These quirky spells usually follow a period of extreme activity. It is a pattern. I work like a crazy woman at something or other for a relatively long time, then I start forgetting to do important things because I'm overwhelmed. I'm pretty sure this is my unconscious mind's way of telling me to slow down... and quickly, please. Which I then do as if I was slamming on the breaks. After that, I find it hard to do just about anything for a while. I become inert.
Here are the things that are way too much for me to do this morning:
- finding a book to read
- peeling boiled eggs
- putting photos in my photo album
- picking up my grandson's toys and putting them away
- vacuuming the living room
- taking my new flip flops out of the box
- moving the cleaned clothes from the washer to the dryer
- figuring out how to change the formatting of this list from bullet points back to normal.
Good to hear from you, Colette. Thank you for giving this experience a name.
ReplyDeleteIt is occurring to me that when I have absolutely no energy to do the most simple of tasks but am not experiencing inertia to the point of completely shutting down and falling asleep, the energy to open my laptop remains (-:
Previous to having a computer at home, I would just lie down and take a nap, if possible. It was extremely frustrating to have an inertia attack while at work. I would fall asleep sitting at my desk as I was transcribing medical reports at a frantic relentless pace! I thought I might have narcolepsy (my mother had narcolepsy) but tested negative. Now I have a name for what has happened so frequently throughout my life. It is an inertia attack!
You've coined something that hadn't been coined before. I googled "inertia attack," but nothing came up. I've had inertia attacks dating back to childhood. They are disconcerting. Perhaps, as you suggested, they appear because we am not conscious of needing to slow down. Body wisdom doing its best to take care of us (-:
Body wisdom! It is odd that being on the computer is exempt. It is the one thing I CAN do.
DeleteI have been so inert lately that I buy boiled peeled eggs. Getting them out of the plastic wrap, though, takes effort.
ReplyDeleteI have 40 years of pictures to put into albums. Mañana!
Ha! I've seen those boiled peeled eggs at the grocery store.
DeleteI was wrong (-:
ReplyDeleteThere are references to inertia attacks on Google. I didn't look closely enough. A tiny inertia attack?
Interesting. I'll go look.
DeleteHey, that's me you are talking about here!
ReplyDeleteSo glad it isn't just me!
DeleteNormal behavior for me, too. I work like the dickens for a while, then have to do nothing as I recover. And who needs to put toys away anyway? You will just be playing with them again tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteYou are so freakin' wise, Chilly.
DeleteSlowing down is good. Time to rest and replenish. Then you'll go through that list in a flash of resilience!
ReplyDeleteIt feels good to surrender every once and a while.
DeleteI say nap. Naps are such delicious things.
ReplyDeleteI'm not someone who naps a lot, but I'm trying to develop this skill in retirement. Good advice.
DeleteI say the above comment while still sitting in my robe and pyjamas. I got up this morning and sat on the couch and haven’t moved. My coffee is cold and I am too inert to go reheat it. Even typing this is expending energy that I don’t have. A nap will be in order today.
ReplyDeleteI forced myself to make something to eat for lunch. It was painful.
DeleteSounds like bona fide inertia to me, and I do recommend a nap. I do approve of them, and indulge often.
ReplyDeleteI really must try to cultivate this habit of napping.
DeleteI know exactly how you feel. Except that I view inertia as my friend. I can sleep when I want, get out of bed when I want, snooze in my chair when I want. You will feel energetic again soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emma.
DeleteUsually the only time I can't do things is when I'm depressed, then everything becomes too difficult. It feels like I'm dragging around a huge weight and my brain doesn't work well either. Not the same I'm guessing:)
ReplyDeleteI feel that way when I am depressed, as well. But I also get this way when I allow myself to get stressed out. Right now I'm feeling pretty good, but I've been extremely busy and overwhelmed by my political work. Our Florida primary is Tuesday. I'll be glad when it is over.
DeleteNaps are good. Naps are necessary.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got lunch going.
I am not a fan of the peeled, boiled eggs. But, I do see the value. ;-)
I'm afraid I am too tight with a dollar to pay the extra money for an already peeled egg.
DeleteThere is that. Once in a blue moon not too bad. But to make a steady diet (even if one could stomach) could get a might out of hand.
DeleteEmma Springfield is ahead of me. An inertia attack is a friend, a cast-iron excuse for doing bugger-all. A glorious invitation - that must not be rejected - to slip into that other version of yourself where passive contemplation leads to a slackening of the muscles and a beguiling descent into worklessness. Inertia is telling you that you've got it all wrong, that you were not dropped on to this earth to pursue "the trivial round the common task" as the hymn puts it; rather to cherish that which makes you unique: your thoughts, your conclusions, your beliefs, your goodness, your badness. Most of all your potential. Picking up your grandchildren's toys will not add a cubit (or even a nano-cubit) to your intellectual stature; in fact it may dull the sharp eye with which you observe your surroundings.
ReplyDeleteRemember Hamlet:
O God, God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed.
Keep on repeating stuff and you'll become no more than the plastic wrapping that once offered a two-for-on deal on hamburgers which were sneakily fashioned from horse.
Ouch!
DeleteI rarely go inert as I tend to be type A. A little inertia is not such a bad thing, is it? Hope tomorrow is a little more productive OR you just embrace a little nothing.
ReplyDeletefound your blog via Shadows and Light.
ReplyDeleteEmbrace the inertia (sounds as if you have). The up/down cycle is normal and natural. I experience it all the time. I have to practice non-judgement of the self in order to embrace inertia, and that in itself is a good practice.