Yesterday, my wife and I started an herbal cleanse. I think we're at that age where your body starts to deteriorate in a noticeable way and bouncing back to "healthy" form, however you define it, isn't as easy. We were both athletes and played on teams up through college, so maybe we're more mentally in tune with how our bodies feel, but when they just don't feel right, it's time to do something different.
My sister (and many friends) sell the products we're using. They're Advocare products and we are champions. We like the products, and full disclosure, that link on that sentence will make them money if you go buy some stuff from them, but that's somewhat irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make. For a while, my sister was touting "how much better we'd feel" if we took the products, or did a 10 day herbal cleanse, or whatever. She knew that I was out of shape and overweight. The problem, I told her, was that I didn't feel bad, so feeling better wasn't much of a motivation. I knew I didn't look that great compared to my former physique, but I didn't feel bad, so if I didn't care that much what I looked like (or how my clothes fit) the motivation to eat and live healthier because I'd feel better didn't really work.
So maybe it's my age that's made me just not feel that great recently. Maybe I finally got to the point where I started to notice that I wasn't being as healthy as I could be. For example, coffee never used to bother me other than waking me up when I was a little sleepy, but then more recently I noticed that after drinking it I would start to experience increased anxiety. Or lack of sleep never used to impact me in the middle of the day, but then I started to notice that I was having a tough time staying awake in the afternoons, especially when I was trying to study or do something else that required little physical activity or energy.
In any event, we've been doing this cleanse since yesterday, and everything I've said up to this point was actually intended to be just an introduction to say that I'm feeling fatigued, and I think I have the cleanse to thank for it. Just not in the way you might think.
Two things happen on the cleanse. Well, maybe more, but these are the two that are relevant to what I'm talking about. The first thing that happens is that you are supposed to cut out a bunch of stuff that's not very good for you while you are taking it. That includes but is not limited to coffee and alcohol. If you drink a lot of coffee or have even just a drink a night, this is going to make a huge difference in how your body feels. But it's also going to lead to the second occurrence: you are going to get more sleep.
When you stop drinking as much coffee, and you don't have that nightly glass or two of wine, you end up getting a much better night sleep. So the next day, you wake up, and your body doesn't need the same level of caffeine or it doesn't need the stimulants to keep itself going. Our bodies are fully capable of keeping ourselves moving, awake, and alert without chemical stimulants to do the job for them.
As a result, since you aren't battling the effects of caffeine or alcohol, and you are fully rested, you can actually focus on the other things in your life that are impacting how you are feeling. For example, many people deal with stress by eating or drinking. That masks the stress for a while, and you can at least endure it. The problem is, the stress hasn't actually gone away, you've just hidden it or masked it or put up some sort of facade. The stress is still there, though, eating away at you, and now even worse, since typically the eating and drinking binge doesn't consist of celery and water.
In my case, the fact that I'm off caffeine and fully rested has made me realize that I'm fatigued. Coffee masks it for a time. You start getting mentally exhausted, so you have a cup of coffee, then one leads to two and over time you are drinking way more than you think you are. At least, that's what happens to me. So now, I'm two days into a cleanse, and I feel good and I'm not drinking a bunch of coffee and I still feel tired but I'm not tired. Something else is causing the tiredness that I might not have known about unless I got on the cleanse.
That's why I say that I'm fatigued, and I have the cleanse to blame. The cleanse didn't cause it, it just revealed it.
All of that got me thinking about healthy outlets to relieve myself of fatigue or to reinvigorate myself to gain energy. Some people regain their energy by being with other people. Some people do it by being alone. Some people do it through hobbies. There are a lot of different ways to make sure that you are taking care of yourself.
For me, I think it might be writing.
I read something a popular pastor had said once about how he finds that his best moments of thought come not when he is studying or reading, but when he is expressing those thoughts in word. In other words, it was his habit of writing that actually reinvigorated him. I think I understand that. I also think I understand why it gets squeezed out: it takes time.
On the contrary, the things that cause me fatigue, or the things that rob me of mental energy, happen all the time. As an introverted person, dealing with people takes a lot of mental energy. And I actually like people! If I have to be relationally on, though, without a break, it robs the energy. Case in point, I coach basketball. Practices are fine. Game days are long. I'm at the gym for nearly four hours. At the end of it, I'm mentally exhausted.
So, here is the reason that something like writing would get squeezed out: writing requires mental energy, and when your reserve is depleted, you've got nothing left to get you started. If writing both replaces mental energy, but also requires it, you can end up in a conundrum where you don't have enough mental energy to get started, but if you don't do it, you won't be able to replace the mental energy that you've lost.
In that sense your mental energy is like the battery on your car. If it gets too depleted, you can't start the car. But unless you start the car, you can't recharge the battery, at least without some external assistance.
So after eating lunch and feeling mentally fatigued and exhausted, I decided I needed to do something that would be a good use of my time and would help me regain a handle on the day. Should I read a book? Should I work on an upcoming retreat?
No, I should write.
So I did.