In these times of advanced technology that saves us time and physical effort, we are more tired than ever, more stressed than before and sicker than previous generations. How can there be such a great paradox? The more physical effort we save, the more tired we are. Where does so much fatigue come from? What causes fatigue?
People are functioning at their highest limits. Instead of stopping to observe what is happening to them, they are looking for oxygen and ways to extract even more energy from themselves. So, to increase their capabilities, improve their performance, they conclude that all they need is “off time,” a free time where they do not need to think about anything at all. They can sleep soundly and forget tasks, commitments. Once “reset,” they return to the starting point, that is, to remain totally and completely occupied to end up stressed and exhausted again.
Everything indicates that the cause is the lack. Lack of time, sleep, confidence, self-knowledge, self-esteem, self-motivation, balance, direction.
What causes fatigue?
But what does self-knowledge, self-esteem, self-confidence, balance have to do with all that?
Let’s go in parts:
When we seek self-observation through meditation, we begin to understand that all these qualities are connected. Because self-confidence is one of the characteristics of self-esteem. When we have self-esteem, we have respect for ourselves, accept ourselves the way we are, recognize our limits (be they physical, emotional or mental) and set ourselves challenges to grow and evolve. Well, self-esteem is the harmony between our qualities, our potentials and our difficulties.
Without that balance, without that moderation, we will not have good sense and we may try too hard to go beyond our limits. If we have balance, we walk on a solid foundation, a point of support and a starting point, which allows us to develop self-motivation. Therefore, not being aware of what motivates us, we feel very tired.
Because when we are unbalanced, the stimulus that makes us move comes from outside. It comes from external demand, from something or someone, beyond us. When that motivation comes from outside, we have no direction or direction. And we all need to move, get out of zero points, move on because that is part of human nature. So we fill our agendas with tasks, commitments, etc., to be “busy.” But, because we have no direction, we end up walking without direction.
Marching at random gives us a feeling of being involved with something, walking “forward,” engaged, doing something, which seems good and rewarding at first glance. On the other hand, this aimless march generates enormous fatigue, exhausting, because we waste energy in vain. We are not growing, learning, exchanging, and evolving. We are not fully aware of our potentials and challenges.
Walking without direction uses a lot of energy because there is a huge effort to get nowhere. Being busy for the simple purpose of occupying ourselves is the same as walking in circles. It serves to distract us. And all that work prevents us from coming into contact with our emotions, our true wills. And those internal yearnings are accumulating, filling space in our minds, wearing us down because they have to come out in some way. But if we don’t have time to empty ourselves, we are “very busy,” distracted from ourselves.
An internal misrepresentation
This conflict is a gap between the things that “we would like to do, but are usually impossible” and the things that we “HAVE” to do, which do not allow us time to be balanced and aware of our qualities and limitations.
It is as if we are jugglers trying to balance a game that is not ours. Sometimes we are very efficient at keeping the plates spinning, the balls bouncing, but this is very tiring. It drains our energies. And why so much effort, so much energy expenditure?
If our tasks are stimulated from the outside, there is no way to fulfill the tasks since we perceive them as demands and not as goals to be achieved. Without internal motivation, we are at the mercy of stimuli that may not come, of acknowledgments that may not be aligned with our expectations. Letting motivation come from outside imprisons us, worries us, wears us down, and leaves us unhappy and tired.
Emotional balance is so important
It is from a stable base that we develop self-motivation, which is the ability to create goals for ourselves and achieve them. By having balance, we can observe and recognize the tools that we possess. And in this way, we can transform difficulties into opportunities for change, optimization and growth. Self-motivation is the internal ability to observe ourselves, perceive what goals we want to achieve, draw up a plan, and obtain the momentum for the next step after each objective is achieved. Something that has a beginning, a middle and an end.
When we direct the energy of self-motivation in a single direction, we acquire persistence, resilience, new stimuli. As a consequence, we achieve the much-desired goals that previously seemed impossible. Our agendas are lighter. Our time is lengthening. There is space for leisure. And if there is still some fatigue, it will only be physical and not mental wear. That fatigue will be restored during sleep and the satisfaction of having completed a project, reaching a goal, will be the reward and new fuel to charge our energies towards a new ideal. And so, setting goals, gaining momentum, following our internal compass, we march forward!
