THE KIND OF TIRED ONLY SINGLE MOMS TRULY KNOW

There's a kind of tired that only single moms truly understand.

It is the kind that settles deep in your bones. The kind that comes from carrying every responsibility, every decision, every what-if on your own.

Your body is ready to give in. Your eyes are heavy. Your shoulders ache. You want to sink into the quiet and stay there for a while. But your mind will not let you. It keeps running through the day you just had. And it's already planning the one that's coming.

I know this tired well.

I used to fight it. I would get up and fold laundry, clean something, finish work I had brought home, convincing myself it might make me feel better.

But it never did.

I would lie there, frustrated, wondering why I couldn't just switch off.

But what finally helped me was not a trick or a routine. It was giving myself permission to stop trying so hard to rest. I began making space for rest to find me.

I started sending my body messages. That nothing more was needed from me right now. That it was safe to loosen my grip. That I did not have to earn the right to be still.

Some days, I just sit in the quiet for five minutes.

No phone. No music. No background noise. I am not meditating. I am not counting breaths. I am simply letting myself be a person who is not doing anything for anyone else in that moment.

At first, my mind still raced. But slowly, something softened. Not perfectly. Not completely. But enough. Enough to slow down the loud buzzing in my head.

It reminded me that rest is not always instant. Sometimes it needs room and space to settle.

Now, when I'm tired but my thoughts are doing 1000 miles an hour, I don't force stillness, but I prepare for it. Because I know it'll come.

So if you're lying there tonight, completely shattered but simply can't turn off your mind, I want you to know this.

You are allowed to pause. You are allowed to stop reaching for the next thing on your list.

You do not have to prove anything. You don't have to be caught up on everything before you deserve to rest.

Sometimes rest will arrive in small, quiet moments.

And those moments can be enough to help you get through the day.

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