Lethargy – the new epidemic

Have you noticed that in recent years it’s getting harder and harder to get a response from tradespeople, so any building, renovating or repair processes take longer? Businesses are having difficulty finding employees and many young people do not want to commit to full-time work or take responsibility when they do get a job. Some are gaming or binge streaming, some on social media for hours, some caught in the cycle of drugs, and so it goes on impacting not only private life but flowing through into the workplace. People are opting to work from home where they can, or they want to work fewer days yet want to receive the same pay.

There seems to be a general lack of inspiration and a reluctance to engage fully in life. It’s a creeping lethargy, an epidemic that is taking over the world which makes people not so keen to contribute, often doing just the bare minimum and watching the clock throughout the day. It’s as if humanity has been put into a massive movement of withdrawal. You may have experienced this draining feeling that seems impossible to shake off – this state of being that makes us feel we have no energy and leaves us with no motivation to do anything.

I experienced this after having a bout of Covid. It was as if I couldn’t get my motor started again. Even though the body started to get better, I still felt exhausted. Yes, the body was still in the convalescent phase but there was something else going on . . .

An insidious draining lethargy seemed to have possessed my body and it was as if I was being enticed to withdraw from life. It was like quicksand – as if I was being drawn into a deep depression which was swallowing me up, sucking the life force from the body. My body felt like a limp rag with no will to live, love or contribute.

Then a text came from work saying they were short-staffed and needed support.

I felt an impulse to say ‘Yes’, and went in, even though I was feeling weak and lethargic and wasn’t sure if I could get through the day. Yet as the work day progressed it felt like energy was being given to me to do what was needed and I came home feeling tired but not exhausted. The lethargy had vanished and the zest for life had returned. I realised then that what I had done was change my movements so instead of lying around feeling tired, I applied myself to working with purpose.

Lethargy is like a poisonous drink, an energy which is foreign to our system and does not match the quality of our inner being. It’s like putting the wrong fuel in our engine which means it can’t run properly. While we are saying yes to this energy, we will be enticed to withdraw from life and find it hard to get our engines going. We then tend to identify with the lethargy, thinking we are lethargic by nature. Our natural access to realisation and clarity is deadened and we are instead ‘thinked’ by the thoughts that lethargy feeds us – “I’m so tired, I need more sleep, I don’t know how I’ll cope, I can’t be bothered, I’ll do that tomorrow”. . . .

This ‘can’t be bothered energy’ feels different from a natural tiredness, having a drug-like quality that disengages us from the natural joy of just getting things done. It is important to allow the body to deeply rest as a balance to the motion of the day but this is different from being lulled to a constant torpor by the lethargy lullaby.

Our bodies are receivers of energy and they communicate the vibration that is passing through them. Lethargy is like an alien force that thrives if we engage with that energy. As soon as we detach from it, lethargy withers away like a ghost that has been busted. This happens if we move in such a way that the lethargy ghost can no longer feed us – change your posture, stand up feeling your feet on the floor, get up and go outside and breathe some fresh air, go for a walk, talk to someone you know who can offer you a hand to pull you out of the hole.

If you find yourself wanting to withdraw from life, wanting more ‘me’ time or feeling you always want things your way, then you may be infected by this epidemic, this infectious disease of lethargy.

So folks, if this is happening to you, if you don’t feel the joy of getting up in the morning to a new day – take a look at how you are moving, with honesty. Are you locked into a state of being that seems inescapably paralysed, allowing tasks to slip by and is seeking any excuse not to work or avoid the responsibilities of life? Or are you moving along with all of yourself engaged in what needs to be done and in harmony with the rhythm of life?

Are you moving as an insignificant cog in the immense wheel of an indifferent existence, using ‘it doesn’t matter what I do’ as an excuse to avoid the richness of contributing to life and everyone around you?

Or are you willing to take the dive out of the puddle of lethargy into the ocean of an active, contributing, work-filled life? If you do this, you will start to know that you are more than just human, that you have so much to contribute by moving in tandem with God, in joyful response to what is needed – ‘godly you’.

Filed under

Fatigue, Tiredness, Work life balance