Too tired to function?

When we feel tired (mentally or physically), it’s hard to keep our concentration and focus on the activities we are doing. Perhaps we feel unable to exercise and keep making the wrong food choices to try and pick ourselves up quickly, getting trapped in a vicious circle.

There are many reasons why we might feel tired, including lack of sleep or ongoing disrupted sleep, excessive stress, wrong food choices and deficiencies of some key vitamins and minerals such as B vitamins and iron.

Importantly, there is a link between diet, nutrition and emotional and mental health. Good nutrition and the activities we engage with in our everyday lives can have a positive effect not just on our mental health but also on our overall physical health, which are both closely related. There are a few simple and very practical steps anyone can take to feel better when we are feeling run down:

• Try to go to bed earlier and wake up at the same time every day. The body clock works on cycles so help it out with a consistent approach as much as possible. Expose yourself to natural light in the morning by going outdoors and keep your exposure to artificial lights to a minimum at night.
• Keep your bedroom cool and don’t wear too many clothes in bed. The body temperature has to drop for you to be able to sleep deeply, so don’t work against it.
• Reduce the exposure to screens and overstimulation at night. Any strenuous physical activity or exercise is better done earlier in the day.
• Make sure you include some protein with every meal and if you are a vegetarian, mix your protein sources. This helps you feel fuller for longer and avoid making the wrong food choice due to being overtired / hungry.
• Pause and breathe deeply every time you feel overwhelmed. Mindfulness and meditation help alleviate fatigue.If your tiredness doesn’t improve, it might be worth speaking to your doctor and having a blood test too. You might find out that you are deficient in some key vitamins and minerals.

Live yoga classes with me are back online! Let me know if you want to come along!

I hope this helps, friends, and take care of yourselves!

Photo by Jacob Norrie on Unsplash