Are Emotions Exhausting?

Posted on September 21, 2026 Updated on September 20, 2026

You’re darn right they are!

I recently attended a Zoom common interest group of sorts wherein during an exercise to improve communication skills, each of us were charged with asking a question of someone else in the group in response to something they had said. One of the attendees told the group that she had been struggling with being tired and without energy, but with no medical diagnosis to explain that exhaustion.

I asked her the following: Do you feel that it’s your emotions that are draining your energy or is it a physical exertion cause and effect? The moderator of the group asserted that my question to the other attendee might have come across as judgmental.

I clarified that I asked that question because of my very intimate understanding of how emotions can drain the life out of a person. Fortunately, the woman to whom I had asked that question replied that she didn’t feel the question I posed was at all judgmental and that she fully understood the intent.

You see, emotions are absolutely tied in with the physical body. If I am feeling joyful, fulfilled, and on top of the world, so too does my physical body. The opposite is also true so that if I am stressed, fearful, or sad, my body reflects that emotional status big time.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a highly empathic person. I know that along with that sensitivity of mine also comes a heightened sense of worry, with resulting physical deficits. I am working on curtailing that outcome so that my own well-being isn’t adversely affected as a result. I guess the bottom line is that each of us needs to find the right balance of how we attend to others and attend to ourselves. At seventy-three years of age, I am still learning how to function as best as possible in this world in which I live so that when I show compassion towards others, I am not holding back compassion from myself. It takes a bit of practice, to be sure,