Fatigue Lessons

There are many ways to be tired — most of them good. Fatigue is a lan­guage of the soul, as much as the body or mind. It is also a key oppor­tu­nity to dis­cover keen insights. Frus­tra­tion fatigue is an oppor­tu­nity to re-evaluate what you are doing. It is a chance to find out from your soul why you are trip­ping your­self up in some­thing unwork­able.

Emo­tional fatigue can be a counselor’s Geiger Counter. When some­one walks into the room, and you imme­di­ately feel drained, you may be deal­ing with some­one that has gone ter­ri­bly empty. You can feel the “life of the room” imme­di­ately dis­ap­pear. The per­son has become a “black hole” of emo­tional energy. Pay atten­tion. He or she may be more than depressed. The mal­ady may be a deep defeatism of soul. Your work is cut out for you.

I like being tired from too many good things. There is a cer­tain “tired” that comes with the end of a pro­duc­tive semes­ter or on a Sun­day after­noon, after a par­tic­u­larly good Sun­day wor­ship expe­ri­ence. Rest­ing up after a great vaca­tion brings on one of the best naps of the year.

On a deeper level, fatigue can be your best friend. When you are too tired to keep up your emo­tional defenses, your real feel­ings can sur­face. The inabil­ity to keep up the masks is the thresh­old to self-discovery. Fatigue is also the prepa­ra­tion for some of your great­est spir­i­tual accom­plish­ments. It is as if your soul has to recharge in antic­i­pa­tion of its most pro­found expres­sion.

Jesus was deeply asleep in small boat — exhausted from teach­ing, heal­ing, and wran­gling with his fol­low­ers. When finally awak­ened by his hys­ter­i­cal lit­tle crew, he spoke to the storm and it obeyed. The faith­less lit­tle band fell at his feet in the embar­rass­ing real­iza­tion of their child­ish fears. The event changed them for­ever — and the world too.

Fatigue can tell you when to give up, when to change course, when to take a break, and when to shift to a higher spir­i­tual plane. Do not con­fuse soul fatigue with that of the body. When your soul is tired, it takes some­thing more than a day off to recover. It takes a new vision. Going on that vision quest may be the most drain­ing thing you ever do, but the pay­off is worth it. The renewed soul can then mas­ter anything.