More Than Tired

Have you ever woken up and felt tired before your feet even hit the floor?

I’m not talking about the kind of tired that a cup of coffee fixes.

I mean that heavy feeling in your chest. The one that makes you want to pull the covers back over your head because the day already feels like too much.

Then you open your phone and everyone else seems fine. They have the quick answers. Stay positive. Do yoga. Follow the five-step plan. It looks so easy for them. And when it’s not easy for you, you start thinking you’re the problem.

But for real, you’re not alone. A lot of people are just barely getting through.

Some of that exhaustion has nothing to do with sleep. Especially if you’ve gotten so used to second-guessing yourself that it feels normal. You look fine. Inside you’re just… done. You replay conversations until you’re not even sure half of them happened the way you remember.

You don’t need another lecture on what to do next. You’ve had enough people telling you how to live.

But maybe it helps to look at it differently for a second.

You’re not weak.

Maybe just getting through yesterday was the whole damn job and you don’t have to fix everything by tomorrow morning.

It’s okay if you’re tired, if you just need to sit in a dark room and admit things have been hard.

The situation might not change overnight. But you get to decide how hard you’re going to be on yourself while you figure it out.

You don’t owe anyone a fake smile.