The astrological planet Mars is associated heavily with physical exertion. Mars is the planet of action, of doing things and getting shit done. Mars activities include running, punching, kicking, charging, and even swimming.

What is the best way to work with Mars? Is it by running all the time or by putting your entire body into one exhausting task? No. Most people would agree that accomplishing any task takes more versatility than one repetitive task.

Let’s say that you are trying to go to your friend’s house. You would need to walk. What else does the task in front of you require? You might need to know how to read a map or possess memory of where to go. You’ll need to know how to turn, how to watch for cars. If your friend lives a long way away, you’ll also need to know when to pause and catch your breath. You’ll need to know how far you can walk and if you can take a bus when you reach your physical limit.

Mars isn’t about productivity. Getting a task done isn’t just about getting a goal and then accomplishing that goal no matter what. Mars is about action—versatile action. Mars is a skilled fighter.

Skilled fighters know this. In a lot of martial arts schools, outer cultivation is about learning how to fight and kick. Kicking and punching takes physical skill. Outer cultivation is only half of martial arts. The other half is inner cultivation. Inner cultivation is about breathing, strengthening, and healing.

All physical actions are at least a little more damaging to your body. If you run too much or too long, your knees get worn down. If you climb all the time, then your palms get calloused. If you do too many repetitive movements because of weight training or swimming, you can hurt your tendons. On the scale of a lifetime, even small actions wear us down. Eating through the course of a whole lifetime causes less stomach elasticity and more heartburn. But what can you do? You can’t stop eating just like how you can’t stop running, jumping, or climbing. Your body was made to do things. You are a moving animal.

A good fighter doesn’t just know how to fight. If you only know how to fight, then you’ll wear yourself down right away. A good fighter also knows when to rest and how to heal. Guan Yu, the warrior deity, was also a lover of poetry. Activists love poetry for the same reasons, because poetry heals and recuperates the soul.

What does this mean? This means that Mars isn’t just the planet of action, of fighting, and of struggle. Mars is the planet in your chart that understands how to heal. Mars knows what to do with bruised knuckles, with an aching knee, and with calloused hands. You don’t have to choose between rest and action. How could you? Rest is senseless without action and action is meaningless without rest. Rest and action, and the healing that comes with both, is one single process that all of us have to move through in order to get anything done.

I’ve been thinking about Mars as a tiger lately and studying cats. Cats hunt in such an energy efficient and self protective way. They use all of their strength when they know they will get their prey. Cats also heal very fast. Their purrs are healing. A cat friend of mine recently got an eye surgery. He healed in weeks. Cats are skilled healers.

If you want to work with your Mars placement and don’t know how to get started, you might start with action. Or, you might start with rest. Rest will always lead you towards action. Think about a coiled spring. A spring in a position of rest is one that is charged up with potential energy. All you have to do in order to use a spring’s stored energy? Let it go.

My Mars is in a water sign. When water stays still, it gets all stinky and stagnant. Water flows gently when it’s resting. That’s why I have to keep myself busy with small activities when I’m resting. I don’t come at problems directly. Water can erode big mountains by wearing them down little by little.

I’ve noticed that people with Mars in a fire sign operate very differently. People with fire Mars come ablaze thrillingly but then go completely still for days at a time. People with Mars in an earth sign need a lot of slow growth. They like to gather resources—texts, theories, and methods—like a soil absorbing nutrition. People with Mars in air signs need warmth and friendship. Warm air rises and generates the winds of persuasion and influence.

Your body is not an endless resource. We can’t simply pull action after action of our bodies forever without resting or diverting. What you like to do and want to do will inspire your method of rest. How you rest should be calibrated according to the actions that you seek to take. Rest isn’t a cookie cutter, one size fits all. Rest is not simply non-activity but something that gives you active healing on account of the activities that you are doing. Someone with a sore throat wouldn’t stretch their knees. A person with back pain doesn’t need to drink warm broths to settle their stomach.

Sometimes we don’t know how to rest. We have this heartache in our souls and we try to heal our finances. We blame our jaundiced vision on our eyes when the issue is with the liver. We need a healer’s expertise. Mars rules healers, not just scalpel wielding surgeons but all types of healers and dissectors.

If you want to explore your Mars, ask yourself how you rest. How do you know when to rest? How do you know when to start doing again? When is resting an act of healing and when is action an act of healing?

What does your method of rest have to do with what you are trying to do? Are you healing the right things or allowing your exhaustion to get the best of you? What is your Mars like as a healer?

Mars is a fighter. The best fighters protect themselves. Mars is not an endless resource. Your body is not an endless resource. Your Mars knows how to heal the same way a cat knows how to heal. It will show you when you ask it to.