More than an afternoon slump.
Do you know the infamous “afternoon slump” as intimately as I do? The one that makes you turn to afternoon coffee, even though you know you shouldn’t and it won’t even help? The one that makes eyes so heavy, voices so cranky, and dinner so hard to make?
I turbo through my mornings with amazing efficiency, trying to get dinner made and the day’s tasks done before the afternoon slump hits (which also happens to coincide with every other human’s time of greatest need). My turbo mornings inevitably leave me even slumpier in the afternoons. I’ve started praying to ask God to help me in this time. My afternoon exhaustion didn’t go away when I started praying. It actually seemed to get louder, the rest of the world getting smaller around me. As I’ve explained it and asked Chris and a friend to pray with me, I’ve realized I actually dealing with afternoon anxiety, not just feeling slouchy.
Tuesday afternoon, the needs and movements of my family revved up all around me while I was trying to have an online personal training session. I was already running on little sleep thanks to the 18-month sleep regression, making it much harder for me to mentally manage stress. Pressure and panic rushed through me until I felt nauseous, dizzy and flighty. The rest of the evening seemed impossible. And, after the kids, dinner and house tasks were sorted, I would only just begin my writing and other work.
I think God showed me I was in the throes of anxiety instead of massaging away what I brushed off as an afternoon slump. I think I almost had a panic attack on my workout bench. I needed to throw a flag and ask for help, but couldn’t get the words out until many hours later.
The moral of the story: God is so faithful and so good. He hears us when we pray, and He doesn’t leave us where we are. He didn’t magically wipe away my struggles, but He brought the wise counsel of a friend and my husband to speak into my life. He has given me the mind of Christ, and their prayers to lean on when I can’t find His thoughts under my anxious ones.
I’m praying for ways to alter afternoons, change my work flow and adjust to the season I’m in. It’s a short and sweet season that I don’t want to miss by impossible expectations of myself.
The night after that panic-filled workout and revelation, Benjamin and I only got three hours of sleep. The perfect opportunity to adjust to my situation! I cancelled my weekly Thankful Thursday teaching, taking away several hours of work to replace with rest. I am thinking of creative, fun, life-giving ways to change what this blog could be like, and to build up Help Club for Moms by developing a team of leaders to help.
Please pray with me, and stay tuned for updates on changes that could be ahead!
Look at these extra tired people!