Long periods of intense mental and emotional stress can exhaust your soul.
Like our bodies, our souls can become overwhelmed, overworked, and fatigued. If you sustain injuries to a body part, you will take time off to rest and treat it. So why do we not do the same when it comes to taking care of our souls? Mary Wright, a writer for The Power of Silence, notes that ‘if we ignore the signs that our energy is depleting, it can lead to very serious consequences such as chronic anxiety, mental health issues, and depression’.
To prevent this from happening, you must be aware of the 8 signs which tell you that your soul is exhausted:
1. You have no energy
The feeling can resemble depression as no matter how hard you try, all you want to do is lie down and sleep. Taking this further, no matter how many hours you do sleep, you still wake up feeling exhausted and drained.
2. Your body is constantly in pain
When your soul is tired, it will try to give you signals to warn you that you should rest. For this reason, you will experience frequent pain in various places without any identifiable cause. For example, you might have random headaches, blurred vision, dizziness, and stomachaches among other things which make it difficult for you to function.
3. You don’t know why you feel low
You often find people asking whether you’re alright because you do not seem like yourself. What is more, you struggle to respond because you do not know how you feel.
4. You feel disorientated
A drastic decrease in energy will leave you feeling confused, disorientated, and fragmented. Wright explains that this is a consequence of your mind and body being out of sync. You might feel like you are constantly forgetting things and that you are slowly losing control of everything around you.
5. Your emotions are intensified
You will notice that you have become more sensitive as you find that all of your emotions seem to be exaggerated. That is, you cry for no reason, feel extremely upset, and are suddenly overwhelmed with happiness. As a result, your days feel exhausting as you experience numerous different emotions in extremes.
6. You experience mild panic attacks
When you feel constantly tired, fragmented, and incapable of controlling your own emotions, it is not surprising that you may become more prone to mild attacks of anxiety or panic.
7. You feel deep loneliness
When your soul is exhausted, you begin to question everything and everyone around you; that is, Wright explains that you begin to question ‘who you can trust because you feel on the defense most of the time’. In other words, you experience profound loneliness even when you are surrounded by people who love you.
8. You become extremely negative
You will find yourself having negative or resentful thoughts about the people and things around you. This can be particularly terrifying, especially if you tend to be caring and compassionate. Experiencing these thoughts can make you feel like you are a horrible person because you do not understand where they are coming from.
If you feel this way, it is time to stop and practice self-care.
An exhausted soul requires rest and care. If you feel weak, confused, and incapable of controlling your own feelings and emotions, it is time to take time off, eliminate unnecessary stress, and look inwards. Everybody needs to hit pause and fill their cup once in a while.