Between Doing and Overdoing
Motion begets motion and activity begets activity. We all realise this over and over again. By the time we are in our next slump, though, we have firmly forgotten about this fact once more until we rise from the sofa, overcome our inertia and are re-blessed with this glorious discovery.
So far, so good.
The bit that is complicated is the moment after we have re-discovered these self-help applications of Newtonian Physics. Often, we will move right from doing into overdoing. Being on the move again feels so great that we just blast through as much of the piled-up stuff as possible. Sometimes, we do this for several days in a row.
"I am so energetic!" we will enthusiastically proclaim to our friends just before we dash off to re-organize yet another messy corner. In between, we will regale our poor close relations with exclamations along the lines of "I have discovered the holy grail of energy, never again shall I be in a slump".
In this state, the idea that we should ever feel tired again feels as ludicrous as the thought of ever making it off the sofa felt just two days earlier.
We keep doing and doing. If we are really caught up, we add elaborate morning routines full of meditation and yoga - anything to check as many boxes as possible on our self-help score sheet. We deploy health-improving strategies with the same fervour 90 yea-old great aunt Margaret deploys splotches on her bingo sheet.
And then it happens. We get tired again. We stumble over the edge of the carpet that has suddenly become an insurmountable obstacle and crash right back onto the sofa.
Our routine crumbles, the messy corners get messy again, and just like Sysiphus, we're stuck moving the energetic boulder up the hill one more time so we can enjoy the motion when it rolls back down.
If we have any self-awareness left, we might groan to ourselves and feel some chagrin when we humbly and decidedly less maniacally approach our friends again and mumble: "I've done it again, haven't I?"
If we have good friends, they will nod good-naturedly and comfort us, mentioning that perhaps we will get it next time.
Maybe next time we make it over the wall of inertia, we will manage to curb our overdoing a little and take things at a reasonable pace. Maybe next time, we will manage to edge our way a little closer to balance. Not monotony, but balance.
There will always be times where we feel more energetic than average and there will be times where we feel less energetic. However, I suspect that this pattern is greatly exacerbated by overdoing things during our energetic phases. Perhaps, if we toned it down a little and focussed on a reasonable amount of things to do we could avoid a few crashes.
I suspect that some of the secret lies in prioritizing rest just as much during high energy times as during our sofa days. There are many ways to go into debt. Overspending energy might be one of the more expensive loans out there.
