Tired?

With my recent addiction to Pinterest, which is totally a waste of time lol, I came across a quote that really bothered me. It said something like, if you are not tired then you are not doing adulthood properly. Wow! Really? Is this what becoming an adult means these days? As a single mother of 3 daughters, I certainly know what it means to be tired, but this quote got me thinking.

The past couple of weeks I have finally decided to really slow down. I have accepted that I can't do as much as I do and realized that I don't "have" to. I felt this pressure and need to get things done in as little time as possible. Yes, a huge part of it was and still is ED talking to me but I also wonder how much of it is society's expectations on how we are to live as adults. It seems to me that we are a society of bigger and better and adults will stop at nothing to achieve it, even if that means sacrificing time and sleep. What about other countries that live a laid back life style and don't work all the time or put all this pressure on themselves? Some even have afternoon siestas.

After a few days about processing this quote, I posted on Facebook the question about why are we so tired and I am was a little surprised about one of the responses. It said something like it's because we need to live life to the fullest. As you can imagine my brain had to process again what this all meant. I had to think about what living life to fullest meant and do I just need to accept that I will be tired the rest of my life. My general conclusion, however, is that I think we can live life to the fullest without being tired adults. I refuse to accept that I will be tired my entire adult life. Here are my thoughts...

First a disclaimer: I fully understand and accept that there are certain times in our lives that we will be tried, especially mothers of young children that need our attention in the middle of the night. I also understand that we make choices to be temporarily tired, like going to school or choosing to hang out with a friend staying up too late or being there for someone in need. There are many reasons why we may choose to be tired for a short time which all depends on our personal choices and circumstances.
With that said, I have been a young mother of young children, a single mother, a college student, a full-time employee, and involved in recovery and much more, so I know what it means to be tired. And yes, I have done all this at the same time. I am guilty of overfilling my plate. Why? Well because I have to keep up with the expectations of others and society. When I really think about it, it's very sad that we are a society of keeping up with this unsaid expectation that we have to be bigger and better than our neighbor.

Here's the thing, how many of us secretly wish we didn't "have" to? How many of us wish that we could just sit and take a deep breath or run away from all this? My guess is that there are many more than you think that have secret wishes and thoughts. I know that I do and I know that I want to World to just stop for a little bit so I can catch up. Why can't I just live me life the way I want to and according to who I am and go as slow as I want to? But I can and so can everyone else. I refuse to accept that I am going to be a tired adult for the rest of my life because that is not what I want.

Living life to the fullest to me means to take care of myself, mind, body, and soul. If one of these is out of balance then yes I will be tired. Taking care of my mind at this stage in my life means to focus on my recovery and work through some difficult issues that are weighing me down. Clearing my head from all the bad and only allowing in the positive. Taking care of my body means to fuel it with what it needs, exercise it, and make sure it gets enough rest. Taking care of my soul means to learn what it needs. Take deep breaths, meditate on what it's important, and fuel it with positive people and conversations. It also means to stop and draw a picture and to things that I love. Without a proper balance of all of these things I couldn't enjoy life. I can't enjoy playing with children if I am tired. I can't enjoy my art if I am not rested enough to put the pencil to the paper. I can't enjoy my time at a social function if I haven't slept in a few days.

With taking care of my mind, body, and soul, I am teaching my children the same. They will also learn not to push themselves to exhaustion. They will learn that they do not have to be what the World expects them to be. They don't need bigger and better and don't need to kill themselves trying to get it. I will eventually achieve my goals and I fully believe my children will too, but in the meantime I want them to know to take care of themselves. I want them to know to enjoy life and live it to the fullest in a healthy way.