Underlying reasons why you're so tired
Expert insight by Dr Libby.
Wondering why you feel sluggish all the time? Dr Libby shares her insight into dealing with fatigue.
In Exhausted to Energized, Dr Libby explains the concept of open loops or tabs, a term she’s coined to describe the cluster of thoughts, to-do lists and tasks that crowd a person’s mind 24/7.
“You know when you have too many apps open on your phone and it drains your battery faster? That’s what people are doing to their brains all the time,” she explains. Dr Libby guesstimates that a person can have up to 300 open tabs in the course of a day, an exhausting thought alone.
“A big part of beginning to change that is instead of people creating to-do lists, we need to write down all of our open tabs and schedule it. What gets scheduled gets done. So then when you’re playing with your children or reading a book or doing yoga, and five or 20 or 80 of your open tabs fly into your mind and you start rattling it all off, you can breathe because you think, ‘No, I’ve got it scheduled.’ There will be a reminder pop up in your diary to pay the car registration, for example.
“The open tabs thing starts to be solved when we shift the thinking of ‘I’ve got this to-do list that never gets done’, or ‘I’ve got all these things in my head that I never write down’. Instead, capture it and schedule it. It can make a massive difference to people’s sleep quality but more importantly, to their energy.”
Dr Libby acknowledges that self-care is another hugely important factor in a person’s energy levels. Besides delegating tasks to her small but amazingly tight-knit and efficient team (which includes her husband, Chris Weaver), she prioritises healthy eating and habits like meditation and restorative yoga daily, no matter where she might be in the world.
“I’ve always eaten amazingly; it’s effortless for me,” she says. “I was like it before I had my nutrition knowledge, but I am very aware your body can’t make all the substances inside of itself for great hormone balance, for great thyroid function, for great sleep, for a happy, calm, even mood. Your body especially can’t create that state when you’re living off too much caffeine, refined sugars and processed foods. So for me, the foundation of everything is nourishment and providing my body with the nutrients needed to create wellness.”
Wise words indeed, from a woman who would know.
Want to know more about fatigue? Read all about chronic fatigue sydrome today.
