The tiredness that settles you
On telling the difference between depleting fatigue and the tiredness that follows real practice.
Transcript
There are two kinds of tired, and we don't think we'd ever actually separated them out loud before recording this episode.
One kind empties you. It usually comes from resisting something all day: a task you dreaded, a conversation you avoided, a feeling you refused to let finish. The other kind settles you. It tends to follow being fully present for something demanding, and it carries a strange calm most of us don't associate with the word tired at all.
Most of us collapse these into one category and treat all tiredness the same way, usually with distraction or more stimulation. But the depleting kind often doesn't resolve with rest alone, because its actual cause was never physical to begin with.
We asked each other, live, which kind of tired we were feeling that day. It was a genuinely useful thirty seconds. A couple of us realized the tiredness we were carrying wasn't going to be fixed by the nap we were planning.
Before you reach for rest tonight, try that same thirty seconds. Ask which kind of tired you're actually holding. It might change what kind of rest you go looking for.