Hi everyone! First post in this sub.

I [27F] have been ENM for most of my adult life starting at around 19 with a few mono ships here and there, and I’ve landed my first truly healthy adult relationship and D/s dynamic with a wonderful person/dom [28M]. We learned early on that we’ve both pretty much always had the capacity to carry on concurrent romances from a young age and really value integrity in doing so — totally lucked out there (finally!) That said, it’s both of our first poly relationship, though neither of us are dating right now due to time/resource constraints with work and school (this is coincidental overlap in life timing which will probably end sooner for me than him, not an intentional restraint).

We have excellent communication all around and are very patient and kind to one another, both do the work to learn and explore our mindsets about poly, blah blah blah, it’s all very peachy.

Now, what could I possibly need advice on for a relationship I have no real complaints about and have loads of resources to navigate?

Basically I want to know how you guys pace yourselves with all the emotional processing (I’ve been in here long enough to see the jokes lol).

I’m a highly sensitive person (in the Elaine Aron sense) and work in a high stakes detail-oriented career. My brain is almost always on and I get incredibly tired of processing sometimes in general. Not to mention that I tend to physically feel most of my feelings, especially uncomfortable ones, even if they’re only mildly so. My partner, having the patience of a saint, makes it easy to want to talk to him and process together when needed. But sometimes an emotionally overwhelmed, (childhood) traumatized part of me just wants to eat my feelings like a denim jacket and go on like nothings up cause I’m tired (but I absolutely don’t do this as I greatly cherish him and our relationship).

What can I do to better manage so i tire less frequently or have a better time waiting with my feelings in the event I’ve processed but we can’t sit down to chat about it for a while?