Save Yourself
I know you're tired. Get moving.
This song is called “Save Yourself.” I wrote it this weekend.
Life feels tiring these days. The world is burning down in real time while we all watch and worry, powerless to change it.
Meanwhile, the more immediate demands of daily life haven’t disappeared. Work, childcare, friendships, family, health.
Then there’s the intangible desire to actually be living your life. To make meaning, or connections, or art.
It’s easy to let that fall by the wayside when you feel you can barely drag yourself through the days, full as they are.
I keep telling myself the story that I can’t pull it all off. That I’m overwhelmed and can just about make it through the days, but no more.
The seductive power of “I can’t.”
This story is seductive because of course it is.
Who can blame you if you’re so exhausted you just want to lie on the couch under a blanket instead of doing your workout? If you want to stay cocooned in the house instead of seeing your friends? If you want to stay cocooned in general, when you have the opportunity to rest?
The trouble is, the cocoon begins to suffocate pretty quick.
Telling yourself you’re powerless and sad is a great way to make yourself powerless and sad.
And the more you feel that way, the less likely you’ll be to do the things you “would do if you had time.”
It’s a dangerous cycle. I’m trying to pull myself out of it right now.
You deserve to rest when you’re exhausted. But that’s not all the time.
To be clear, I’m not advocating for doing more than a sane person can reasonably do.
Life really is pretty exhausting at the moment, and when we are exhausted it’s a good idea to lay down our burdens and, well, lay down.
In my own experience, though, I usually have massive reserves of untapped strength and vitality hiding behind the stories I tell myself about how bad things are or how tired I am.
When I decide to act instead of remaining passive and scared — when I decide to save myself — I usually discover I’m fully capable of doing so.
Right now I’m writing this, and reworking the song attached to this post, instead of doing a workout I’ve put off for two days.
Which is not perfectly ideal, but at least I’m doing something. I’m creating. I’m working through what’s inside me and trying to turn it into something outside of me, to communicate it to myself and others.
When you don’t know which way to go, just move.
Soon, I will bite the bullet and get under a barbell, hangover be damned.
Do I want to? Of course not. It’s leg day. I’m tired. The taxes need doing. The house is a mess. I have a lot of work ahead of me at my job this week.
I’d rather hide in a book or a movie, or just go back to bed.
Except that doing those things will move me further from where I want to be, not closer.
Facing the dragon, even when it seems enormous and deadly, is always better than hiding from it.
So for now, I’ll leave you with this (slightly aggressive) song, and the hope that taking action feels possible and helpful to you.
The powers that be are not coming to save you, because they are working for themselves. But you can save yourself.
Save Yourself
Save yourself.
Yeah save yourself.
Yeah yeah, you should save yourself.
Don’t chase, don’t wait, just save yourself.
Nobody’s coming
To fix it for you.
So you better find a way
To make it through.
You are not going to feel
What you’ve always felt.
So you should get there
And save yourself.
Save yourself,
Yeah save yourself.
Save yourself,
Yeah save yourself.
Save yourself,
Yeah save yourself.
Just save yourself,
You gotta save yourself.
If you can
If you will
If you want,
Save yourself.
So save yourself,
Yeah save yourself,
Just save yourself.
Save yourself,
Just save yourself.
Just save yourself.
Save yourself.
Just save yourself.
You won’t know
Who this is.
It’s probably not who you wish.
Look up,
Look down,
And then give him a little kiss.
Your eyes,
Your heart,
They’ll be moving way too fast.
But once
You go
There isn’t any going back.
There isn’t any going back.
There isn’t any going back.
There isn’t any going back.
So save yourself.
Save yourself,
Yeah save yourself.
Save yourself.
Yeah save yourself.
Save yourself
Yeah save yourself.
Save yourself
Yeah save yourself.
Save yourself
Yeah save yourself.