Why Your Body Feels So Tired Right Now
(And Why That’s Not a Problem to Fix)
By Michele Renee, DC
If your body feels deeply tired right now, you’re not imagining it.
And you’re not failing.
Late winter is already a demanding season for the body and nervous system. In Minneapolis — and across the country — that strain is compounded by unprecedented and ongoing stress: political uncertainty, community grief, threats to safety and autonomy, economic pressure, climate instability, and the emotional labor of caring for one another through it all.
Many people are holding far more than they show.
When we add chronic illness, autoimmune disease, Long COVID, migraines, chronic pain, or ongoing trauma exposure, it’s no surprise that energy feels scarce. Fatigue, in this context, is not a personal flaw or a lack of resilience. It is often a physiological response to prolonged demand.
Fatigue Is a Nervous System Signal, Not a Failure
From a whole-person and nervous-system perspective, fatigue is information. It tells us that the body has been adapting — regulating inflammation, managing immune responses, staying alert to threat, and conserving resources wherever possible.
For many people, especially those living with chronic conditions, the nervous system has been operating in a near-constant state of vigilance. Over time, this reduces available energy for movement, focus, digestion, and repair.
This is not weakness.
It is biology doing its best under pressure.
Even Awareness Takes Energy
One piece of this fatigue is often invisible: the cost of awareness itself.
For many people right now, simply staying informed — reading the news, tracking policy changes, witnessing violence or injustice, holding concern for vulnerable communities — is enough to overwhelm the nervous system on some days. You don’t have to be physically present at a protest or actively organizing to feel the impact. Attention, care, and concern all require energy.
The nervous system does not distinguish between stressors that are happening directly to you and stressors you are witnessing or anticipating. Being aware, attuned, and compassionate in times like these is itself a form of labor — and it carries a physiological cost.
If some days all you can manage is knowing what’s happening, that is not disengagement. That is capacity.
Why Pushing Through Often Makes Things Worse
In moments like these, the cultural response is often to push harder — to override exhaustion in the name of productivity, activism, or responsibility. While understandable, this approach frequently backfires.
When fatigue is ignored or forced through, the nervous system may interpret that as additional threat. The result can be symptom flares, crashes, worsening pain, immune dysregulation, or deeper burnout — patterns we see every day in people with Long COVID, autoimmune disease, and chronic stress conditions.
Healing and sustainability rarely come from force.
They come from attunement and regulation.
We Are Living in Exceptionally Stressful Times
It’s important to name what many bodies already know: these are not ordinary circumstances.
Many in our community are:
showing up to protests and mutual aid efforts
protecting neighbors and vulnerable communities
supporting food access and housing stability
funding legal defense and advocacy work
holding fear, anger, grief, and responsibility simultaneously
All of this matters. And all of it has a cost in the body.
Chronic stress — even when driven by care, justice, and love — still activates physiological stress responses. The nervous system does not distinguish between “good” stress and “bad” stress; it simply responds to load.
Self-Care as a Form of Resistance
In this context, self-care is not indulgence.
It is resistance.
Rest, nourishment, regulation, and medical care are what allow people to continue showing up — in the streets, in their families, in their work, and in their communities — without sacrificing their long-term health.
Caring for your body does not mean disengaging from the world. It means protecting your capacity to stay engaged.
Self-care can look like:
choosing rest so you can return tomorrow
receiving body-based care to regulate stress and pain
eating and sleeping in ways that stabilize your system
allowing your pace to be slower than urgency culture demands
These are not acts of withdrawal. They are acts of preservation.
Late Winter Is Still a Time of Holding
Even as the days slowly lengthen, late winter remains a season of conservation. Biology moves more slowly than calendars. Many bodies are still integrating months of stress, illness, and limited recovery.
At Stockheart Whole Health, we often describe this as a holding season — a time to stabilize the nervous system, reduce unnecessary strain, and gently support the body rather than demand more from it.
You do not need to fix this moment.
You may simply need to meet it with care.
You Are Not Broken Because You Are Tired
If your energy is low right now, it does not mean you are failing at self-care, activism, or life. It may mean your body is asking for support so you can continue — not just survive, but remain connected, present, and well enough to participate in the world you care about.
Rest is not the opposite of resistance.
For many, it is what makes resistance possible.