When I'm Too Tired To...

Barbara: We all have times of super-power energy and then times of downright oomphlessness, right? Anyway, I do. There are times I have a million things to do and I can not only accomplish every one of them, but I feel like I could take on even more! And there are times when I can hardly do one or two things—and then feel guilty about my lack of drive.

I am in an oomphless slump right now. I don’t know if it’s from coming home from a break with my family (last week’s ski holiday), maybe a bit of lingering jet lag, maybe a bit of disconnect between off-time and up-time, maybe a bit of overwhelmed stress at all the things I didn’t tend to while I was gone and now must. But there it is.

This is the first time I’ve looked at my blank blog page and not known what to write about. How I wish for pithy insights or deep pondering to pop up on the page. Wish wish wish.

Funny thing is, I’ve been pretty introspective lately, with some really interesting personal musings stirring up and some subtle but distinct internal shifts, but I CANNOT REMEMBER A SINGLE ONE OF THEM. There was something about sports training and life I wanted to bounce off you and something else about writing. But I can’t for the life of me pull them from the miasma of my brain to the forefront of this blog.

Listen, don’t worry about me (if that’s your tendency). All is good. I’m happy. I’ve got cool things I’m busy with. But my brain feels tired. It doesn’t want to think. But it does. But it doesn’t. But it does. (See what horror I’ve wrought?)

As a last ditch effort to engage you, I’ll leave you with this: last night I was having dinner with a friend and we were discussing her long string of unbelievably bad luck and how she’s had to focus on keeping up with it all—like a cowboy riding a wild bronco—while her life-goals get left behind to watch enviously from the sidelines. And I don’t know if it’s related or not (remember my brain is on holiday), but I did wonder if sometimes we need to just ride the bronco and hold on for dear life, and sometimes we need to gently but firmly steer our life-goals away from the sidelines, and sometimes, sometimes, we need to look at a blank page and just … do … nothing.

Deb: Barbara, how many times in our lives have we heard the phrase “listen to your body”? This blog choice is clearly a case of “listen to your brain”. I think it’s great that you shut down and admitted you had “nothing”. As you know I have employed this concept in the past regards our blog to relaxing results. And the beauty of our blog-faithful is that because of their wonderful support (always!) we feel we can do this and they will be behind us. Sometimes we just have to shut down the mechanism to make ready the new assembly line of ideas. After all, it’s not like you were taking a huge exam or readying yourself to apply for a job. Your brain was simply putting its feet up ... amongst friends. Has anyone else had a recent shut down they care to share? 

Brain on a Break. Drawn for us by our wonderful blog-buddy, Becki. Copied with permission!