“I feel like this Nicole. Like if I let myself rest for as long as I need I might not wake for a whole month. How many of us have been walking around, hollowed our shells of humans for years and years on end. Social distancing has given me a welcome reason to withdraw at least a little.”
Leesa W.
My lovely friend Leesa sent me that message (see quote above) yesterday in response to my own post about being empty and exhausted.
But hers wasn’t the only message. My inboxes overflowed with people confiding their exhaustion, their hollowness, and their inability to get up off the couch.
So many people who have pushed themselves, too hard, too long.
So many people who have found that, when Coronavirus forced life changes, those changes actually gave them the chance to slow down, and in slowing down they fell apart entirely, or were worried that if they gave into the exhaustion they would sleep for a month or more.
How did I get so tired? say these messages.
How can I go back to my old life?
How did I let myself get to this?
What does it say about our lives, our priorities, our expectations of ourselves and others, that exhaustion and soul weariness run so deep?
When we are all better rested, and can think more clearly, we need to find a new way forward.
