Show Notes
Summary:
In this episode. I want you to ask yourself if you are soul-tired. I will talk about what this looks like. How to identify the cause and then introduce some amazing solutions to bring new life and energy into your world.
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Episode Transcription:
[00:00:00] Welcome. I'm Kristi Backman and this is my podcast Cultivating Creativity. It's about helping you build your creative life. Giving creatives a way to make space for artistic growth, through the insights of an artist, art instructor, and a creativity coach about the creative process and living that crazy creative life!
[00:00:29] In this episode. I want you to ask yourself if you are soul-tired. I will talk about what this looks like. How to identify the cause and then introduce some amazing solutions to bring new life and energy into your world.
[00:00:47] So what does soul-tired mean? It's also sometimes referred to as soul fatigue, soul exhaustion. And it refers to when our psyche is tired. Our psyche is defined as the human soul, mind or spirit. And the tricky thing is that these ideas are intangible. We can't see bags under our spirit. So, we have to rely on other indicators. Some symptoms of being sold tired. And I want you to ask yourself if any of these sound familiar.
[00:01:20] You're more withdrawn and you don't feel like doing the normal things you enjoy.
[00:01:25] Everything and everyone is unusually irritating. Meaning something that you deal with every day feels outrageously irritating in that moment.
[00:01:35] You might be sleeping more than normal and still feeling tired. It feels like a tiredness that just can't be refreshed.
[00:01:43] You may also be not sleeping really at all. Because you just can't seem to relax.
[00:01:49] You might be having a lot of trouble with motivation. Nothing sounds interesting. What's the point anyway.
[00:01:56] You might feel heavy or weighed down. Like, it's almost hard to move because it feels like literally the weight of the world is on you.
[00:02:05] Everything just feels so very hard and exhausting.
[00:02:10] You do things, and it takes you twice the time that it normally would. Because it feels like everything is just so challenging.
[00:02:19] Small things can feel incredibly overwhelming, almost intimidating.
[00:02:24] You try, and you try, but you can't see to identify what's wrong. You can't pinpoint what's really bothering you.
[00:02:32] You're way more emotional. You seem to be on some type of crazy emotional rollercoaster.
[00:02:39] You might feel lonely or isolated. Yet, when you're invited to do things, you make excuses. And honestly, you're isolating yourself.
[00:02:49] There's just a lack of passion. There's an apathy that you usually don't exhibit.
[00:02:55] There might be a relentless ache. It almost might feel like grief or loss. Like just this hole inside.
[00:03:03] And you tend to feel like you're just treading water. Everything feels a little bit hopeless.
[00:03:09] You might find yourself endlessly scrolling, social, or watching the news or binge-watching TV. You're trying to escape, but, those means of escape tend to bring you down more than anything else.
[00:03:22] You may not care as much about how you look. Your personal hygiene may have taken a hit. You might hear yourself thinking things like, “I'll just wash my hair tomorrow”, “I'll just wear the same thing as yesterday”. And not that those things are bad, but you might notice an increase in frequency of those types of thoughts.
[00:03:40] If you've ever experienced the joy of PMS, you may be thinking well, yeah, this happens to me every single month. But what I want you to tune into is if this lasts longer than three to five days, it could be time to reevaluate.
[00:03:56] In addition, while I'm discussing a very real issue and will offer some amazing solutions to help you feel better. These characteristics may also be symptoms of a larger issue, and I encourage you to contact your healthcare provider and/or your therapist. We all need a support system and it's our job to allow that system to work. And so, yes, I'd love for you to try the things I want to share. But I also encourage you to get additional support.
[00:04:25] So, if any of these ideas resonate, the next step is to determine the cause of the feeling. Now to do this, I recommend that you journal. You make a list, or you talk things out. Those are the best ways to really start to identify what it is. Now to get you started. I want you to ask yourself a series of questions.
[00:04:48] Look at the people in your life. How are they impacting you? Does anything stand out?
[00:04:54] What are some of the challenges you're facing right now? What's going on in your world?
[00:04:59] What's something that you dread, maybe it's something you dread doing, a place you dread going, or a person you dread talking to. That would be a strong indicator.
[00:05:09] What are you worrying about or thinking about the most. Are you fixated on the past or you worrying about the future? This is a negative spiral that we talked about in my last podcast. So, check out Your Guide to Mindful Creativity for more information and solutions to this issue.
[00:05:29] Is there a situation that's making you uncomfortable? This could be a sign that you're experiencing discrimination or microaggressions. It might be time to look a little closer.
[00:05:39] So, the first step is to really try to find out what's bothering you specifically. As an eighties kid, I have to say that the GI Joe's had it right with their slogan, “knowing is half the battle” because you can't fix a problem until you know what it is.
[00:05:57] However, I also want you to consider that the problem doesn't have to be huge or even new to weigh you down and create soul fatigue. In fact, soul-tired, manifests as a low to mid-grade apathy seemingly for no reason, it just feels like you're blah. It feels like you just have no motivation or energy. And when you look around your life, it doesn't feel like there's a whole lot of things that should be creating this issue.
[00:06:25] And what's happening is you're literally being drained of energy and are not replacing the shortage with new energy. So, you will continue to feel blah.
[00:06:36] Let's look at an example. Say you break your arm. The first thing you need to do is to realize you have an injury, get to the hospital, have an exam and then you'll get a cast. So, at this point, you've identified the problem and created a solution. So, is that mean your art is better?
[00:06:53] No! You have at least four to six weeks of healing. And then a couple more weeks of moving up slowly to strengthen that arm back to normal.
[00:07:01] That healing time is really where the magic is happening. But it's a hard thing to see or quantify. That's the same type of healing we need for our soul when we feel soul-tired. If you're feeling any of the symptoms we discussed earlier, you have an issue that's draining you.
[00:07:20] And/or you're simply not getting enough energetic nourishment. We need nourishment to sustain life. If we refer to Maslow's classic Hierarchy of Needs. We see that our physiological needs and safety are the first two tiers. Those are tangible, definable. And they're easier to identify.
[00:07:41] The next three tiers are more conceptually abstract, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization.With our first two needs met, we can keep plugging along. But without one or more of the other needs met, our life starts to feel like the symptoms we've already discussed.
[00:08:00] So what's the solution? The soul needs to repair and replenish on a regular basis. This is an ongoing practice. The same as eating. It's all about energy in.
[00:08:13] So, what are you doing in your life to bring energy in? Most of the activities we have to do in our lives, our energy out activities. we often see energy in activities as luxuries or extras. And I know you're busy, we're all way too busy. But there are ways to fill up that energy tank that don't take all day or empty the bank account. And this is worth prioritizing.
[00:08:39] Check out my podcast Re-energize Your Creativity. For four categories to focus on while addressing this issue. And then check out my podcast What Does Creativity Look Like to learn more about creativity and to download my List of 350+ Creative Activities, this will help you find specific solutions that you can apply to your life that will add energy in.
[00:09:04] So the short answer is if you're feeling so tired you need to find a way to bring energy into your life. Even after your problem is solved or addressed you still need to allow yourself to heal. Remember the arm example, you need that magic healing time for your soul. As a creativity coach I’m biased in believing that creative activities are the best and most amazing way to do this and there's a lot of research to back that up. In fact, my next two episodes will focus on the physical and mental health benefits of creative activity.
[00:09:40] I hope you found this helpful, that it brought new awareness to what may be causing that soul-tired feeling and how to go about bringing new life and energy into your world! Check out the related podcasts I mentioned linked to below to continue exploring this idea, and tune in next time!
[00:09:59] If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to my podcast. You can also follow me on social. Until next time!
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