In my thirties and forties, I was a pretty active gardener. I did my own digging and lifting and lugging. But of course, in the winter, I did little heavy work. Each year when spring arrived, I'd eagerly set aside a Saturday to clear the winter debris, plant spring bulbs, and drag the big flower pots out of their winter shelter. By Sunday morning, I'd be so sore I could barely get out of bed. My abs, my shoulders, my gluts, and my back ached. Why? Well, maybe I had overdone it a little, but the big reason was that I had used muscles that I hadn't exercised for three months or more. Those muscles had grown weak from disuse. After a few weeks, my body would again become accustomed to the work of gardening, and most of the soreness went away.

We have all had this experience. It hits us when we engage in any physical task that involves using muscles we don't use very often--a new exercise routine, a long hike--heck, even dancing when we haven't done it in a while--can make us sore and exhausted.

The same is true for the mental muscles we don't exercise very often. I was reminded of this in July after attending a daylong women's leadership conference hosted by Converse University. I had a wonderful day. I met smart women from my own community and touched base with folks I hadn't seen for a while. I learned from panels and speakers working in fields ranging from non-profit human service work to the law and corporate technology. I took notes and networked and exchanged business cards and shared ideas.

And when I went home at the end of the day, I was exhausted. Utterly exhausted. All that "peopling" had left me "sit-on-the-couch-and-stare-into-space" exhausted.

When I was teaching, a daylong conference would have been tiring, but it would have felt more like an ordinary day. In those days, I interacted with people all day on most days. Even after I retired from teaching and started my own business, I often had days filled with peopling. But then Covid and gathering in big groups was not advisable for the best part of two years. I got out of practice. Now, most of my working days alternate time alone at my desk with one-on-one sessions with clients--in person or on Zoom. I have meetings of one kind or another once or twice a week and lead a couple of workshops a month, but I rarely spend a who day interacting with large groups of people. I don't use my "peopling-in-large-groups" muscles very often, and when I do, I feel an exhaustion that is a little like muscle strain.

I've been thinking a lot about how it important it is to exercise my mental muscles as well as my physical ones. What about you? What are the mental muscles you need to exercise?