I'm Not Lazy, I'm Just On Energy Saving Mode

I used to be lazy. I used to say it about myself. It's not true. After some digging, I found the real culprit: brain and body exhaustion from years of pushing through discomfort, pushing away emotions, burning out my adrenals, and staying up late, scrolling through social media and comparing my life to that of others and feeling inadequate. <br><br>If you're anything like me, you might know that feeling of lying in bed, knowing a million things need to get done, feeling guilty for not attending to any of it, feeling like a terrible human being for lounging in bed instead of slaving away at work or school or whatever it is you're supposed to do. I know that feeling all too well.<br><br>Fear not, friend. You are not lazy. You're not a terrible human being. You're not stupid or lacking in motivation. And it's not because you're depressed, although sometimes it can feel that way. You are simply on energy-saving mode – a mode that humans have taken from our cell phones. Why did we adapt this concept if it didn't exist within us already? It's because when you put too much stress on your phone, it begins to operate in a way that reduces your battery life, by limiting use of your camera, limiting video calls, reducing the brightness of the screen, lowering the volume, closing the Bluetooth and other resource-intensive apps, and otherwise just making sure the phone still functions but not too much.<br><br>The same thing is happening in your body. If you are under constant stress, constant anxiety, constant worry, constant uncertainty, constant self-doubt, constant people-pleasing and constant go-go-go and constant lack of sleep and constant lack of nutritional food, you've put your body in a state of constant fight or flight. <br><br>This is not sustainable in the long run. Something has to give and usually, it's our batteries – our energy and willpower. So we just shut down. We shut down to save energy and to recover from years and years and years and years of being in this fight or flight state. That looks like wanting to do nothing but stay in bed, in your pajamas, watching Netflix all day and eating ice cream and popcorn. <br><br>You may not necessarily feel like you're burnt out. <br><br>You just feel lazy and unmotivated and unproductive and lacking in energy and drive. And people will call you lazy and say that you lack motivation. So you feel like the laziest, most pathetic and unproductive human being on the planet. And it makes you feel even lazier and less motivated. And then you go into this vicious cycle of beating yourself up for not being good enough, and then shutting down because you don't have the energy to deal with that inner critic and then beating yourself up even more for being lazy. <br><br>You are not lazy. You are on energy-saving mode. You may be suffering from burnout. <br><br>You may be suffering from lack of sleep, lack of nutrition, lack of hydration, lack of self-love and self-acceptance, lack of connection with yourself and your body, lack of connection to nature, lack of a healthy environment, lack of a healthy relationship, lack of healthy habits. <br><br>The first thing you need to do if you want to break out of energy-saving mode is to stop beating yourself up. <br><br>And then the next step is to attend to why your body is attending to why your body is on energy-saving mode. <br><br>Usually, it means investigating your habits and what drives them. Most often, it's our thoughts and emotions that drive our habits. So we need to grow our awareness of our thoughts and our emotions, and then begin challenging our thoughts and changing them. <br><br>So if your thoughts are saying, "you're lazy," you can challenge that and say, "No, I'm not lazy, I'm just on energy-saving mode because I've been burned out and exhausted for months." It's all about perspective and the stories we tell ourselves. <br><br>When you stop beating yourself up and you start to challenge your thoughts and investigating what's driving your habits, then you can begin to make small changes. <br><br>And I want to emphasize small changes, because one of the reasons you're so tired and lack so much motivation is because you just want to change everything overnight and the thought of all the changes you want to make is just so overwhelming that you end up doing nothing instead.<br><br>So start small. Start with one thing. Let's say you want to improve your sleep hygiene. You want to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier and have more energy throughout the day. <br><br>So, what's one small step you can take tonight that can lead you towards that goal? Maybe you put your phone on airplane mode at 10 PM. That's one tiny thing you can do tonight. Then tomorrow night, you can put your phone on airplane mode and turn off the TV after 10 PM. Then after a couple of nights of doing that, you can start reading a book or doing something before bed that calms your mind and body. Then the next night, you can set your alarm clock a half hour earlier, then the next a full hour earlier. <br><br>And that's how you make small, incremental changes by focusing on one thing at a time. <br><br>And if you fall off the bandwagon, don't beat yourself up, just get back on again. Don't give up. Don't be too hard on yourself. Don't judge yourself. <br><br>And most importantly, listen to your body. If you're tired, listen to it. If you are hungry, feed it. If it's thirsty, give it water. If it's craving salt, give it some salt. <br><br>You are not lazy. It's OK to rest and take a break and just do nothing. It's OK to unplug from the world and focus on yourself. <br><br>You cannot pour from an empty cup. <br><br>So put that phone away, call in sick if you need to, log off social media, take a nap in your car in the parking lot at lunch, cancel social plans that you don't want to go to. <br><br>It's your life. It's your body. Honor it. Take care of it. <br><br>You're not lazy. You're on energy-saving mode. Honor it. Take care of it. And it will take care of you.