Rest, Release, and the Return of Peace

I came across something recently that caught me at the right moment. It read:

“The real reason you're tired all the time: It's not your workload. It's your open loops. The text you haven't answered. The apology you owe. The decision you're avoiding. The conversation you keep postponing. These run in the background of your mind all day, draining your battery. Close your loops. Watch your energy return. Mental clutter is more exhausting than physical work ever will be.”

I didn't argue with it. I could feel the truth in it before I finished reading.

The Cost of Open Loops

Most of us talk about being busy. The long days, competing demands, and schedules. Those are real. But a lot of the exhaustion people feel today comes from something quieter: the things we avoid.

Think of your mind like a phone or a computer. When you leave too many apps running in the background or have dozens of browser tabs open, what happens? The system slows down, the battery drains fast. These unresolved tasks like the overdue conversation, the decision sitting on the back burner, the boundary we haven't enforced, are our mental "open apps." They are background processes, constantly consuming energy.

They don't drain us dramatically; it's a slow leak. A day off or a vacation doesn't solve this kind of tired because the mind is still pacing, still running those demanding background programs.

Endurance Leads to Depletion

For years, I thought being strong meant holding everything together. I believed my job was to absorb pressure and carry responsibility quietly. I told myself I could handle it. I thought endurance was the goal. Eventually, endurance turns into depletion, a slow disappearance of energy, joy, and clarity. I just assumed this was what being responsible felt like. Then I realized I wasn't tired from work. I was tired from what I was refusing to confront.

At that point in my life, my faith shifted from something I believed to something I practiced. I finally understood that I was not required to hold everything alone. I was not the source of my own strength. I began to see that I was not the one holding the world up, or the answer to every problem.

Before that, my life was built on effort and control. After placing my faith in Him, I learned how to release things instead of gripping them tighter. The peace didn't show up all at once; it arrived slowly, and it arrived through honesty.

Closing the Loops and Releasing the Weight

Here is the part that requires honesty today: Avoidance always has a cost.

The question is not whether you are strong enough to keep carrying everything. The question is whether carrying it is helping you, or slowly draining you.

Closing a loop doesn't require a life overhaul. It looks very ordinary:

• You schedule the conversation instead of thinking about scheduling it.

• You make the decision based on what you already know.

• You apologize without trying to control the outcome.

• You say no, clearly and without a long explanation.

• You ask for help before resentment builds.

• You hand God the part that is too heavy to keep.

You only need to identify one thing that has been quietly weighing you down, and act on it. One loop closed. One thing no longer consuming resources in the background. That changes momentum.

If you are tired in a way that sleep is not solving, here is the question that can locate the real source:

What is the one thing I already know I need to address, but have not addressed yet?

Close one loop. Just to begin releasing the weight that was never meant to be carried alone.

That is where peace begins to return. One loop at a time.