Every aspect of our lives has changed. In a really short time the lives of almost everyone are looking at what was familiar and seeing change. Empty city streets no one behaving normally - it's strange.
Most of us are feeling frightened unsure and nervous. There is an unseen enemy. You can't win except with massive co-operation in a world where we can but don't generally cooperate. But that is not the only reason we are all so tired.
Habits
We live our daily lives through habits. Habits make us comfortable and don't take as much energy. How many times have you made a familiar journey without paying attention or performed some household tasks while thinking about something else. Habits can calm us and relax us as well as exciting and scaring us. But we are now having to concentrate on everything. Everything is new. We are having to learn new habits.
It is like being in a foreign country in your own home.
Exhaustion can be caused by concentration. In this new world, this foreign country in your own home no-one is talking in your native language. Everyone talks a new language called Covid-19 which none of us speak well. Not just that, but the culture that you are familiar with is completely gone. How we must interact has changed and for hundreds of millions of people the change to our economic power is also scary.
Getting through this will be hard but as the days progress you will start to feel a little less like you are in a foreign place. You will notice your energy start to return to normal. It won't be the old normal - it will be the new normal. You will feel less overwhelmed over time.
This will be true for most of us. But please remember that there are those fighting this war for us. Doctors Nurses Cleaner and other essential workers for who the new normal is crisis. These people are fighting for the rest of us. Each of us must do what we can to help through the weapons of kindness mindfulness and cooperation.
Do something nice for someone today