You Are Not Broken
Why You Feel Tired, Anxious, and Unmotivated in Modern Life
Kendall Toerner
Published: February 19, 2026
If you feel tired all the timeâŚ
Wired but exhaustedâŚ
Anxious without a clear reasonâŚ
Unmotivated even when you âshouldnâtâ beâŚ
You are not broken, and you are not weak.
You are responding normally to an abnormal environment.
The Mistake Most People Make
When energy drops or sleep worsens, the instinct is to blame yourself.
Not disciplined enough. Not optimized enough. Not productive enough.
So you try harder.
More supplements. More tracking. More hacks. More willpower.
But biology doesnât respond to effort. It responds to input.
Your Body Is an Adaptive System
Your nervous system constantly reads signals from the environment:
- Light
- Darkness
- Temperature
- Movement
- Timing
- Social stress
For most of human history, those signals were strong, natural, and predictable. Now theyâre fragmented and artificial. Your body hasnât changed. The signals have.
Why You Feel Tired All the Time
Energy isnât just about calories or sleep duration.
Itâs about whether your system knows:
What time it is. What season it is. Whether it should be alert or repairing.
Artificial light late at night, dim indoor days, irregular sleep timing, constant screen exposure â these distort the signals your brain uses to regulate energy.
The result? Fatigue that feels personal. But isnât.
Why Anxiety and Low Motivation Increase
When environmental signals are inconsistent, your nervous system shifts into uncertainty.
Not the empowering kind. The stress kind.
Your system stays slightly overstimulated. Recovery becomes shallow. Mood regulation weakens.
It doesnât mean something is âwrongâ with you. It means your inputs are chaotic.
The Reframe
Instead of asking:
âWhatâs wrong with me?â
Ask:
âWhat signals am I living inside?â
Because once signals change, the system adapts.
Thatâs what it was designed to do.
This Is the Beginning
Modern health advice often focuses on fixing the person.
But the person isnât the problem. The environment is.
And when you understand that, something shifts.
You stop fighting yourself. You start working with your biology. Thatâs where real improvement begins.
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