The Flourishing Note™

Hi Reader,

I got home from Branson, Missouri Sunday evening, and I have been sitting with a particular feeling ever since.

My family reunites every two years. And every time, I come home the same way. Tired in my body, full in my spirit. Not recovered, not rested in the traditional sense. But fed in a way that only happens when you have spent days with people who have known you your whole life, who call you by your childhood name, who laugh at the same things you laugh at and remember the same people you remember. That kind of time costs something. It also gives something back that nothing else can replicate.

I have been thinking about that tradeoff a lot lately, because I experienced a version of it just a week earlier, in a completely different room.

Inspired in Practice

On June 18, I led a workshop called Leading From the Inside Out: Strengthening Mindset, Boundaries and Self-Trust for an ERG that had built something beautiful before I ever arrived. White roses on black tablecloths. Quote cards in wooden stands. Tote bags at every seat. I walked in carrying my workbooks and slide deck and twenty-five years of experience, and I gave that room everything I brought with me.

When it was over, I sat in my car and held the quiet for a minute.

I was drained. And I felt good. Not despite each other. Because of each other.

That is the feeling I have been trying to name more precisely lately, because I think a lot of us misread it. We feel the tired and we call it a sign that something went wrong, that we overextended, that we need to scale back. But there are two very different kinds of tired, and only one of them is a warning.

Tired-depleted feels hollow. You gave from a place that was already low, and now there is less of you than there was before. That kind of tired is information. It is telling you something needs to change.

Tired-full feels different. It settles in after you have given fully from a place that was actually ready. The work cost something because it was worth something. You did not hold back, and the not holding back is exactly why you feel the way you do. That kind of tired is not a warning. It is confirmation.

The family reunion tired and the workshop tired were the same kind. I came home from both of them spent and satisfied in equal measure.

I wrote about what that workshop taught me about holding two callings at once in the latest post on Flourishing Fiercely. If you have been following the Living in the And series, this is Part 2, and it is the one where the and finally gets to show what it can do. You can read it here.

Reflections

When you feel tired right now, which kind is it?

The question I want to leave you with: Is the tired you are carrying a sign that something is wrong, or a sign that something real happened?

Those are not the same question. And the answer changes everything about what you do next.

This Issue's Focus

I keep returning to the Focus Journal for a reason.

So much of what I described above, knowing which kind of tired you are in, staying grounded when life is full and the calendar is crowded, comes down to the ability to pause long enough to actually hear yourself. That is what this journal is designed to support.

It is a 14-day guided journaling experience for the seasons when everything is moving and you need a way to stay rooted in what matters. Fifteen to twenty-five minutes a day. A simple framework you can return to whenever you need to find your center again.

If that is the season you are in, it is $17 and you can find it here.

More soon on what is coming in July. I think you are going to want to be here for it.

With you on the journey,

Jennifer

Keep flourishing fiercely.