Feel Exhausted All the Time? 3 Spiritual and Psychological Reasons and Solutions for Your Tiredness

If you feel exhausted all the time, there may be a physical cause. However, some psychological and spiritual issues can also cause extreme fatigue.

If you feel exhausted all the time, even after waking up from a good night’s sleep, then there is something in your life that you need to fix. The first step is to check for a physical cause. Many diseases can cause extreme lethargy. If you get the okay physically, then it might be time to check out some possible psychological and spiritual causes for your tiredness.

This is a problem I have had myself. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with underactive thyroid. Although it was quickly treated, the fatigue continued to be a problem. I started to look around for other possible reasons for feeling exhausted all the time. Getting the right nutrition and exercise helped, but I still struggled with fatigue.

I was frustrated that I couldn’t seem to feel the energy and enthusiasm I used to have for my life. It felt like I was dragging myself through my days and eventually I began to feel quite depressed that I couldn’t do all the things I wanted to do because I was exhausted all the time.
This is when I began to look around for other causes for my fatigue. I soon found that fixing my constant exhaustion required a range of solutions not just for my body but also for my mind and spirit. Looking into a wide range of psychological and spiritual therapies, I soon found some answers.

These are the top 3 steps I took to get my energy and zest for life back.

1. Learning to express myself truthfully

The first step I took was to be more honest about how I was feeling. I am a person who hates confrontation and I was suppressing a lot of my thoughts and feelings in order to keep the peace. Suppressing emotions is stressful and exhausting. I had a toxic build up of unexpressed feelings and keeping them in check was using up my precious energy. I started to be honest with others, open up about my needs and crucially ask for help.

I learned that crucially, I needed to be honest with myself. I often glossed over any feelings that I found upsetting. I tried to cover up any discontent with positive thinking. It didn’t work. Being honest with myself about how I really felt was the first step in overcoming this. When we block emotions, we can’t just block the negative ones. In suppressing our emotions, we inadvertently suppress the good ones too. When I started to acknowledge my fear, sadness, anger, grief, and despair, I began to heal these feelings. I also noticed that I became more aware of the positive feelings such as joy, contentment, satisfaction, peace and love.

We don’t need to be demanding or self-obsessed, but we should try to be authentic about what we feel and need. If certain aspects of our lives are not working for us, then we need to think about these things and process our feelings about them.

2. Refusing to worry about what other think about me

I used to be a perfectionist with a deep-seated fear of being judged and found wanting. This made me constantly stressed and anxious that I would make a mistake and not be ‘good enough’. I realized that I was living my life to meet my idea of what people expected of me, rather than following my own dreams, desires, and needs.
Learning to accept myself just the way I am is another on-going process for me. I still have a lot of self-doubt. However, I am beginning to worry less about what other people think of me. I don’t deliberately upset others and I do listen to the opinions of people I love and respect. But ultimately, this is my precious life and I get to choose how I want to spend my days here on earth. I have found that as I have made space for myself in my own life, my energy has begun to return. I feel more positive, hopeful and optimistic about the future.

When we learn to accept ourselves and love ourselves just the way we are, we release the pressure to conform to society’s ideas of what is acceptable. We need to forgive ourselves when we are less than perfect and treat ourselves as we would a good friend, rather than being constantly self-critical.

3. Making time to do less and be more

In a pressured society, we often feel like we constantly need to be doing things. We feel pressure to achieve, improve, learn and grow. We are often so busy trying to get things done that we don’t stop to enjoy the experience of life. This can lead us to feeling exhausted all the time. The universe is an awesome place. Being alive is an incredible opportunity. Yet often, we are so worried about earning money and impressing others that we forget to make the most of this wonderful opportunity called life.
Of course, being joyful in the moment is easier said than done. Life is stressful. Bills need paying and people we love get sick. This is a work in progress for me as I try to let go of perfectionism and worrying what others think to allow room for joy in my life.

However, we need to make joy and pleasure a priority. It heals the mind, body, and spirit. Every day should have a little time when we can just be without the pressure to achieve. We can use this time to meditate, sit and watch the clouds go by or do something just for the sheer joy of it and with no practical end result in mind. This actually creates more energy. When we feel happy and fulfilled, energy seems to pour into us.

Closing thoughts

If you feel exhausted all the time, then it might be worth considering working on some of these issues. This has just been the start of my journey and I am sure there is much more to learn along the way. There are an amazing amount of resources available to help us to be more psychologically and spiritually aware.