In the words of Christine Northrup, MD, a noted author on women’s health issues, “The most radical thing someone can do is rest when they are tired.”

Fall is approaching, and with it the long slide of winter holidays and busy business season. I’m aware of it earlier than most because in my family, August heralds “Birthday Season” where family birthdays continue unabated at the clip of one every few weeks until we hit smack into November, when the regular holiday busy-ness takes over.

I will remind us of this later (if I can only remember for myself…), but I wanted to give some advance notice so that we can think about it before we’re in the midst of it, and up to our eyeballs in commitments.

On a practical basis, I know fatigue, like hunger, often has pre-symptoms associated with it prior to full-out exhaustion or illness when you are forced to rest, and those symptoms are not always obvious.

I know one of my symptoms is not liking my work. Since ordinarily I absolutely love what I do, I know I must be tired if I’m dreading appointments. Another symptom for me is being judgmental and cranky. If I catch myself complaining about things, or judging people, “Can you believe that idiot didn’t use his turn signal?!” (My beloved wife Holly has the endearing habit of pointing this out to me just when I am most irritable. I’ve learned to -mostly- accept it with self-conscious chagrin.)

What are your pre-fatigue symptoms? Take some time now and feel into your life, and recognize the symptoms.

So, here’s my program:

Step One: Notice when you are exhibiting those symptoms, but don’t necessarily try to do anything different- just notice how your body feels.

Step Two: Stop as soon as you can. Maybe you can take a five minute break and close your eyes. Maybe you can put off some chores or details and take a 15 or 30 minute nap. Maybe you can just stop and stare out the window at the clouds for a bit. Knowing that these are fatigue symptoms, let yourself rest and relax. Use the remembrance, which is calling the Name of the Divine (whatever that is for you- God, Allah, Love, Spirit, The One) and repeating that Name into your heart without trying to do anything at all.

Step Three: Using the remembrance, ask what is underneath the symptom- is it an emotion? Fear, anger? Is it just physical tiredness? Take a few moments, or even minutes, and let yourself discern this. Often doing too much is not the reason for our exhaustion, but another symptom of trying to be so busy that we don’t have to feel an uncomfortable emotion. Once you’ve rested, let yourself feel that emotion in your body.

Sometimes this will be enough to clear the issue. Sometimes it will take a little time to truly feel what is really going on. And sometimes you need help and support to clear what is exhausting you, especially if you’ve been running the pattern for a long time.

What I have always found, is that, once you rest, your true desire arises in your heart, and you can fly through tasks that used to be drudgery. Don’t believe me? Try it!