Why Relaxing Can Make You Feel Exhausted: Nervous System Regulation for Sign Language Interpreters

When the body has been in a state of activation for a long time—pushing, bracing, anticipating, staying ready—and then begins to actually down-regulate through yoga, mindfulness or somatic work, something can happen.

You can feel really tired.

Underneath all that activation, there can be a level of fatigue you couldn't feel while your system was busy keeping you going.

And think about yourself as an interpreter.

Aren't we in a near-constant state of activation?

Why sign language interpreting keeps your nervous system activated.

Think about everything happening while you interpret:

• You are watching constantly. Listening constantly.

• Processing language and meaning at high speed.

• Making decisions.

• Tracking multiple people.

• Reading the room.

• Evaluating your work and making repairs if necessary.

• Moving constantly and holding your posture.

• Anticipating what might happen next.

• Not to mention all your inner thoughts.

This isn't just my impression after almost 30 years as an interpreter.

Research on sign language interpreting has identified not only linguistic demands, but environmental, interpersonal and intrapersonal demands—the physical environment, the people and dynamics in the room, and even the interpreter's own "inner noise."

Depending on the assignment, your body may actually tip into a fight-or-flight response.

And even when it doesn't, your system can still spend hours mobilized and ready for whatever might come next.

Day after day, that starts to feel normal.

Your body gets really good at being ready.

And when work ends, coming down isn't always as simple as telling yourself to relax.

Your body is the instrument of your work.

As interpreters, we are highly focused on the skills we need to do our jobs well.

Our training is mostly focused on interpreting skills—the production, the processing, ethics, decision-making, language.

But there is something without which we can't do any of it.

Our body.

And I mean everything from your organs and muscles to your nervous system and emotions.

If our body is the instrument of our work, when are we tuning this instrument?

From what I experienced during almost 30 years in the field, and from my conversations with all of you—not very often.

We may stretch a sore shoulder.

Get a massage when our neck hurts.

Take a vacation when we're exhausted.

But what are we doing regularly to help the whole system recover from the demands of the work?

That is a different question.

Why “relaxing” doesn't always regulate your nervous system.

Some of the things we use to come down aren't actually the same thing as helping the nervous system come down.

Bingeing a show.

Drinking.

Scrolling for two hours.

Eating when you're not hungry.

Running yourself into exhaustion.

Checking out.

Those things may change how you feel for a while. And I'm not saying you can never watch Netflix or go for a run.

But distraction, exhaustion and numbing are different from staying present in your body while your nervous system learns that it doesn't have to remain on guard.

That requires a different kind of practice.

And this is something yoga can do.Yoga gives the body another possibility.

Another pattern.

You anchor into your own body.

You breathe.

You take support and actually lean into it.

You use effort without gripping or bracing.

You release and let go without collapsing or numbing out.

Breathing and yoga practices can influence the autonomic nervous system and support the shift away from fight-or-flight toward the body's rest-and-digest functions.

But what interests me even more is what you are practicing every time you do this.

Because if your body has spent years practicing one pattern—

Hold.

Push.

Brace.

Anticipate.

Check out.

Numb out.

Stay ready.

—it gets really good at that pattern.

Yoga gives you the opportunity to practice another one.

Why you may feel tired when you finally slow down

And sometimes, when the activation begins to come down, you notice something underneath it.

You are tired.

Maybe really tired.

Makes sense, right?

Your engine has been running nonstop.

When you finally slow it down, you may begin to feel how much effort all that running has required.

That doesn't mean the yoga made you tired.

It may mean you're finally still enough to notice the tiredness that was already there.

And then what?

Your nervous system needs sips, not gulps

I don't think the answer is trying to resolve YEARS of activation in one enormous gulp.

The body needs sips.

I've noticed that many of us are used to taking gulps—or flinging ourselves into the deep end of things.

We go from nothing to EVERYTHING.

We haven't exercised in months, so we sign up for a boot camp.

We're exhausted, so we take a week off and expect ourselves to emerge completely restored.

We decide we're going to meditate for 30 minutes every single morning beginning tomorrow.

Our systems aren't necessarily used to sips.

But your nervous system deserves consistent, daily sips.

A supported yoga pose.

A few minutes of breathing.

A practice where you learn to work strongly with softness.

Ten minutes of staying with yourself instead of checking out.

And then you do it again tomorrow.

And again.

Not because every day needs to be a giant healing event.

Because you are practicing.

Yoga gives your body another option

Over time, you are giving yourself another option.

It's like your car suddenly has more gears than ON and OFF.

Your body can mobilize when it needs to.

You can focus.

Work.

Respond.

Make decisions.

Meet what is being asked of you.

But activation doesn't have to be the only way your body knows how to function.

You can also come down.

You can come back home to yourself.

.