🌿Your Body Has Been Screaming and You Haven’t Been Listening

A Faith-Rooted Guide to Healing 'Physical Exhaustion'

Tina Coleman | Joy God's Way®

Jul 23, 2026

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✨The 7 Faces of Exhaustion Summer Series, Part 2 of 8✨

Before we get started, I want to remind you ‘in love’ that:

“You were never meant to run your body into the ground and call it faithfulness.

Here’s how to stop treating yourself like a machine and start treating yourself like a temple.”❤️

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I Wore My Exhaustion Like a Badge of Honor

I used to brag about how little sleep I got.

Not out loud, of course. Good Christian women don’t brag. But there was a quiet pride in it.

Four hours of sleep? Five if I was lucky? I’d mention it casually, almost like a testimony. “I was up at 6:00 this morning getting things done.”

Translation:

“Look how hard I work.”

“Look how dedicated I am.”

“Look how much I can handle.”

I was working full-time. Serving at church. Taking classes to complete my degree. Cooking. Cleaning. Running errands for other people. Volunteering for things I didn’t have time for.

Saying yes to every request because no felt like a four-letter word. I was single so all I had was time. So I thought.

And my body? My body was just supposed to keep up.

It didn’t.

Staying awake long after midnight with so much on my mind. The headaches came first. Then the back pain. At the time, I thought those were just hormonal concerns.

Then the jaw clenching I didn’t realize I was doing until my dentist asked if I was under stress? Turns out I was grinding my teeth while I slept. I laughed. Under stress? I was buried beneath it.

I started needing coffee just to function. Not enjoy, function. Then it turned to several glasses of caffienated sodas before noon. I’d chasee that with an energy drink by 3 PM because the crash hit like a wall.

My eyes burned by evening.

My legs ached from standing, sitting, walking, existing.

I’d fall asleep on the couch fully dressed, too tired to walk to bed, and wake up at 3 AM with my neck twisted and my back screaming. I would then have to do my best to fall back to sleep for a couple of hours.

And when the alarm clock buzzed… I’d did it all over again.

I ignored every signal my body sent me. The fatigue. The brain fog. The inability to remember words mid-sentence. The way I’d stand up too fast and the room would tilt. Then the palpitations that raced through my heart trying to tell me to ‘slow down.’

I told myself it was just a busy season.

Just a hard week.

Just what life looks like when you’re a woman who gets things done.

But it wasn’t a season. It was a lifestyle.

A lifestyle that I was so caught up in that when I had finally taken a vacation, after working for 20 years without one, I was ill the entire two week ‘vacation.’

And my body was paying the bill I refused to look at.

That wasn’t dedication. That was physical exhaustion masquerading as productivity.

Our Joy Doesn't Wait For Rest

Tina Coleman | Joy God's Way®

Jun 18

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When Your Feelings Tell You Otherwise…

“Everybody’s tired. You’re not special.”

“You can rest when the work is done.”

“Your coworker is raising six kids with no help and never complains. What’s your excuse?”

“If you slow down, everything falls apart. You can’t afford to be tired.”

These are the whispers. And every single one of them is a lie.

Physical exhaustion isn’t a badge of honor. It’s not proof of your work ethic or your faithfulness. It’s your body, the only one God gave you, telling you that the pace you’re keeping is not the pace you were designed for.

And the shame you feel about being tired?

That’s not godly conviction. That’s a culture that has confused collapse with commitment.

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This Is What’s Really Happening Inside You

Physical exhaustion is not laziness. It’s not a lack of discipline. It’s not a spiritual weakness. It’s the measurable, biological consequence of a body that has been pushed beyond its capacity for recovery for far too long.

Dr. Matthew Walker, neuroscientist, professor at UC Berkeley, and author of “Why We Sleep,” has spent decades researching what happens to the human body when it doesn’t get adequate rest.

His findings are staggering: chronic sleep deprivation compromises your immune system, increases inflammation, accelerates aging, impairs memory and decision-making, and dramatically elevates your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and depression.

He describes sleep not as a luxury, but as the single most effective thing you can do for your brain and body. When you shortchange it, you’re not being disciplined. You’re borrowing from a bank that always collects.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, psychiatrist, trauma researcher, and author of “The Body Keeps the Score,” reveals something that changes everything for the physically exhausted woman: your body stores what your mind refuses to process.

Unresolved stress, ungrieved losses, chronic emotional pressure, they don’t just live in your thoughts. They live in your muscles, your gut, your nervous system.

That back pain that won’t go away?

That tension you carry in your shoulders?

That exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix?

Your body is holding a conversation your mouth has been too busy to have.

Dr. Caroline Leaf, cognitive neuroscientist and bestselling author of “Switch On Your Brain,” bridges the gap between science and faith in a way that speaks directly to this struggle.

Her research demonstrates that toxic thought patterns:

the constant worry,
the relentless self-criticism,
the need to control everything.

These patterns create measurable physical stress responses in the body. Your thoughts aren’t just spiritual. They’re biological. And when those thoughts are running unchecked, your body pays the physical price.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine physician and author of “Sacred Rest,” makes a distinction that most people miss: physical rest has two components, passive and active.

Passive physical rest is sleep.

Active physical rest is stretching, massage, yoga, movement that restores rather than depletes.

Most exhausted women think they just need more sleep. What they actually need is a body that knows how to receive restoration while it’s awake, too.

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What Physical Exhaustion Looks Like in Your Life…

You wake up tired no matter how many hours you slept.
Your body aches in places you can’t explain.
Your neck, your back, your joints. And no amount of stretching makes it stop.
You rely on caffeine not for enjoyment but for survival, and even that has stopped working.
You get sick more often than you used to. Every cold that passes through the house finds you first.
You forget words mid-sentence. You walk into rooms and can’t remember why you’re there.
You’ve gained or lost weight without trying, because your body is running on stress hormones instead of real fuel.
You push through the fatigue because stopping feels irresponsible, and then you crash… hard on the one day you finally have nothing scheduled.
You can’t remember the last time your body felt genuinely rested. Not just “not busy.” Rested.

Elijah knew this place.

In 1 Kings 19, after one of the most spectacular displays of God’s power on Mount Carmel, Elijah collapsed. He ran into the wilderness, sat down under a tree, and told God he was done. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life” (1 Kings 19:4).

And God’s response?

He didn’t rebuke Elijah.

He didn’t lecture him about faith.

He didn’t hand him a to-do list.

God sent an angel with bread and water. Twice. And then He let Elijah sleep.

God’s first response to a physically exhausted prophet was food and rest. Not a sermon. Not a correction. Sustenance.

Because God designed the body, and He knows what it needs before we’re willing to admit it.

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What God Says When Your Body Has Nothing Left

The Permission to Stop:

“In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.”

— Psalm 127:2

Read that again.

God grants sleep to those He loves. Sleep isn’t a concession for the weak. It’s a gift for the beloved. Every night you push past exhaustion because there’s “just one more thing,” you’re refusing a gift God is trying to hand you.

He’s not impressed by your 4 AM alarm. He’s grieved that you won’t receive what He’s offering.

The Permission to Honor the Temple:

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

— 1 Corinthians 6:19–20

We quote this verse about what we put into our bodies, but we rarely apply it to what we demand from them. Honor God with your body.

Not by grinding it into dust.

Not by ignoring its signals.

Not by treating it like a machine that owes you unlimited output.

Honoring this temple means listening when it says, “I need to stop.” It means feeding it well, resting it well, and moving it gently. Not punishing it for being human.

The Permission to Come Away:

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’”

— Mark 6:31

This is Jesus talking to His disciples after they’d been working non-stop. People were coming from everywhere. The need was enormous. The demand was relentless. And in the middle of all that urgency, Jesus didn’t say, “Push through.” He said, “Come away.”

Come away.

Not after the work is done.

Not when you’ve earned it.

Now.

In the middle of the demand. In the middle of the need. Come away and rest.

If Jesus interrupted active ministry to prioritize rest, what makes you think your to-do list is more important than His invitation?

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Five Steps Back to Breathing Again

This isn’t a “5 Steps to Fix Yourself” list. This is an invitation to begin. Pick one. Just one. That’s your assignment today.

🌿Step 1: Stop Glorifying the Grind

The first step isn’t physical. It’s mental. You have to stop seeing exhaustion as evidence of your value. Busyness is not a fruit of the Spirit. Productivity is not a love language God speaks.

As long as you believe your worth is tied to your output, you will never give your body permission to rest. The grind is not your identity. It’s your captor.

Try this: The next time someone asks how you’re doing and you’re about to say “busy,” stop. Replace it with the truth. “I’m tired.” “I’m running on empty.” “I’m learning to slow down.”

Watch how differently the conversation goes when you stop performing productivity.

🌿Step 2: Reclaim Your Sleep as Holy Ground

Sleep is not wasted time. It is the most restorative act your body performs, and God designed it that way.

Your brain processes trauma, consolidates memory, and repairs cellular damage while you sleep. When you rob yourself of sleep, you’re not being efficient. You’re sabotaging the restoration God built into your biology.

Try this:

Tonight, set a “wind down” alarm 30 minutes before you want to be asleep.

When it goes off, put your phone in another room.

No screens. No scrolling. No “just one more thing.”

Let your body remember what it feels like to be still before it sleeps. Do this for seven nights and notice what shifts.

🌿Step 3: Listen to What Your Body Is Telling You

Your body has been sending you messages you’ve been deleting without reading.

The headaches.
The tension.
The stomach problems.
The fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix.

These aren’t inconveniences. They’re data. Your body is the most honest friend you have, and it’s been trying to get your attention for months. Maybe years. Stop ignoring it.

Try this:

Do a body scan right now. Close your eyes. Start at the top of your head. Move slowly down: jaw, neck, shoulders, chest, stomach, hips, legs, feet.

Where are you holding tension?
Where does it hurt?
Write it down.

Then ask yourself: “How long have I been ignoring this?”

That’s your body telling you where the debt is highest.

🌿Step 4: Move to Restore, Not to Punish

When physically exhausted women finally decide to “do something about it,” they often swing to the opposite extreme… intense workouts, rigid fitness plans, punishment-based exercise.

That’s not restoration. That’s another demand on a body that’s already overdrawn. What your body needs right now is gentle, restorative movement. Walking. Stretching. Breathing.

Movement that says “I’m caring for you,” not “I’m fixing you.”

Try this:

Take a 10-minute walk this week with no destination, no podcast, no phone call. Just walk. Feel your feet on the ground. Breathe. Let your body move at its own pace without being productive.

This is not exercise. This is communion between you and the body God gave you.

🌿Step 5: Let God Feed You Before the Wilderness Does

This is the Elijah step. God didn’t wait for Elijah to fix himself. He sent sustenance before the next journey. He knew what was ahead, and He made sure Elijah was nourished for it.

God wants to do the same for you. but you have to stop running long enough to let the angel catch up.

Try this:

Tonight, before you sleep, pray this:

“God, I’ve been treating this body like a machine instead of a temple.

I’ve ignored its signals, pushed past its limits, and called it strength when it was really stubbornness.

Forgive me.

Teach me to honor the home You’ve given my spirit.

Show me what rest looks like in my real life, not someday, but tomorrow. I receive the gift of sleep tonight as an act of worship. Amen.”🙏🏼

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A Prayer for the Woman Whose Body

Is Waving the White Flag

Father,

I’m tired. Not the kind of tired a good night’s sleep will fix. The kind of tired that has settled into my bones, my muscles, my cells. The kind that makes me feel ten years older than I am.

I confess that I’ve abused this body You gave me. Not with recklessness, but with relentlessness. I’ve pushed when You said rest. I’ve worked when You said come away. I’ve treated sleep like a luxury and exhaustion like a resumé line.

Forgive me for glorifying the grind when You designed me for a rhythm. You created evening and morning, work and sabbath, sowing and harvest. And I’ve been trying to live in perpetual noon… always producing, always performing, never setting.

Tonight, I receive Your gift of rest. Not because I’ve earned it, but because You love me. You grant sleep to those You love, and I am loved.

Heal what my pace has broken. Restore what my stubbornness has depleted. Teach my body to trust again that it’s safe to stop.

Like Elijah under the broom tree, I’m telling You I’ve had enough. And I trust that Your response is not rebuke but bread, water, and the holy permission to close my eyes.

In Jesus’ name, Amen. 🙏🏼

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An Invitation

If you read this and felt your body exhale and if something in you whispered, “Finally, someone said it”, then I want you to know: you are not lazy for being tired.

You are not failing because your body is failing.

You are a woman who has given and given and given until her body started sending invoices she couldn’t ignore anymore.

And God sees every single one.

Will you do one thing for me? Hit reply or leave a comment and tell me: “What’s one signal your body has been sending that you’ve been ignoring?

You don’t have to share everything. Even just saying “my body has been trying to tell me something” is enough.

Our Joy Doesn't Wait For Rest

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