Exhaustion

It’s official. I’m exhausted.

The past several months have pushed me harder and brought on fatigue like I’ve never experience before. Between ministry, launching a business, going back to school, moving, and mega high levels of stress, I’m tuckered out!

I’m not talking about just being tired. Tired, I can handle. But this is a whole ‘nother ballgame.

If you’re not careful, exhaustion can make you drop your guard, say and do stupid things. It can tempt you to pray less and rely on your own abilities more. Exhaustion makes you impatient, messes up your priorities, and influences you to neglect what’s important in order to get it all done.

So what do you do when you’re exhausted like this? Here are some things I’m doing to help minimize the effects of exhaustion.

Dinner with the fam. I’m keeping this one sacred. It’s far too easy to neglect the wife and kids when the load is great. When it comes to the family, you have to have non-negotiables.

Prayer.  Prayer and scripture reading seem to be the first things to get shelved when schedules are busy.  But it really does help renew a tired mind, body, and spirit.  Psalm 23 tells us that God refreshes our soul.  Sometimes, when you have a million things to do, the most productive thing you can do is pray.

Stillness.  Who has time to sit and be still for a couple minutes?  You’ll just have to make time.  Listen to a relaxing song, close your eyes, put down your phone, and just unplug for a minute.  I like to listen to a little Ralph Vaughan Williams and close my eyes for a minute.  There’s nothing like spending a couple minutes in your Happy Place.

Fun.  Take the kids for ice cream, watch a comedy, play a game, read the comics.  Do something fun!  Sometimes we take so little time to do something genuinely fun that we forget how refreshing it can be.

Those are ways I’m learning to deal with exhaustion.  How about you?  How does exhaustion effect you and how do you deal with it?


Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to my blog by Clicking here.