Tend to Your Fatigue and Stress through
Compassion, Mindfulness and Yoga
It
isn't news these days that people are experiencing high levels of
fatigue. Besides general weariness, the statistics on auto-immune
disorders, thyroid cancer, insomnia or disturbed sleep, also point to
the highest numbers ever of chronically fatigued Americans. Whether
it's due to overworking, responsibility overload, life transition, loss
of someone or something dear to you, inadequate sleep, or some other
cause, pretty much everyone I know is feeling greatly fatigued (at least
at times). Of course, experiencing fatigue is a natural part of being
in this body and in this realm. But when fatigue reaches the point where
it becomes our predominate experience, it can lead us to act
unskillfully and create more suffering for ourselves or others. If you want to care for your body and mind in a new way, by developing awareness of your inner state, then read on!
Most
of us dislike being fatigued and we aren't fully open to experiencing
it. Trying on a different approach, if we can instead allow it fully,
and open to ourselves in a more compassionate way, not judging it, we
give ourselves the "space" to get to know our fatigue in a new way.
This is the essence of mindfulness: learning that we can see fatigue as
one more experience that can be known. And knowing it better, we can
take steps to alleviate some of the strain associated with fatigue.
Most
of us dislike being fatigued and we aren’t fully open to experiencing
it. Trying on a different approach, if we can instead allow it fully,
and open to ourselves in a more compassionate way, not judging it or
ourselves, we give ourselves the "space" to get to know our fatigue in a
new way. This is the essence of mindfulness: learning that we can see
fatigue as one more experience that can be known. And knowing it
better, we can take steps to alleviate some of the strain associated
with fatigue.
We start by becoming mindful of patterns around
fatigue and noticing, “Fatigue feels like this, and my reaction to the
fatigue carries a certain feeling of suffering.” When we do this, we are
trying to fully understand suffering, or dukkha. Continuing to explore
one's relationship to fatigue, we can begin to notice when fatigue
becomes strain. Medical explanations aside, fatigue can result from a
repetitive action (such as providing constant care for a child or an
elderly parent) or mind state (such as guilt, anger or fear) that
exhausts the body-mind system. If the fatigue continues, our body-minds
become strained. Hence, we can be quite tired and recover easily, but if
we sustain strain for a long period of time, it becomes much more
difficult to recover. Similarly, if one is under a lot of pressure
either at work or in your personal life, it can evolve into stress.
Stress is one's reaction to pressure and is even more fatiguing than the
pressure itself.
There is a multidimensional, interactive
relationship between fatigue, strain, pressure, and stress. Each affects
the other. For instance, being really tired and under a lot of pressure
becomes an unhealthy situation that can lead to stress, and that stress
can build into strain. If you have strain, either physical or
emotional, and are under pressure, that strain will increase the
likelihood that the pressure will turn into stress, to such an extent
that something in your body-mind system breaks down.
As you
develop a more mindful relationship with fatigue and learn to discern
between fatigue, strain, pressure, and stress, you naturally increase
your capacity to handle fatigue more skillfully. For example, if you see
that you’re on the verge of strain, you might decide not to do certain
things that would push you over.
According to the philosophy
behind Yoga Therapy, handling strain by deciding to NOT DO something is
one approach to creating a healthier you: taking something away.
Another important strategy in yoga is figuring out what you need to DO,
to add on. And this is where the wonderful tools of yoga come into
play. What is needed is to soothe the nervous system, so we include the
practice of yoga postures, including quiet, restorative poses (where
one is supported by bolsters and/or blankets), breath-work that
revitilizes the energy system, and certain forms of
visualization/meditation.
In addition to utilizing all the
above tools, it’s essential that we come back again and again to
practicing compassion for ourselves when fatigued. Otherwise it's simply
to easy to override one's fatigue or fall into self-judgment, which
will only take fatigue on that ride all the way to strain and stress.
For your reflection:
Make a list of what causes you to feel fatigued in your life.
Then ask yourself, what’s true right now: Am I fatigued or am I experiencing strain?
Ask yourself, what is my relationship to fatigue? Am I inflicting suffering on others or myself by collapsing into fatigue?
Describe the pressure you are under. Then ask yourself: Is my reaction to the pressure creating acute stress?
Ask yourself: am I ready to make a shift in my relationship to fatigue and stress?
If
you are ready to make that shift, but perhaps could use some guidance
or support, please contact me before your fatigue gets critical!
kat@fouraims.com
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