What I Do on Days I’m Too Tired to Meditate

...and why scribbling saved my sanity.

Some days, I just can’t do it.
The stillness. The breathwork. The calm voice asking me to “let go.”

Not because I don’t want to feel better,
but because I’m already mentally done.
Emails, calls, decisions… and now even rest feels like one more thing to manage.

So I stop trying to be calm.
And I pick up a pen.

I don’t light a candle. I don’t set the mood.

I just draw… badly.

Scribbles. Loops. A page full of circles.
Sometimes it’s on a notebook. Sometimes a receipt.
One time, it was the back of a courier box.

It doesn’t look like rest.
But for those few minutes, my brain stops checking things.
The noise slows down.
Not because I forced stillness, but because I moved differently.

It’s not art. It’s a way out of overwhelm.

There’s no pressure to be creative.
No “finish line.” No app pinging with streaks or stats.

Just motion.
Something simple my brain can settle into, without needing instructions.

If you’re too tired to meditate...

Try this instead:

-Grab anything - a pen, a pencil, even a crayon

-Pick one word from your day: “rush,” “chai,” “zoom calls”

-Doodle whatever comes to mind

-Don’t fix it. Don’t finish it. Just move your hand

That’s it.
No judgment.
No perfect outcome.
Just a few quiet minutes of doing something that’s yours.

You don’t have to meditate to feel calm.

You don’t need an app.
Or the perfect playlist.
You just need a pause that doesn’t ask anything of you.

For me, that pause came through scribbles.
Not because they’re beautiful,
but because they remind me that calm doesn’t always look quiet.

Sometimes it looks like a page of loops.

And that’s enough.