Emotional Tiredness ... Is there such a thing?

The conversation around being emotionally tired came up while chatting to some friends recently.    I believe it is possible to feel this way and that it is OK if we do feel this way!

We know from Antonia Damasio that emotions are "action requiring neurological programmes" so their job is to let us know something important.

So there are two ways to look at this, in my humble opinion.  

Dr Mary Lamia spoke at my recent Global Emotional Health Summit about our emotions being our motivators in life.    So if we are stuck in a loop of being sad for example, this sadness is motivating our actions.   Is this the place we want our actions to be coming from .. a place of sadness?  

So firstly, if we feel we are stuck in a sadness loop we may very well end up feeling tired all the time, because our sadness may not be motivating us to take actions that have a positive effect on us.  

BUT what if we need to just be in this sadness for a while?   Will we feel emotionally tired while we are there?    Most likely yes, but sometimes it's helpful to just be with the emotion and find out exactly what its' motivation is.    Maybe we lost someone close to us and of course then we are dealing with grief for which sadness is a very relevant emotion to feel. 

At some stage though, it is helpful to peep outside this bubble of whatever emotion we feel stuck in and that is making us emotionally tired.    Anger and rage can wear us out, fear can have our adrenaline on full time draining us of our energy. 

So whilst yes, we can find ourselves emotionally tired at times, we can learn to give our tiredness a break for even a moment each day.   Gradually we can make this time longer day by day should we wish to.  

Here is a practice to try out if you are feeling emotionally tired.

Stop close your eyes and just be.    Allow your thoughts to drift away and become very present.  Let the mind clatter and the stories go, but just for now.  Be in the moment.    Allow yourself resume whatever you want to after your silence .. it's a little intentional step closer to releasing yourself from your feelings. 

Every time we make an intention to change something we cause a shift, it may be a little shift to start with but, it is a shift.   This causes movement and movement is always good when we deal with our emotions,  Remember an emotion is just energy in motion and we can intentionally allow that movement to start anytime we are ready to.  

Until next time ... keep the faith, Dolores Andrew-Gavin, Founder IrishHealthHour, Founder Global Emotional Health Summit, Mum, Author, Soul Care Practitioner and Energy Therapist.