Any Witches Here? Part 15

[speakout]

Or Wiccans. or Pagans? Or anyone who is interested in a magical path or feels some magical stirrings.

A place for support, learning, swapping ideas and magical inspiration.

Good morning everyone!
I just found this thread yesterday, I've been a mumsnetter for a while but I had no idea fellow witches had made it their home too. I was over the moon.
I'm just recently starting the journey, but I feel like its what I've been doing all my life, and I'm discovering what it is I've been doing and what I am. Its very comforting and fulfilling. It feels like coming home.
I'm having a peaceful cup of coffee before everyone else is up and the day starts. The best part of the day x

Welcome Wooly I felt the same when I found these threads! Lovely to have you here.

Me and DFluffyCat have had an exciting morning - she was meant to go in for sedation and to have whatever was stuck in her throat sorted out. Instead the vet saw her and sent us home with cat malt 🤣 I'm very relieved, she just wanted her breakfast and to go out. They do keep us on our toes...

I'm massively behind on work so today's plan is a cuppa, a tarot pull and then a lot of desk work!

Warm welcome Wooly glad you've found us. Grab a cushion by the Aga and have a cuppa, our Magic Teapot pours whatever you'd like.

Do have a browse through our previous threads, there's a list of links at the top of this thread.
They contain the answers to most of our new starting-out sisters' questions and a lot more

Hi Wooly xx I am new too
Hilariousnamehere I hope your furbaby kitty is ok.
We have 3 merlin, mimi and kitten willow, who is a real handful 😄😄 she is a minx lol

Its a lovely day here in West Yorkshire my garden is looking so autumnal now 🥰🍁🧡

I'm new here also.

I'm just so tired, exhausted, what can I do? I have many serious chronic illnesses so I am always exhausted, but I just feel like I need to do something more, which is why im posting on this thread.

I also have chronic illnesses and get the tired and exhausted feeling. I was going to wait until morning to answer, but I woke up after 2 hrs sleep and haven't been able to go back to sleep. It has taken an hour to figure out it is because of pain levels.

I know that everyone's situation is different so there is no right or wrong list. And probably not what you want to hear because there are no simple answers. And this list is definitely NOT complete or comprehensive. just a starting point.

So first mundane before magic.
physical or emotional feeling of tired and exhausted?
how are you sleeping?
are you drinking enough water?
moving enough?
are you getting all the nutrients you required?
is your food highly processed?
are you addressing any stress triggers?
is your physical environment problematic? (eg here there is a lot of building dust and I have a dust allergy)
Is this a side effect of meds you have to take?

There are lots of causes of feeling tired and exhausted. Always mundane before magic. Which is not what we necessarily want to hear, but all the magic in the world is not going to solve a vit D deficiency.

I hope that you can figure out some things that can help.

Warm welcome makelovenotpetrol we're very much into self-care here, grab a beanbag and have a browse through our previous threads.

I agree with Hills Good quality natural food and a sound night's sleep help immensely.
I keep trying to make sure I have one portion a day each of kefir, active sauerkraut or kimchi and miso paste. Mindfulness is a good practise to cultivate, as is meditation, alongside the right kind of exercise for your body, e.g.Pilates is better than yoga for hypermobile joints. Finding what's beneficial to you is indeed an assignment!

Welcome Woolyminded and makelovenotpetrol very glad you have joined us. The great things about our virtual kitchen is that there is always a comfy spot by the fire no matter how many of us are here. The more the merrier! I have a few days off work, and juat as I am about to make my last trip to the post office this week my daughter tells me she is coming today and staying over- no surprise. My instinct always tells me when I need to take time off for "surprise" visits. It will be lovely to spend time with her uninterrupted.
Yoga and a hair cut for me this morning and put something together in the slow cooker for dinner.
Today's moon in cancer will bring harmony to the home and family ties, great for deep connections. Venus and Neptune are square, bringing about a disharmony to our needs and wants. We may make an unwise purchase spending more money than we should on something we don;t really need. Be aware the line between desires and needs is clouded today.
makelovenotpetrol I am sorry to hear you are tired and have ongoing health issues. I agree with the others- mundane before magic. Some techniques can straddle both of course, like meditation to ease the mind, but paying attention to our body's physical needs must be the first thing to tackle.
Molly Roberts - a favoutite youtube witch - made this lovely short video about tiredness, welll worth a watch.

speakout thank you for sharing that Molly Roberts video. Though I am on her patreon and often dip back to her videos, I needed that specific one as I sat with my morning cup of tea.

She actually has a good (Patreon only) talk about taking a break from social media and I think I am at a point where I need to do this. I had a deeply unpleasant exchange on my own personal page over the weekend - where I felt my feet firmly rooted and I stood up for myself - but overall I am finding it a difficult place to be. I need to switch it all off.
I am a Tired Witch indeed, but it is because I have a lot of external demands both personally and for my family. I just want to stay at home by the fire and read and craft and learn. Instead I have a head full of plans and appointments to remember.
I told my friend the other day that I need a holiday but what I really need is a break from responsibility.

Queenrollo a break from responsibility sounds like bliss. I've realised over the years that the main trigger for my exhaustion and anxiety is feeling pulled in too many directions. Sometimes having one too many tiny but necessary things to do makes me fantasise about being a hermit in a little woodland hut. I hope we all get to be peaceful, quiet hermits at some point this week x

@HillsBesideTheSea

I also have chronic illnesses and get the tired and exhausted feeling. I was going to wait until morning to answer, but I woke up after 2 hrs sleep and haven't been able to go back to sleep. It has taken an hour to figure out it is because of pain levels.

I know that everyone's situation is different so there is no right or wrong list. And probably not what you want to hear because there are no simple answers. And this list is definitely NOT complete or comprehensive. just a starting point.

So first mundane before magic.
physical or emotional feeling of tired and exhausted?
how are you sleeping?
are you drinking enough water?
moving enough?
are you getting all the nutrients you required?
is your food highly processed?
are you addressing any stress triggers?
is your physical environment problematic? (eg here there is a lot of building dust and I have a dust allergy)
Is this a side effect of meds you have to take?

There are lots of causes of feeling tired and exhausted. Always mundane before magic. Which is not what we necessarily want to hear, but all the magic in the world is not going to solve a vit D deficiency.

I hope that you can figure out some things that can help.

Thanks all for your advice.

I think you've got it here - it's emotionally exhausted that I'm struggling with, not the physical so much. Well I am struggling with the physical but I always do. I try to do the mundane things like you say but I think what drove me to post here was it's emotionally and spiritually exhausted and I don't know what to do about that!

this article by thorn moony has some interesting points for spiritual regeneration which i actually thing may be applied to more than the pagan path. But as a former theology student she is good at the bigger picture stuff.

i think if we a struggling with the physical there is always an emotional drain, throw in the emotional drain of a pandemic, being the family brain etc etc. it is hard to not be emotionally drained. But what works for me won't necessarily work for you. by all means take a 10 mile hike up a hill with a picnic and find peace in the wind. but if you cant do 10 miles or very uneven ground it is not going to be the solution. The what is causing the drain is usually the first step. but also often the hardest.

there are no quick fixes or easy solutions. although going to be honest a lottery win would be rather nice right now. would fix a few things.

I think sometimes it's hard to know which plates to stop spinning. There are demands on me which I cannot abdicate, but they are not demands that are for me (i hope that makes sense). This means that when I look at my life and which plates I can stop spinning they are, unfortunately, often my personal activities.
So I prioritise which of my things I am simply not willing to drop - but I have to let other stuff go in the short term to enable me to get through.
It's a fine balance always between filling my own cup so I can be the family brain (a great phrase thank you HillsBesideTheSea ) but finding ways to do that which don't place too many demands on me.
The yoga has gone the last few weeks - for various reasons fitting it in creates more stress. But I am having more baths instead. Lighting candles and listening to a meditation or Solfeggio frequency while it warms me through.

@HillsBesideTheSea thank you I will have a read of this later on.

@queenrollo I think this is it - the things that I'm not doing at present are the things that I did do for myself. I find myself too physically and emotionally exhausted by the end of a day, that in the evening which is the time I do my me things, crafting, music, learning about this path etc... I've fallen asleep before I can do any of them. So that's missing in my life currently which I feel isn't ok but if I'm not awake...I can't do them. If that makes sense!!

makelovenotpetrol Yes that makes perfect sense. Every day I think to myself that I will spend an hour of my evening on a creative project or reading a book - and then by the time I have actually done evening meal for everyone and got my youngest settled in bed I have no motivation and am just exhausted. So I fall into bed, and once again have done nothing for 'me'.
My DH is very hands on, so it's not all left to me (we alternate days putting DS to bed) but he also has a chronic illness so by the time he's done a day's work he's out of 'spoons' too.
I think this time of year and the season shift is particularly difficult.

@queenrollo

makelovenotpetrol Yes that makes perfect sense. Every day I think to myself that I will spend an hour of my evening on a creative project or reading a book - and then by the time I have actually done evening meal for everyone and got my youngest settled in bed I have no motivation and am just exhausted. So I fall into bed, and once again have done nothing for 'me'. My DH is very hands on, so it's not all left to me (we alternate days putting DS to bed) but he also has a chronic illness so by the time he's done a day's work he's out of 'spoons' too. I think this time of year and the season shift is particularly difficult.

Yes I am exactly the same

And it's not like I can choose to stay awake and so something , but be tired whilst doing it.

Some of the medication I have to take has a sedative effect and when I'm tired anyway I literally have no ability to just stay awake for a bit and do something, I'm just asleep.

There are demands on me which I cannot abdicate, but they are not demands that are for me (i hope that makes sense). This means that when I look at my life and which plates I can stop spinning they are, unfortunately, often my personal activities.
So I prioritise which of my things I am simply not willing to drop - but I have to let other stuff go in the short term to enable me to get through.

queenrollo you have just articulated perfectly what I've been struggling with all year - thank you! In my case at least some of those demands I chose, but it is always my own rest, relaxation and the business that is mine alone which get pushed to the bottom of the pile because they're the only things I have full control over and can pause or scale back, even if I don't especially want to.

Thank you for a moment of startling clarity on a Tuesday lunchtime! I am off to ponder this a bit more with my journal...

@hilariousnamehere

*There are demands on me which I cannot abdicate, but they are not demands that are for me (i hope that makes sense). This means that when I look at my life and which plates I can stop spinning they are, unfortunately, often my personal activities. So I prioritise which of my things I am simply not willing to drop - but I have to let other stuff go in the short term to enable me to get through.*

queenrollo you have just articulated perfectly what I've been struggling with all year - thank you! In my case at least some of those demands I chose, but it is always my own rest, relaxation and the business that is mine alone which get pushed to the bottom of the pile because they're the only things I have full control over and can pause or scale back, even if I don't especially want to.

Thank you for a moment of startling clarity on a Tuesday lunchtime! I am off to ponder this a bit more with my journal...

Yes this is how I feel.

I'm glad I chose this moment to post how I felt here as I found people feeling seeminly the same as me at this point to help me understand

Has anyone any good links for pages I could add to my list of reading about Wicca, Paganism, spirituality etc. Anything interesting really? I do read a lot but I always like suggestion? Reading seems doable as I can just read until I fall asleep.

Sending hugs to all, some fab advice and exactly how I feel, I also have chronic conditions fibro,OA and am suspected endometriosis. Got laposcropy on 7th Dec
I've been trying distraction techniques etc one of my fave is in the garden or my plant babies, reading etc, furbbabies, xxx

Going to be honest i have either physical books or youtube. So i am probably no help to you. I carved time to be still and vegatate today. I needed to be doing ALLLLL the things. But my body said nope. you rest.
Mostly i have been stubborn about pain killers and should probably just take a dose so i can function, and sleep tonight.

@queenrollo

makelovenotpetrol Yes that makes perfect sense. Every day I think to myself that I will spend an hour of my evening on a creative project or reading a book - and then by the time I have actually done evening meal for everyone and got my youngest settled in bed I have no motivation and am just exhausted. So I fall into bed, and once again have done nothing for 'me'. My DH is very hands on, so it's not all left to me (we alternate days putting DS to bed) but he also has a chronic illness so by the time he's done a day's work he's out of 'spoons' too. I think this time of year and the season shift is particularly difficult.

This is exactly me My youngest has autism also so I'm just so drained and have no motivation for me at all xx

queenrollo Makes perfect sense.

I feel like that too.
I have some demands that I cannot put down, can't ignore or walk away, but when we are overburdened it is far too easy to put down the plates that relate to keeping our own cup full.
A very fine balancing act isn't it.
As much as that yoga class or walk in the woods may fill our cup, when we have limited energy and time is squeezed then doing these things can feel as if they are adding to the load.
We have to be objective about how we can nurture ourselves so we are better able to deal with all that other "stuff".
queenrollo I am usually whacked in the evening, so I make sure that I pack in the self nurture at the beginning of the day- that helps be prioritise that stuff.
I attend 4 or 5 yoga classes a week, but always in the morning- I know stuff will slip during the day if left until later. Same with Tarot work, skin care meditation, I build all that into my morning routine, and it usually always happens. I know if I left it until later the day will overtake and by evening I will be spent.
Some things I just cut out entirely. Meals have been stripped back to basic nutritious food, except when I am inspired and have the energy.
I rarely wash my car and I never iron, housework is a minimum, these things empty my cup, never fill them.
I also don't get involved in DIY stuff, adding burdens like decorating can send me into a tail spin- trying to keep everything runnig and paint is a step too far! I don't mind the house being a little scruffy around the edges as long as it is clean.
Clearing out stuff fill my cup, having few posessions keeps my house tidy and minimises effort.
Too much coffee or alcohol doesn't work for me, as do long periods of inactivity. Spending a day in bed or binge watching movies all day would drain my energy and leave me feeling sluggish.
I work best when my circulation is primed up and my body is given time to move and refresh itself. Movement drains my anxiety- much like a dog!
I guess we are all different in what drains or fills our cups, I fantasise about living alone- I have actually considerd moving out and getting my own little place leaving everyone just to get on with it!

I have a tangent question. Anyone got any idea why the area why the third eye would be has been tingling at random intervals of late?

oh lordy look at that terrible sentance construction.
try that again.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the area where my third eye would be on my forehead be tingling at random intervals recently?