired, I rest. I say, ‘I can’t be a superwoman today.’”. Some of us might respond to this by saying, easier said than done. Yet we need to find ways of reducing tiredness and balancing our lives.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” said 19th century US poet, Emma Lazarus.
And this is where I become more positive and pro-active about tiredness – it is not all doom and gloom! There are some ways we can help improve our lot.
Breathing is an important tool at our disposal which can help us reclaim our energy and reduce tiredness. We have been breathing since our birth, but we develop bad habits of shallow breathing and erratic rhythms. Especially when tired and stressed.
Try this out. When really tired, find a safe place to sit or stand and spend a few minutes breathing slowly and deeply. At the same time, every time a thought pops up, push it away and come back to breathing. See how these few minutes can take the edge off your tiredness.
If you develop this as a regular practice you will be able to reduce tiredness more easily and over the long term, your overall tiredness levels might come down – you are training your body and mind to relax and release tiredness.
It does require some effort, as renowned meditation teacher, Sharon Salzberg points out: “Everyone’s mind wanders, without doubt, and we always have to start over. Everyone resists or dislikes the thought of or is too tired to meditate at times, and we have to be able to begin again.”
Adding to this a yoga practice will help you to build up a way of dealing with tiredness and bringing yourself back to better energy levels. For years, I have used my yoga practice as a way of reclaiming energy levels. By combining conscious breathing and physical exercises I am able to shed the tiredness and come away from the practice feeling energised.
Having more energy and less tiredness does wonders for our mood! We can feel better about so many things in our life when tiredness is reduced.
American businessman, Ray Dalio, says: “I can be stressed, or tired, and I can go into a meditation and it all just flows off of me. I’ll come out of it refreshed and centered and that’s how I’ll feel and it’ll carry through the day.”
