Ep. 15 There's A Type of Fatigue No Coffee Can Fix

There's a type of fatigue that sleep can't fix, green juice can't touch, and another cup of coffee only makes worse. If you're waking up tired, pushing through your days on fumes, and falling into bed only to toss and turn all night — this episode is for you.

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This episode is part of the Stress & Body Series exploring how stress affects the nervous system, digestion, emotional health, and daily rhythm. Episode 6/6

In this episode, we unpack what's really behind chronic exhaustion in high-capacity women: nervous system dysregulation, depleted vital energy, and a body that's been running on stimulation instead of true rest. We explore why modern "rest" is often just distraction in disguise, how overstimulation and emotional load drain your energy at the root, and what Ayurveda teaches us about rebuilding from the inside out — including the role of your digestive fire in processing not just food, but the fullness of daily life.

You'll walk away with simple, grounding rituals for morning and evening, a clearer sense of where your own energy leaks the most, and practical ways to begin returning to a rhythm that actually restores you.

Stay until the end for a short guided practice to help you reset your nervous system and reconnect to what your body needs right now.

This isn't about adding more to your plate. It's about coming home to your own rhythm.

🌿 Listen next If this resonated, start here next: Episode 8You’re Not Lazy — You’re Exhausted — understand why your body feels so depleted.

Chelsea Johnson Ayurveda / The Body Rhythm

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome to the Body Rhythm Podcast. I'm your host, Chelsea Johnson, talking all things diet, lifestyle, health, and healing with a dose of heart and soul. Hello and welcome to another episode of The Body Rhythm. There is a fatigue that no coffee can fix. Do you ever wake up tired even after a full night's sleep, feeling like you haven't slept at all? You're not alone. Today we're going to talk about the type of fatigue that no amount of coffee or green juice can fix and what it really takes to reclaim your natural vitality, your natural feeling of restfulness. There have been moments in this past year that I have felt so deeply exhausted and a hundred percent depleted. I was pushing through the days, but every day just kind of compounded upon one another. And so I woke up tired and I was drinking, I kid you not, about five cups of coffee just to make it through the day. And then I would get home and fall asleep in bed because I was so exhausted. But then I would toss and turn all night long because the nervous system was activated, and then I'd wake up and I'd do it all again. I'd have about four cups of coffee in the morning, and then in the middle of the afternoon, I'd have another cup of coffee just to sustain me. And when I was sustaining myself like that, then I didn't have any extra energy to work out, I didn't have any extra energy to hang out with friends, to do anything that would really feel good for me, that would really be sustaining for me. And I don't know if you've ever felt yourself in this kind of situation. If you've just been so chronically stressed or going through a stressful life event or caregiving for elderly parents, we can all find ourselves in a situation where we go to sleep and we just don't feel rested. And when that happens, it's about rhythm and nourishment and alignment. We're not in rhythm with what is happening in our own lives, and so today we'll unpack why so many women feel drained even when they're doing quote unquote everything right. And I'll share some simple, powerful steps so you can begin to restore your energy from the inside out. So let's talk about modern fatigue versus true rest. So we often confuse rest with distraction, and I've learned this recently during my 30-day media fast because when we think we're resting, we're usually distracting ourselves, right? We scroll through Instagram, maybe we binge Netflix, we're watching the latest TikTok craze, right? We're busy maybe even with our own self-care that we are always on, but we're not really resting fully from an Ayurvedic standpoint. Our vital energy, our ojas gets depleted through over-stimulation, it gets depleted through irregular routines and through stress. And so think of how many things overstimulate we get overstimulated every time we scroll through an Instagram feed, every time we scroll on YouTube, every time we're looking at the media for news reports of what is happening all over the world, this is just stimulation coming in, the brain is dealing with it, the body is dealing with it, and we're not really getting a break from all of that stimulation. And in Ayurveda, this would lead to what's called a vata imbalance. It's that irregularity, that overthinking, that overstimulation, and then that leads into I have to stay involved in all of the things and right all of the wrongs. Some of the root causes of imbalance can be poor digestion and not just digestion of what we eat, but I'm really talking more about digestion of our emotional everyday experience, digestion of our mental state, our ability to take all the stimulation that's coming in from scrolling from the news from media, and let our digestifier, our Agni, take it in, transform it, keep what our body needs, and then let the rest go. But when we don't have the capacity to do that transformational process and let it go, then that starts depleting us. It starts leading to the lack of energy, the lack of production, the lack of really restful sleep and restful routines. And it leads more to emotional fatigue from the constant giving, from the constant people pleasing, from caretaking, from really just being overly concerned about everything that's outside of our control. It's nervous system dysregulation. We're stuck on fight or flight, sympathetic nervous response, and we're really not meant to live in our fight or flight response for too much time. That really is an adaptation in our evolution that was meant to keep us safe from dangerous situations, and when we scroll or we see news that is frightening to us or doesn't seem right or like an injustice, it keeps the nervous system in that alert state in the fight or flight state. And so just a simple question to begin to ask yourself is where does your energy leak the most? Your body, your mind, your emotions. Maybe you notice the energy leak first in the neck, the shoulders, the hips. Maybe the mind becomes numb. It's hard to make choices and decisions. Maybe it's in emotions. Small things begin to set you off. You don't have the capacity to give out anymore. And so it's just a simple inquiry to begin to ask yourself: where does my energy leak the most? Guide our body back into a rhythm that works best for us, that's gonna help restore some of that restfulness, that's gonna help us not have the energy leaks. And so here are some simple practical actions that can help lead to sustainable energy and feeling more rested than distracted. So the first thing that we can do is begin to create a regular morning routine. And so in Ayurveda, one of the main things is to wake up with the sun or with an hour of the sunrise. But if you're like me who's chronically tired, who feels depleted, who has been burnt out, this can feel like a big ask. And so if you're able, wake up as close to sunrise as you can, or wake up when it feels most refreshing. And sometimes that's not during the week because we have work responsibilities, we have to get up at a certain amount of time, but perhaps it's on a weekend that you can allow the body to sleep and wake up on its own. Wake up when it's had enough rest. Part of our morning routine that can really help is to add one grounding ritual, and this can be some warm water with lemon, it can be tongue scraping, it can be a few slow stretches. So, what I like to do is I like to put out my cup of water the night before so that I can just warm it up in the microwave in the morning, and then I already have my lemon cut up and I squeeze the lemon in the water, and then it's ready to drink, and I don't really have to think about it too much in the morning, and I drink that before I have my coffee. Also, you can do tongue scraping first thing in the morning, scraping from the back of the tongue to the front, getting rid of the toxins that have accumulated on the tongue overnight. I like to put my hand over my heart, close my eyes, and say, Thy will be done. And I like to feel the hand over the heart, what does that feel like? And then thy will be done. That helps me feel that not everything is on my shoulders. I don't have control over everything, and that alone can help the nervous system be in a more restful. I'd also recommend avoiding checking your phone within the first 30 minutes of waking up. If the first thing that you're doing is checking the phone, you are automatically putting your nervous system into a more alert state. What can you do so that you don't have to check the phone within the first 30 minutes? Is it an emergency that you're looking for? Is it habit? Is it distraction because you don't know what to do? And I would recommend keeping the phone far enough away that you just can't grab it. Just begin to tune in if this is something that you struggle with. Why is it that I am wanting to reach for my phone first thing in the morning? The next thing that I recommend is to eat for energy, not just calories. Think warm, wet, moist meals that support digestion and absorption. So many things can be heavy on our digestion, especially if our digestion is already struggling, especially if we already have bloating, if we have gas, if we have constipation, when our digestion is already showing signs of being tired, and then we add things on top of that that are hard to digest, things like uh Thai food, hamburgers, pizza, Italian food. These things just make digestion go even slower. So think of meals that are a little bit lighter, maybe nice soup, some warm cooked sauteed veggies, maybe a lovely room temperature kale salad with a nice green dressing on top, and eat your largest meal in the middle of the day. That's naturally when the body's digestive fire is at its greatest capacity. If we do eat those heavier meals, our body has a natural capacity to deal with it better. Do you feel more bloated? Do you have more gas? Do you have heartburn? Do you have constipation after you eat? All of these are the body's signals telling you what is happening. Tune into what is happening to begin to listen to the signals that your body is telling you. Foods that help us build energy, that help us build that ojast, that honey, gooey, sensual energy in the body are things like ghee, dates, almonds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, mung beans, mung soup, organic, fresh vegetables, green vegetables. All of these types of things are really gonna give the body natural energy, and what's wonderful is it's gonna help us maintain our ojast. It's really great to be able to reset our nervous system daily, and it doesn't have to be a big practice. A couple minutes of breath work. Notice if the inhale is shorter than the exhale, and then make the exhale a titch longer than the inhale. You can do this standing in line at the grocery store in your car at work. I remember when I was just so stressed out, so burnt out. I think I could only count my inhale to a count of one and my exhale to a count of one. And so it was a real struggle to get the exhale to a count of two. And I just did that for weeks, working on getting the exhale to a count of two, and it can be as simple as that. Beginning to lengthen the exhales helps regulate our nervous system, it helps bring us more into a rest and digest nervous system response. Another thing that you can do to help feel more rested is to manage your mental load to schedule white space breaks between tasks. So when we're going from one thing to the other to the other, and we're not scheduling any breaks in between, we're not giving a break to our brains, we're not giving a break to the nervous system, which contributes to always having to be on and deal with problems or issues. So, can you give yourself a few mental breaks in between tasks? Maybe it's closing the eyes, perhaps it's hand over the heart for a few breaths, perhaps it's stepping away from the computer, stepping away from the work, really giving the mind a chance to read. Perhaps this week, as you begin to notice more of your body's signals and your body's rhythms, you can begin to ask yourself if there's one thing that you can say no to this week. One small thing that you can say no to that drains you. Maybe instead of going out after work, it's just going home to rest. Maybe it is lying on the floor with a pillow under the knees and really just allowing the body to feel rested and supported on the floor. Perhaps it's an evening unwinding ritual, lighting a candle, playing some gentle music, gratitude journaling or journaling in general. What is it that would be really satisfying and relaxing to you that isn't over stimulation, that isn't scrolling, that isn't taking somebody else's reactions into your body. You want to begin to reconnect to what feeds you. We can do this by asking ourselves what feels nourishing? Where am I and what do I need? This is not about being most productive, right? Because usually when we're most productive, we're not tuning in to really ask ourselves what would be the most nourishing or the most productive. Put a hand over the heart and ask yourselves what might be really nourishing in this moment, and perhaps what the body is really wanting is a hug or a moment of silence. This is really where the work begins. This is where the healing begins when you begin to tune into the body and really begin to ask what it is that would nourish me. What's really helpful as well is to create small moments of connection to nature, to others, moments of happiness and joy. Is it a walk outside with the sun on the face, or listening to the birds, or maybe it's some type of creative hobby, something that really lights you up, that nourishes you. What is it that that would be? And so we'll just do a short guided pause today. Put both feet on the floor, hands in the lap, closing the eyes. Take a deep breath in, deep breath out. Once more, deep breath in. Maybe a sweet sigh out. Feel your body begin to soften. Feel the shoulders begin to soften. And ask yourself, where is one area that your energy feels like it's leaking? Perhaps there's one area in the body that you feel the energy leaking or that you feel fatigued. Perhaps there's an area in your emotional body taking note of your mental and emotional tone. Everything just giving signals about where you are today in this moment. And let the answer come to you slowly. What is one area, one task, mentor that you could say no to? Just let the answer come. Sometimes it will come pretty flat, fast, sometimes a bit slower. One thing that you can say no to allow the energy drain to be a bit less khen when you're ready, gently opening up the eyes, taking in the light, the room, the space, wherever you are. Maybe take the one thing that showed up for you in the practice, or perhaps a journal about where fatigue shows up in your life, and what might your body be trying to tell you as you push through the fatigue. I do have a rest rhythm and rituals guide, just a few short simple practices to help you reset the nervous system, reset your day. The link is in the show notes. It's designed to help you rebuild energy from the ground up. Thank you for joining me today and may you be well and nourished.