If you are burnt out - please know that leaning on help will get you back to liking your life faster than doing it on your own. Book a call now and get your burnout recovery journey started!
Overview
Have you ever heard the saying, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life?” Well, I can tell you from personal experience that this is often NOT the case.
This idea sent me down a 6-year path of feeling burnt out, but unable to admit it. I loved what I did, but I also felt tired, angry and worn down all the time. I spent years looking for what was wrong in my life rather than examining the needs of my mind, body and soul.
Then, I started hearing the word “burnout” pop up everywhere. At first, I didn’t even know what it meant. And after extensive research, what I learned was disheartening – that burnout belonged in hospitals to doctors and nurses and in corporations to high-level managers. Burnout didn’t apply to me, the female entrepreneur.
That’s when I started doing some more internal digging. And what I discovered was that burnout is ultimately caused by feelings of unworthiness. I didn’t feel deserving of true fulfillment, and so I never achieved it.
This started me on a journey of making small, manageable changes in my life to rediscover my self-love and self-worth. Four of the things that helped most me along the way were:
Practicing small boundaries (like allowing myself to pee when I needed to!)
Getting out of other people’s knots (Listen to the episode to learn about Knot Theory, and how it has radically changed my life.)
Yoga nidra
My burnout journey taught me that recovery should be slow, gentle and kind. By acknowledging my basic needs and taking care of myself before always tending to others, my feelings of worthiness slowly started to build. When you start to care for yourself in a more authentic way, you AND everyone around you will benefit.
Lastly, I want to remind you that it is never too late to start the process of burnout recovery. No matter how burnt out you are, there is always an opportunity to re-establish your sense of worthiness. It’s all about taking small steps to remind your body, your mind and your spirit what true fulfillment feels like.
Quotes
“In my own life, I felt like I had been sold a dream that sounded like this: ‘Work really hard, do your best, follow your heart, let your passions guide you and you’ll never feel like you’re working a day in your life.’ Have you ever heard that? The idea that if you love what you do, it’ll never feel like work? That idea sent me down a 6-year path of being burnt out and unable to admit it.” (2:06-2:32)
“Burnout, when it’s not caused by workplace bullying, or poor company culture, is related to one underlying element: a feeling of unworthiness. It is impossible to allow fulfilling work to fulfill you if you don’t feel worthy of feeling full.” (4:49-5:15)
“Small boundaries have nothing to do with another person. They are grace and generosity that I grant myself.” (6:19-6:28)
“ Self-care is necessary for the care of the whole and not selfish at all, as I previously viewed it….When you abandon yourself, you’re harming the people around you, too. You deserve to be cared for, you deserve your own attention, but other people also deserve you to have your own attention.” (10:37-11:01)
“I thought I knew what my values were, but when I did an exercise to unveil MY core values, what I came up with was different than what I expected. I was living according to values that I had inherited, from both my family and my community. The rules and expectations I was following had nothing (or very little) to do with how I actually wanted to live my life. Getting reacquainted with my OWN values was eye-opening and now something I revisit to check in with regularly because they change, because I change, because the world changes!” (13:00-13:35)
“My feelings of worthiness started to naturally build as a result of simply acknowledging my needs and allowing myself to meet them.” (15:02-15:15)
“Recovering from burnout should be slow, gentle and kind. It is built of pebbles and stones instead of bricks and cement blocks. It is built of tiny moments of self-love and care and attention in between hours and days and weeks of self-doubt and questioning your value and your worthiness. It is constantly reminding yourself what IS your knot and what isn’t. It is checking in with your values over and over again and allowing yourself to make aligned decisions. It is saying more YES to yourself, so much so that you don’t automatically say yes to everyone else around you when they have a need that pops up. It is allowing space and time for your nervous system and brain to rest, to heal and to reset at a lower level of functioning, to allow yourself to go at your own internal speed limit instead of putting the pedal to the metal at all times.” (16:20-17:23)
If you're ready to start recovery, if you want burn out to be part of your past and not your future, if you're tired of feeling guilty about ever putting yourself first, book a call today. Let's start that healing process.
XOXO Cait
P.S. Didja know that resentment is your burnout recovery best friend? Yep, resentment. Learning how to use it is one of the most powerful burnout healing tools that exists! If you want a quick way to get started on your burnout recovery journey - this is it!