Word of the Week

Consider this...

I have to be honest. I am exhausted lately. If the expression, burning the candle at both ends means anything to you, that’s where I’m at. I work three jobs, I’m writing a paper in order to deliver it at a conference in two weeks, and then right after that I’m leaving the country for a month and a half (though I plan on having quite a bit of fun on these travels the preparation for them and maintaining my work while I’m gone are nothing short of a challenge). Oh, and it’s my birthday this week, which leads to celebration that I don’t feel as though I have time for. I know! No time for my birthday!? How ridiculous is that!?

And all this has led to a perpetual and overwhelming sense of exhaustion. Truly, I need a vacation on which I actually relax (I went to visit my Grandma this weekend in Charleston, and as wonderful as it was seeing her, the weekend was certainly not relaxing), but I couldn’t sit still if I tried right now (as much as it would be good for me).

As Golda explained this week, in our society, this tiredness is almost looked at as a badge of honor (though I’m not looking for any kudos - I just want to echo her sentiments). Our culture loves business, and we all talk about how busy we are.

I should consider myself lucky when it comes to my exhaustion. I don’t have crying children keeping me up at night or worries about how to pay my mortgage (I rent) or how to feed those children (not that I don’t want that kind of exhaustion one day). My point is only that some peoples’ exhaustion comes with a sense of worry and responsibility that I don’t know the first thing about. That said, I don’t consider comparing our lives to other peoples’ as any excuse to undermine the validity of our own circumstances. And well, I’m exhausted.

But isn’t that a, well, de-motivational Word of the Week: exhaustion?

No! Exhaustion isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, if we didn’t get exhausted, we wouldn’t know when our bodies needed us to take a breather, relax, get some extra sleep, etc. And that’s exactly what Golda is teaching us about this week: how to listen to our exhaustion so that we can use it to reenergize ourselves!

On that note, enjoy Golda’s lesson on the value of exhaustion!