Can You Remember What It Feels Like to NOT Be Tired?
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If you just paused when you read that title... that right there might be your answer.
Somewhere along the way, "tired all the time" became your default setting.
Not because something's fundamentally wrong with you.
But because you stopped questioning whether feeling constantly wiped out is actually normal.
Is it Common? Absolutely. If you're a woman in your late 30s, 40s, or 50s, you might be surrounded by others who are just as exhausted. The caffeine dependency stories, the afternoon crashes, the jokes about being "tired and wired"; they're everywhere.
But here's the thing: just because everyone's experiencing it doesn't make it natural.
What if your exhaustion isn't a personality trait or an inevitable part of getting older? What if it's actually information, your body trying to tell you something important?
What if you started listening?
How Exhaustion Became "Normal"
Let's explore how you might have got here.
You probably didn't wake up one morning and decide that being tired all the time was fine. It likely happened gradually, a slow erosion of your natural vitality that you adapted to, one compromised day at a time.
Perhaps it started when you were juggling young children and a career, telling yourself "this is just a busy season." Or maybe it crept in alongside perimenopause, and you assumed the tiredness was simply part of the hormonal shift everyone warned you about.
Year after year, your expectations of what "feeling good" actually means may have shifted.
You might have stopped expecting to wake up refreshed. Perhaps you normalised needing three coffees to function, cancelling plans when wiped out, or convinced yourself that vibrant energy is for other people. Younger people. People without your responsibilities.
And here's the really insidious part: our culture often encourages this narrative.
We're frequently told that tiredness is:
A badge of honour (productive people are busy, right?)
A natural part of ageing (just accept it)
The price of having a full life
Something a vitamin or better sleep hygiene will fix
So you might keep pushing. Trying to do more with less. Believing that if you just tried harder or found the right supplement, you'd finally feel better.
But what if this entire framework is backwards?
The Lie We've Been Sold
Here's the narrative I've seen do the most damage:
"Tiredness is just an inevitable part of getting older."
Yes, energy patterns shift with age. Yes, hormonal changes impact how you feel. Yes, you might need to adjust your approach to sleep, movement, and nutrition over time.
But chronically dragging yourself through each day? Waking up tired even after 8 hours? Relying on caffeine and willpower just to function?
That's not ageing. That's your body waving a red flag.
The problem isn't just an age thing. The problem is you're out of sync with what YOUR body actually needs.
Think about it: when you were younger, you could perhaps get away with ignoring your body's signals. Late nights, skipped meals, pushing through stress— your body had reserves to cope. But now? Your body might not have that same buffer. It’s demanding that you pay attention.
And instead of listening, you might be following generic wellness advice designed for someone else's body, someone else's life, someone else's rhythms.
Forcing breakfast when you're not hungry because "it's the most important meal."
Dragging yourself to 6am workouts because "morning exercise boosts energy."
Following restrictive diets because some wellness guru said it worked for them.
But what if none of it's working for YOU?
Your tiredness has patterns. Triggers. A unique language. And until you understand what YOUR body is trying to tell you, you’ll likely stay stuck in the tiredness loop. The good news? Your natural state isn't exhaustion. You’ve just temporarily lost access to your vitality. And it's absolutely possible to reclaim it.
What Your Tiredness Is Actually Trying to Tell You
The biggest energy leaks are often the subtle, unexpected drains you've normalised. The relationships that require constant emotional management. The clutter creating low-level stress you don't even register anymore. The boundary-less schedule that bleeds into every hour of your day.
Or it's the foods that don't work for YOUR digestive system—the "healthy" breakfast that leaves you bloated by 10am, the salad that triggers an afternoon crash. Or the people-pleasing patterns that mean you always, always come last.
You're Fighting Your Natural Rhythms
Maybe you're a night owl forcing a morning routine. Or ignoring your menstrual cycle phases and pushing through when your body's begging you to slow down. Or treating winter like summer and wondering why you feel depleted.
Your body operates on natural rhythms that shift throughout the day, month, and year. When you work against them, exhaustion follows.
You're Running on Stress Hormones
Caffeine to wake up, sugar to push through the afternoon, wine to finally relax. This isn't energy. It's a chemical prop-up-crash-repeat cycle that keeps your nervous system stuck in stress mode, quietly draining your reserves no matter how much you sleep.
Real energy is steady, reliable, and doesn't need constant stimulation to keep you upright.
Your Emotional Energy Tank Is Empty
Energy isn't just physical. When you're carrying years of unprocessed emotions, pushing down feelings, swallowing frustration, keeping the peace at the cost of your own wellbeing, it takes enormous energy to maintain that facade.
Your tiredness might be saying: "We need to deal with this."
Your tiredness isn't asking you to fix it with another supplement or productivity hack. It's asking you to listen.
Here's what I know for sure: your tiredness is trying to tell you something specific. And when you start listening, really listening, you'll finally be able to address what's actually happening instead of just masking symptoms.
This is exactly why one-size-fits-all wellness advice fails. Your body isn't generic. Your tiredness isn't generic. And your solution won't be either.
Pause & Reflect:
When did you last give yourself permission to truly rest—not as a reward you have to earn, but as something your body actually needs?
What Becomes Possible
Before we talk about how, let's talk about why.
If you woke up tomorrow with real, steady energy, what would change?
Maybe it's finally starting that business you've been thinking about for years. Making progress on goals that have been gathering dust. Taking action instead of endlessly planning.
Or maybe it's quieter than that. Being fully present with your children instead of counting minutes until bedtime. Saying yes to spontaneous plans without the mental calculation of whether it'll wipe you out. Having capacity for intimacy and connection instead of being too exhausted to show up. Rediscovering hobbies you abandoned. Handling life's curveballs with resilience instead of feeling like they'll push you over the edge.
Better energy doesn't just change what you do. It changes who you get to be.
You're not just less tired. You're more creative. More patient. More joyful. More alive.
You remember what it feels like to want things again, not just need to get through things.
And here's what might surprise you: when you have energy, you don't do more. You do what actually matters to you. You choose more intentionally. You say no more easily. You create space for what lights you up.
This is what's waiting for you on the other side of exhaustion.
Where to Begin
Not with another strict meal plan. Not with forcing 5am wake-ups. Not with more supplements you'll forget to take.
You begin by questioning the narrative that tired is just "how it is" now.
You begin by getting curious instead of resigned. You begin by asking different questions:
What is my body actually trying to tell me?
What could I do differently if I believed my tiredness had a cause?
What if there's nothing wrong with me—what if I'm just out of sync?
Who am I when I'm not exhausted?
And then, this is the part that changes everything. You start paying attention.
Not to what influencers say you should track. Not to what worked for your friend. But to YOUR patterns. YOUR triggers. YOUR unique energy language.
Your body is constantly communicating with you. It's telling you what works and what doesn't, what drains you and what restores you, what you need and what you've been forcing that doesn't serve you.
The problem isn't that your body stopped working properly.
The problem is you stopped listening.
You're Not Broken: You're Just Out of Sync
Let me leave you with this:
You're not broken. You're not lazy. You're not lacking willpower.
You’re just out of sync with what your body actually needs.
And here's the beautiful thing about being out of sync: you can get back into alignment. Not by following someone else's rules, but by discovering what works for YOU.
Not overnight. Not through another miracle supplement or productivity hack.But through awareness. Through listening. Through trusting that your body knows what it needs, and that your tiredness is the starting point, not the destination.
Your natural state is abundant energy. You've just temporarily lost access to it.
It's time to find your way back.
Ready to Start Listening?
The first step is understanding what type of tired you're experiencing—because not all tiredness is the same.
I've created a free guide to help you start: "Shake Off The Tired Vibes: 5 Simple Ways to Revitalise Your Energy." Inside, you'll discover:
- The 5 different types of tired (and which ones you might be experiencing)
- 5 simple remedies you can try right now: breathwork, hydration, movement, grounding, and inspiration
Your tiredness has been trying to tell you something. It's time to listen. Anna x
Frequently Asked Questions
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Persistent tiredness isn't normal ageing. It's your body communicating. Often there’s a combination of causes including: being out of sync with your natural rhythms (circadian, hormonal, seasonal), hidden energy drains (emotional, environmental, dietary), or running on stress hormones instead of real energy. Your tiredness has specific patterns. The key is learning to decode them.Description text goes here
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If you're getting adequate sleep but still waking up tired, sleep isn't the problem—something else is draining you. Consider: foods that don't work for YOUR body, running on stress hormones, emotional energy depletion, or fighting your natural rhythms. Quality sleep supports energy, but it won't fix energy leaks elsewhere. Your body is communicating—listen to the full message.
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Adequate sleep time doesn't automatically equal waking up refreshed. Common culprits include poor sleep quality, eating foods that trigger inflammation, running on stress hormones instead of real energy, being out of sync with your natural rhythms, or carrying emotional exhaustion. Tiredness isn't just a sleep problem, it's often an energy leak problem.
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Sustainable energy comes from alignment with what YOUR body needs: eating foods that work for your digestive system, moving in ways that energise (not deplete) you, respecting your natural energy rhythms throughout the day and year, and addressing emotional energy. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, your body's signals guide you.
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Caffeine dependency masks underlying energy issues rather than solving them. Real energy comes from addressing root causes: adequate sleep, blood sugar balance through proper nutrition, appropriate movement (not over-exercising), and stress management. When you're stuck in stress mode, caffeine just props up a depleted system. The solution is finding what's actually draining you.
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There's no single main cause; that's the problem with generic wellness advice. For women, tiredness often involves hormonal fluctuations (menstrual cycle, perimenopause), accumulated stress, ignoring natural energy rhythms, and lifestyle misalignment with what YOUR body needs. The solution isn't following someone else's protocol, it's discovering your unique energy patterns.
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Yes, seasonal energy shifts are natural. Winter tiredness often stems from reduced sunlight (affecting circadian rhythms and vitamin D), colder temperatures, and your biology's natural inclination to rest more. The key isn't fighting these rhythms—it's working with them. Rest more in winter, embrace higher energy when it naturally rises in spring. Your body operates on seasonal cycles.
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