We’ve asked Karyn Schwartz, owner of the Sugarpill apothecary on E Pine, to contribute to CHS about health and Hill living on a semi-regular basis. If you’re an expert and want to share with the community in a recurring CHS column, we’d like to hear from you. This is her first post for CHS.

I was walking to the shop this morning –- living back on the Hill after a 20 year hiatus in the south end and getting to know the trees on Pine Street all over again –- and noticing how the leaves are drying, how the light has already changed, and how people are starting to shrink back into their jackets and scarves after a long, hot summer of skin and sun. I love being able to see the seasons shifting, and being reminded about the ways in which the elemental changes in nature are reflected in our own bodies.

Right about now, at the end of late summer and beginning of fall, almost everyone experiences a drop in energy. This is the season when the outward, fiery, expansive energy of spring and summer is changing back to the inward, calmer, slower energy of autumn and winter.

If you look around at what is happening right outside your own window, everything is starting to die back. Even the busiest streets are blanketed with leaves, and not just the rivers of Saturday night trash. Plants have expended their energy producing flowers, fruits and seeds, and are preparing now to store energy in their roots for the colder months. Despite the fact that we have to keep on going to our jobs, classes, meetings, shows and other obligations, our bodies naturally want to slow down and go inside.

When this early fall fatigue sets in, we all tend to try and override it. But if you think about it, that drop in energy can be protective. It forces you to stop overdoing it, and slow down before completely burning yourself out. When people ask me to how to remedy it, I am sorry to say they are usually disappointed, because my first inclination is never to sell them herbs, but to suggest that they give in to the urge to take a nap, or to sleep an extra hour every night for a few weeks. I find that for the people who respect that signal to rest more and run around a little less, the fall and winter tend to be a whole lot easier.

Fatigue is also quite often the first sign of a cold – again forcing you to stop what you are doing and allow your body to attend to the more important task at hand. It is not the “problem” – it is actually part of the solution, as it compels you to give your body what is asking for in order to be able to fight off the cause of the illness and heal itself.

Of course, sudden, intense fatigue with no explanation, or chronic ongoing fatigue that doesn’t respond to rest or other gentle interventions, can be a sign of more serious illness, and should be respected and attended to with the help of knowledgeable practitioners. But, as with most symptoms, we should always first try to understand what the body is telling us, with the only language it has available to get our attention, and not rush to medicate away the symptom before we really understand its significance. For fatigue, I have found that there is really no healthy “quick fix” – whether the fatigue is acute or chronic. Restoring your energy is nearly always a slow process, requiring rest and a gentle, steady rebuilding of your vital force.

Whenever something comes with a promise to magically give you energy in a quick or easy way, be suspicious, save your money, and try laying your head down on a pillow for a while instead.