How To Know If Fatigue Is Real Or Not?
How do you know if the fatigue you’re experiencing is “real” and a symptom of physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual exhaustion or burnout? And when is that fatigue a symptom and result of mental, emotional, seasonal, or spiritual factors/happening(s) in us and/or around us?
In this article, we dive deep into the exploration of the causes behind fatigue and what we can do.
One of the most challenging parts of fatigue and symptoms of burnout is knowing the cause behind them.
Sometimes fatigue and symptoms of burnout are real: they are a sign of physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual fatigue and exhaustion manifesting as fatigue, malaise, or exhaustion in different areas of our life and health.
If that’s the case, we’re physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually tired, and we need to step back, take it easy, rest and recover.
But sometimes, fatigue is not a consequence of exhaustion or burnout, but a sign and symptom of something going on in us or around us.
Although they feel very similar, the way and strategy to go about them and treat them are very different.
Understanding fatigue and exhaustion
The thing that makes fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout hard to deal with, is the mental and emotional aspect.
When we’re caught up in emotional states of feeling tired, fatigued, empty, exhausted or burnt out, it’s hard to think and act with a clear head.
Emotions and emotional states play a huge part in our lives. They influence our biology and physiology and can make things either better or worse.
Experiencing fatigue, exhaustion or burnout can create a lot of anxiety and fear. We might be anxious about what’s going on, anxious about whether or not what we’re experiencing is normal or not, we’re wondering how long will this last, whether or not we’ll be okay, etc.
Anxiety and fear trigger the amygdala, which is the center of the brain responsible for our evolutionary survival mechanism and the so-called “Fight or Flight” (ForF) system response.
Experiencing anxiety and fear for extended periods of time will cause additional stress, which will then cause even more tiredness, exhaustion, and feelings of burnout, which will then produce even more anxiety and fear and consequently stress.
When dealing with fatigue, exhaustion, or burnout, it’s important that we take a step back, step out of, and move away from that emotional charge that fatigue, exhaustion, or burnout created, look at them objectively, and analyze them.
A ton of problems can be solved by simply looking at them objectively and by removing the emotional charge associated with them.
How to know if fatigue is real or not?
Real fatigue
Sometimes fatigue and exhaustion are real: they’re a product and sign that your body, mind, or soul are tired.
Maybe you’ve been in go-go mode and pushing too much for too long. Maybe you’ve been under a lot of mental stress from work and it manifests as fatigue that you feel physically or mentally. Maybe there’s been some emotional stuff you’ve been dealing with that has exhausted you emotionally. Or maybe you’ve been going against your true self and haven’t been spiritually aligned.
But then other times, fatigue is a symptom and result of mental, emotional, seasonal, or spiritual factors and happenings in us or around us.
Resistance
Sometimes fatigue and exhaustion are a “disguise”: a product of Resistance, of Comfort zone, and Counterforces. The mind and ego produce them hoping they will stop you, force you to slow down and take a step back, rest, and recover, so you won’t die.
But at the same time, this puts you in freeze mode, which is the mode between Fight or Flight and Rest and Digest where your body is producing stress hormones but can't either fight it off or rest and recover, which creates even more problems.
Emotional, seasonal, or spiritual factors
Fatigue can be influenced by a myriad of emotional, seasonal, and spiritual factors as well as external happenings.
Emotionally, stress from work, relationships, or personal life, alongside anxiety, depression, and unresolved conflicts, can drain energy reserves.
Seasonal changes, including the onset of seasonal affective disorder in winter, weather fluctuations, and seasonal allergies, contribute to fluctuations in energy levels.
Spiritually, existential crises, lack of purpose, or disconnect from higher principles can also lead to fatigue.
Moreover, traumatic events, political unrest, caregiving responsibilities, and financial stressors in the environment can exacerbate exhaustion.
Understanding and addressing these multifaceted influences are crucial for managing fatigue effectively and promoting overall well-being.
In my opinion, one of the biggest abilities to learn and master in life is knowing when to push through fatigue and tiredness, and when to take a step back, take it easy, and allow our bodies, mind, and soul to rest and recover.
Here are some strategies on how to know if the fatigue is real or not and what to do based on that.
1. Measurable data and objective well-being
You can use objective and measurable data to determine whether or not you are really tired and fatigued or not.
You can use your perceived quality of sleep, the perceived feeling of being rested in the first hour after waking up, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate (RHR) upon waking, blood sugar in the morning, body weight, etc.
You can get all of this data using tracking devices. Different smartwatches, fitness and sleep trackers measure all this body data and then connect them into a whole and based on that they advise you on how to behave and act.
My tracking device of choice is called WHOOP. I have been using it for quite some time now. WHOOP is one of the best trackers outhere: it offers accurate monitoring of sleep and all sleep cycles, measurement of heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate (HRH) upon waking, respiratory rate during sleep, blood oxygen levels and body temperature upon waking.
Compared to other watches and smart trackers, WHOOP is very comfortable and affordable: you can try it for as little as $30 a month. You can also try it for a month free of charge: click on the link below for a 1 month free trial.
2. Subjective well-being
When determining whether it is real fatigue or not, you can also use subjective data: this is the motivation and enthusiasm in the morning upon waking up and during the day, general well-being during the day, the feeling of lightness, positivity and state of our mental health.
You we can also help yourself with the feelings and signals that your body sends you — these are in the end, in my opinion, the most important.
3. The Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds is a principle that Olympians use to access the process.
The rule implies that when you're chasing a dream, or doing anything hard, you're meant to feel good a third of the time, okay a third of the time, and crappy a third of the time.
If the ratio is roughly in that range, then you're doing fine. If the ratio's off, if you feel too good all the time or too bad, then you have to look at if you're fatiguing or not trying hard enough or pushing yourself.
Ryan Munsey, author, high-performance coach, and consultant, writes about how we can apply the analogy to our life and human experience:
“We can (roughly) expect to have about 1/3 of our days go our way while another 1/3 will be struggles (emotionally, physically, etc etc), that's just life. We're going to have some wins and we're going to have some losses. The remaining third of our days could go either way. What we do with those days determines the level of success and enjoyment we derive from this life.” (source)
We can also use The Rule of Thirds when we’re dealing with fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout.
When determining and figuring out whether or not fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout are a problem worth looking at and examining, we can use the principle of The Rule of Thirds.
How often we experience problems associated with fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout will determine if we have a “problem” or not. If we experience fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout too often - meaning more than a third of the time - it’s time for us to look and dig deeper: analyze our life and figure out where are fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout coming from and what are some of the potential underlying problems that are causing them.
The Rule of Thirds: Your Roadmap to Beating Burnout
4. Learn to listen to the body’s signal and whispers
It’s difficult because I can’t exactly tell you how to know if fatigue is real or not, because there’s no rule: there’s no “one fits all approach”, it can vary from individual to individual, from time to time, situation to situation, case to case.
I think the right answer is to take into account the measurable data and subjective well-being and to listen to the whispers of your body: the body always wants to tell us something and it signals to us what it needs — but often we don’t know how to read and understand these signals.
Know when to push through and when to take a step back
“Life is a delicate dance and balance between listening to your body and pushing against the resistance of the mind.” ~ Jani
Based on this exploration, you have two choices: to push through or to take a step back.
If you determine that the fatigue is real and you’re really tired, fatigued, exhausted, or burnt out, the solution in these cases is to take a step back.
Take a breat, and be gentle with yourself. Take a break and allow yourself some rest. Let your body, mind, and soul replenish and recover. Then reassess things and move forward in life in a more aligned way.
On the other hand, if you feel that the fatigue is not real, that you “shouldn’t be tired and fatigued”, and that it might be a result of mental resistance of you have to push through it.
Use Aubrey Marcus’ strategy called “Mental Override”: kick yourself in the a**, override and silence the thoughts, feelings, emotions and voices that tell you that you’re tired. I usually go to the gym, release accumulated tension and negative emotions, do a good workout and come back like brand new.
Or use David Goggins’ spirit of “going to war with your mind”: the mind can be a very tough opponent to break and tame, and the stronger your mind is and more problems it gives you, the harder you have to battle it.
To conquer burnout, become our best selves, and live an authentic life, we must shake off the shackles of the mind, strap away its reality and live with the soul.
Both being gentle with yourself and pushing yourself past the resistance are great tools in our arsenal of wellbeing and mastering fatigue - we just have to know how and when to use they correctly.
It’s not easy to know the answer of whether fatigue is real or not, so I would encourage you to experiment.
We can learn to feel and recognize our feelings and differentiate between them. But it takes time and practice. With experimentation and listening to our body’s signal, over time we start to learn to distinguish between the two — between real fatigue and disguise.
When you become more attuned to your body and feelings, you can almost feel the difference between real fatigue and disguise and know the right answer.
Becoming in tune with our body, emotions and signals is in my opinion one of the answers to a happy and successful life.