When You Need a Moment for Yourself

6 Signs Your Body and Mind are Tired

Mental and physical exhaustion affects your behavior by causing emotional symptoms. It’s often the case that other people will notice your weariness first. Symptoms of exhaustion differ depending on the person, but there are some all people share, especially in periods of extreme stress. Even if you don’t have all of the signs we discuss in this article, it’s important to recognize them. It can mean the difference between sickness and health.

Loss of Control

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The first sign of tiredness is feeling you have little to no control over your daily tasks and responsibilities. You feel run down and may start skipping meals. The stress seems unbearable at times. You start bouncing back and forth between different tasks, never completing a single one. Giving your tasks your full attention is getting harder and harder.

The feeling of loss of control is accompanied by physical weakness. Sometimes, a person can feel too weak to perform tasks as mundane as carrying groceries and opening a car door. If you notice weakness, you should try to get more sleep and work on decreasing stress levels. This will happen if
you rest more and decrease the frequency, effort, and time you spend exercising – if you do exercise.

Decrease of Mental Acuity

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When your mind and body are tired, it gets very challenging to stay mentally alert. You have a hard time concentrating and getting any work done whatsoever. Brain fog and lack of focus can hinder physical performance and productivity as well.

You are easily distracted. You feel an intense need to escape reality; contemplate the past and fear the future. You’re not happy with your present and spend a lot of time daydreaming. While a bit of it
doesn’t hurt, daydreaming can stop you from fulfilling your daily duties. Due to the lack of balance between your dreams and reality, your dissatisfaction with life keeps increasing.

Poor Quality of Sleep

Do you remember the line “so tired I couldn’t even sleep” from the song? When you’re really tired, falling asleep can be very hard. Your body is too tired to sleep and an overactive mind can keep you
up. This poses health risks when it goes on for too long. You’re definitely tired if only the alarm can wake you and you need to get sleep on the weekend badly.

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An early warning sign is if it’s hard for you to get out of bed even if you’ve slept 8 or more hours. The body has rested, but the mind needs more sleep. Chronic fatigue develops as a result. You struggle to
get things done. If this sounds like you, some meditation or yoga before bed can help.

Recognize the Physical Manifestation of Mental Exhaustion

Two signs of mental exhaustion are arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat) and dry, chapped lips. If your heart races when you’re at rest, this strengthens the perception of stress and may lead to a higher risk for heart disease. Having dry and chapped lips even though you drink plenty of water is probably due to chronic stress, physical fatigue, or sleep deprivation. Other parts of your body may also feel tired. For example, you might feel weakness in your arms and legs.

Keep reading to see if you’ve lost the ability to see the world through rose-colored glasses.

You’re Irritable and Impatient

If you’re not irritable and impatient by nature, but are becoming this way, fatigue may be the cause. When people are chronically tired, they get snappish, angry, and upset easily. Exhaustion, boredom,
and dissatisfaction can all impact our emotions. Have loved ones told you that you get angry or offended over small things? Do you tend to suddenly break out in hysterical laughter or tears over
small things? Regular mood swings like this signal mental exhaustion. They make the challenges life throws at us more difficult to overcome. Instead of trying to cooperate with others, we’re inevitably in conflict with them.

You’re Full of Negativity

Have you lost the ability to laugh at funny incidents, notice nice things, and enjoy happy moments? You probably suffer from fatigue if negative things are all you see.

Instead of trying to charge your batteries with positive energy, you’re always expecting bad things to happen or reliving them. This impacts your mood, making you feel miserable.

On a related note, dwelling on bad things that happened in the past and avoiding others are also signs of exhaustion. If you’ve felt like hiding from those around you, it is the tiredness talking. You
feel like you have no energy to talk to people, even to pleasant people. You want to shield yourself from everyone, hide in the corner, or even become invisible. Simply put, you just want to be left
alone.

Overcoming Mental and Physical Exhaustion

Toxic relationships are one of the main reasons for exhaustion. Your soul will suffer if a partner or friend is influencing you negatively on a consistent basis. If you’re suffering, don’t be afraid to reach
out to a kind and considerate family member or friend. Focus on the good things in your life and be grateful for what you have, no matter how small it may seem.

Sometimes seeing kindness and positivity is a matter of patience. Rough spells are temporary and they pass when we approach them the right way.

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