Burnout: A journey of reclaiming yourself
Welcome to the Thirsty Soul podcast. This week’s episode we’re diving into burnout
as a rite of passage in a threshold moment.
Having experienced burnout myself, it’s something that a lot of people don’t realize they’re experiencing. They can think, they’re maybe just tired and if ‘I just had a week off then I would be back to normal’. And the thing with burnout is when you’ve moved through it and are
moving through it and come out the other side, you can’t go back to normal – because the normal, the patterns, the behaviors, the ways of being, the ways of thinking, the conditioning, the programming, the wounding that led to the accumulation of burnout – you can’t go back to because it’ll lead you to the same path of burnout again.
So to me the experience of burnout created this space for excavation. And when you’re experiencing burnout is to not blame and shame yourself for how you got there or for even experiencing it. But to use it as a place for understanding yourself and why you do what you do. And in essence the question of ‘how did I get here’ but with a curiosity and openness, a deep, deep compassion and grace for the understanding of what was in the background running the show as I call it.
It’s this moment of excavation but also like a deep defragging, a deep clean of the behind the scenes so that you can create space for really choosing to reclaim yourself, reclaim your life, reclaim aspects of yourself that you’ve discarded, let go off, dropped along the way as you’ve tried potentially to live up to everybody else’s expectations or society’s expectations or cultural expectations.
And the thing with burnout that it’s, we can look at yes, what within me allowed me to get to this place, like what was running in the background like, but also sometimes it’s systematic and so many other layers to it.
So we can only look at what we can control to begin our own healing process.
What is Burnout
Burnout is something that just doesn’t arrive overnight. You’ve probably seen and felt the
symptoms over a long period of time but have dismissed them or they’ve not really caused
enough of a poke to make you stop on your tracks. I had my first inkling off it when I was just
tired, just tired and I went and got my bloods done by the doctor and she was a young woman so I was like ‘this is great, she’s really gonna help me’ and she was like ‘yeah your blood’s fine’. I was like ‘yeah but I know I’m not fine’ and she’s like ‘oh yeah you’re fine’.
So then I just went on about my business and then I went back about six months, yeah six months later and it was the same thing, ‘yeah your blood’s fine, you’re like literally seriously couldn’t get any more healthier than you’ and I’m like that’s not what I’m experiencing inside of myself. And so it was about another six months before I actually stopped and truly fully looked at it because I didn’t know where to go.
I think sometimes with chronic fatigue, burnout, adrenal fatigue, adrenal exhaustion is – sometimes the names of it – is that there’s so much information out there. It can feel like a minefield of trying to figure out ‘what’s actually going to work for me’ and the thing is that you will, you’re more than likely, have to learn to advocate for yourself, to ask for what you need to walk away from certain systems or certain places that just can’t help you. And potentially what has worked for you in the past will not work for you in the present or the future.
And it’s a trial and error so for me it was, I’d seen so many people I know go down sort of different holistic routes looking at their health and it never changed anything for them. So for me it was like understanding that you need a holistic approach, you need the bottom up approach. There was absolutely no point going into the spiritual realm and trying to figure you know what is the spiritual reason behind this here. To spiritualise it so quickly like, if I learn my lesson now then I’ll just be fine, it was never going to be that. This not that’s not the starting place when your physical body isn’t doing what it needs to be doing, you start with the physical.
The Things that works for me in Burnout
Starting with the physical body
For me that was finding a practitioner who could work with my bloods. I got a htma, a hair tissue mineral analysis. And oh my god I learned so much about the body through burnout. I learned oh we are complex beings, our internal system is deeply magical and through the results of the htma and the blood analysis, I was given this understanding of myself and how I work at this minute and time and what was lacking within my system.
That meant I had a starting place. And the beauty of the way the person I worked with was
they didn’t have the answers for everything, they didn’t give me everything I needed and I was fine with that because I got what I wanted in that moment. I was able to have a starting place to start taking supplements, start taking certain care of my system, taking in what I needed but also begin to eliminate some of the things I didn’t need. And I took it slowly.
So it didn’t start like you know down and all the supplements on one goes. One thing at a time to see did that make a difference. And for me the biggest thing that made the difference was what they call adrenal cocktail and minerals and they still make the biggest difference yet um they’re some of the things that I’ve stayed on since like um. Because most of our bodies don’t receive the minerals that they need.
We’re usually out of whack somewhere and will each be different so you just can’t ‘wack and mole’ this or now because I’ve mentioned that adrenal cocktail and minerals start throwing them into you. It’s better if you understand what you need because we all need different things.
Everything in our body is in relationship to the other thing but they were one of the first two things I took and immediately I could feel a perk in my system like because my body was under such stress that it was just burning through everything like so I just didn’t have enough um excess then like and it wasn’t bioavailable in my system so my body wasn’t actually taken in while I was giving it half the time either like.
The emotional and spiritual exploration
Insights on recovery and reclaiming yourself
Burnout isn’t something to feel shame or blame about or guilt about. It happens and it happens far more than most people realise. Most people don’t realise they have burnout because they just think they’re tired. I’ve met so many people in my clinic here just like ‘yeah I just you know when I get to my holiday, I’ll get to rest then I’ll be fine then after that’ and I know for a fact they won’t because the rest yes is a part of it but it’s not going to go to the root of what actually is behind this burnout.
And for lots of people it’s to do with boundaries, it’s to do with their wounding, their trauma, their nervous system has just somehow managed to keep going and then it just goes uh I can’t go on anymore like it just begins to kick up like. So I had little tail tails just for a year before I went into severe burnout.
But before that if you’d ask me ‘are you tired?’, I’m like no I’m running on like probably on
adrenals really but like I was enjoying life, like I was busy with work, I was traveling, I was with family, I was chocoblock, I was full in life like. And I was soaking it up like but so many other things got lost in the way.
So the big question I always like to ask is ‘what’s going on behind that’. You’re like ‘what caused that there. What happened that I ended up in burnout?’ and I always hold those with a deep opening… to understand the behaviors that are behind it.
The stages and cycle of burnout
And there’s actually considered to be like 12 stages or aspects to burnout but I don’t think it’s as limited as that. But to give you an idea I’m sure some of these will be familiar to you:
- The internal chatter is quite interesting. So there’s the compulsion ambition. I must prove myself.
- Working harder, I must do more. Sure if you’re going to do it you might as well do it yourself. No point in asking anybody else. Sure yeah yeah I can do that, oh yeah I can do that too, throw it on my there.
- Neglecting needs. I don’t have time for that. And usually it’s for the things that are important to you that will actually replenish you. They all get thrown out the window and this is not just over a short period of time.
- More than likely these are lifetime patterns like avoiding conflict – nothing is wrong, I don’t want to have that conversation, don’t know how to stand up for myself, don’t want to say no, uh don’t want to set that boundary with that person because I’m afraid of what they’ll say and then how that will make me feel. So we’ll just yeah we’ll just suck it up. ‘I’m really resentful this minute we’ll keep going’.
- Revising values. This is more important. Oh what they want is more important, what they need is more important than what I need at this minute in time. I need rest, I need recuperation, I need to like to go to my therapy, I need whatever ‘oh no no that’s more important’, ‘dinner’s more important’. So your values get put in the back seat.
- Denying problems that you see. The problem is other people so it’s my boss is the problem maybe… don’t see that it’s my people pleasing tendencies or my lack of boundaries or the lack of being able to ask for my own needs or what I need in that space, to stand up for myself
- The withdrawal. I need time alone. There’s a part of you dying to just go ‘oh my god if I could just retreat to a cave if everybody would just bugger off and leave me alone wouldn’t it be great’. There’s a part of you crying out for isolation but it’s more because the system is overloaded.
The nervous system just can’t take anymore. It’s like every time somebody comes into your field or asks something it’s just like zapping energy
- Concerning others. So I’m fine stop worrying. So people ask ‘are you okay, do you
need help, can we take anything off you there’. And the little warrior, the little lone wolf
will be like wearing its badge of honor going ‘I’m fine I can keep going here I’m grand I’ll just have a little sleep here and I’ll be goof to go again’. So we dismiss the concerns of others and sort of fool ourselves and try and fool others that we’re all okay. - The de-personalization of it. I just need to make it through today. If I just get through this week at the weekend I’ll have space, I’ll be up to rest. And I can guarantee for the majority of people that does not happen. So it’s just this constant treadmill, hamster wheel that you’re on
- A sense of emptiness. I don’t feel much anymore there’s a numbness. It’s just like a train could come here now and roll over me and I don’t even know if I’d noticed it, any difference.
- It can lead to depression where nothing really matters or the final stage as I see it would be like ‘I just can’t go on’ as in my body’s just done as in I can’t even get out of bed now or I don’t have the energy to even wash the dishes. ‘oh my god the thought of cooking something, I just can’t do it’ and it doesn’t mean you have to tick all those boxes to have it because it affects each of us differently, in different ways.
But it’s just to notice for so many people, they are just ways of living life and we don’t even see the harm that they’re doing sometimes like. And it’s where I say you know the ‘anything can be a medicine or a poison’ like.
Your ancestral lineage affects burnout
So I can look at my lineage and go ‘god stubbornness was a good quality’ there you know
that the ability to persevere, to keep going is beautiful, the ability to care for other people,
to look after other people, to put other people first, to always be willing to help a hand, to
be able to turn your hand to anything.
You know, they’re all beautiful qualities that I see in my lineage but when they are too much in a certain direction, they’re harmful and usually harmful to the person that’s doing them and potentially even though the person is receiving it… if they don’t want it. So it’s looking at it, going like we’re not blaming ourselves but we’re understanding that there’s deep core patterning going on here and you don’t see it until you see it.
I’ve always known I like to be busy. I just have a lot of energy. I know I always like helping people. I know that’s why I do the work that I do. But I also know I find it very hard to say no. I used to find it even harder. I’ve caught it so much more now like because burnout taught me like it’s so so needed.
Like so we’re looking at these deep parts so I could see aspects of it and I was working with all of those throughout life like but then it was just like at a certain stage when burnout truly hit me – it was like the lid lifted up and there was this – and this was the initiation, this was the right of passage – it just was like you go into this doorway here now and things cannot be the same. You cannot go back to what it was. And we have to leave parts of ourselves behind.
I say in my website, that you know it’s not a sob story thing, like it’s just like I lost so much to burnout so much you know but I gained so much at the same time. So in burnout, adrenal fatigue, anything that physically happens is there’s aspects of grief in that because you have to say goodbye to parts of your personality, parts of your identity.
You know so many people will wear the badge of I’m an empath but for a lot of people that will lead to burnout because they don’t know how to say no, because they have no boundaries, they let everything seep in.
And the energy body, the physical body, needs energy, needs chi, needs life force to be fully engaged with the world like. So if we’re always like cleansing everybody else’s through ours -you’re running, you’re eating away at your own chi, your own energy.
So we have to drop these stories we tell about ourselves the roles we play, the badges of honors that we wear, a lot of things we identify ourselves with – we have to be willing to put them in the fire, to lay them down.
Creativity and the journey of Reclaiming yourself
And in essence that’s what inspired my ‘reclaim yourself ceremony’ is that we have to lay these parts down. But okay what am I going to pick up instead. And consciously choose, maybe there’s something in my past actually when I look at older photographs that I see, or a quality in myself that I remember, and I’m going ‘god where did that go like, where did that joy go, where did that passion go, where did that confidence go, where did that self-assurity, where did the laughter go or whatever it might be like.. the power go?
And there comes a time where we have to go, I’m taking that back. Like I’m bringing that part of me forward again. And during burnout for me a big part of it was brought out through creativity because my brain just was not engaged with anything. It was not tuned in to me very much but my hands, my hands could do anything.
And it also gave me whole system of space to relax. I used to always make things when I was younger like and I dropped it probably just after secondary school. I carried everything (art materials) around with me for years, all the paintings and brushes and whatnot else but never used them.
So burnout was this opportunity of ‘oh my god I like I want to do, something like you know what someone that feeds me, nourish me, that I enjoy’. And I started back into creativity, making things, creating things just for myself for about three years like.
And that was a reclaiming of a deep aspect of me that was always there, and I just went I’m taking that back because I actually need that there. And there were so many other parts that were reclaimed too and some of them come in smaller sort of drip feeds that get stronger each day, each month and other ones came back very strongly like and there’s other parts that are still being reclaimed to this moment.
Daily Practices & Self-Care Strategies
Practical approaches to healing burnout
In these rites of passages, these initiations of burnout or adrenal fatigue, there’s an opportunity to sometimes draw a line in the sand and go I am done with this way of behaving, of thinking, of engaging, of working, of whatever it may be.
And it takes deep courage for anybody to do that because so many other people are used to us being the way we are. They’re used to saying yes to everything, they’re used to us running in to save them, they’re used to picking up all the workload, whatever it might be so it takes deep courage to be able to ‘go oh I’m not doing that anymore’.
And it’s going to be uncomfortable to tell people like you know ‘no’. Oh it’s going to be really weird, it’s going to be like wearing new shoes, they nip a little bit at the beginning but then they get really comfy.
So you’re walking through this pathway of working on the spiritual in that way.
Tools, Practices & Techniques for Recovery
But the first part to me is always the physical look and as I said like the adrenal cocktail, the minerals were really important for me. And so was the rest of the protocol and for help with whatever. I was taking into my system for it to be used by my system rather than just running through the system.
All our little simple things like that make a huge difference – is noticing and when I said yes to things that I didn’t want to say yes to and start saying no to them. And saying no when I meant no and saying yes when I really meant yes.
Outside nature, nature was and is my haven anway but because I didn’t have the energy to go the length of myself. We had just moved here to Meath probably a year after we moved here that I experienced burnout. That I used to just sit and watch the birds fly around the nests, get into the bird feeder.
We had some mad occurrences during that that time I wasn’t well. Where pheasants would be coming to visit and come up to the door and be knocking on the door looking for food which has never happened since. And there was a whole period about two years where they would come visit. There was foxes come on to visit. There is a beautiful like his little buzzard that comes to visit and he’s just actually come back this year. And I was finding little eggs, cracked eggs outside.
All these beautiful little things where nature was like teaching me. So being outside even if it’s just sitting if there’s not the energy to do anything great and it is fabulous.
Taking all the minerals that I needed to support my body. Small bits of movement. Letting yourself feel the feelings. Addressing your blood sugar imbalances because that will be a part of it. You’ll probably have survived on coffee and caffeine as your fuel without realizing it. And when my system’s balanced I drink two cups of tea then that’s literally it. And I know I’m out of balance when I’m drinking more than two cups. I know I’m running on low on magnesium when I start getting the sore jaw.
So there’s all these telltale signs I have now that were there but I just was like well it’s just that’s just my jaw…I just like tea…. so noticing the little things I can change.
It’s to know that your body’s not failing you, it’s going to be going through a process of healing and adapting now. You’ve got to address the stress, it’s hard you know it’s hard to address things that challenge us sometimes and are uncomfortable.
But address them, stop giving away energy that doesn’t need to be given away. Do things just for the sake of it, just for the sake of fun, just for you. Don’t try and make anything out of it. Don’t try and make a side hustle out of it. Just do things for fun.
Get plenty of protein and that’s where some of it will challenge your identity because if your body needs it, your body needs it.
Obviously sunlight, the red light helps as well.
Other things I found really beneficial was castor oil pack on the liver. I absolutely adore that.
I have the best sleeps after doing that.
And we actually bought a blow-up bath because we don’t have a bath in our cottage. And I just sat in baths with magnesium and borax and baking soda. And there’s a reason for that but you’ll need to research what’s good for you or not as well. And there’s certain measurements off of it too. So then when that wee bath didn’t last too long, for a blow-up baths that’s to be expected. So foot baths are my usual way now of doing it all like and I add in plants and all to that too.
So there’s all these sort of day-to-day things you begin doing, it can feel overwhelming so that’s where you start small, start with one thing – what’s one thing could move the dial the most at that minute and doing that there.
And it’s to understand that our bodies have arrived at that place because it’s trying to show something potentially. But also the behaviors, the conditioning that have made us arrive at this place they were trying to protect us from something so as to acknowledge – what was it trying to protect you from like, or what do I think I’ll get from doing xyz.
What do I think by people pleasing I’m going to get – is that love, is it being seen.. what do I get from saying yes to everything ‘oh well like people will like me’. And initially we’ll go ‘nothing sure’ because at that stage we’ve not really truly felt what’s going on in our body. But more than likely there’s something deeper going on there – childhood wounding of: needs that weren’t met, parts of you that weren’t seen, parts of you that weren’t held, parts you didn’t get to express, parts that are still stuck in flight or fight or doing.
And they were all trying to protect you but behind that will be like some unconscious thing that you think ‘oh by doing that like you know I’m going to get love’ and usually it’s love, attention, seen, support – somebody then will ask me sure ‘what I need’… if I keep asking them like but surely like you know, I keep doing loads of things for other people so surely somebody’s going to ask me ‘do I need help, would I like some support’ and that would probably never happen like.
And so a big part of it is yes the physical body needs that support. The internal physical body needs that support. You’ll have to drop some of the identities – if you’re a hardcore HIT person you might find that you need to pull away for a while and you’re maybe doing restorative yoga, light walking, a little bit of rebounding or something like. Because you don’t want to put more pressure on the adrenals while they’re trying to heal.
So I stopped a lot of it for a long time like. And for me what came back then instead was it was never any exercises I used to do.. I took up weight training like because I wanted to feel strong in my physical body.
You’re going to meet uncomfortable parts because you’re learning to advocate for yourself, you’re learning to know your needs, ask for your needs. You’re learning to know what you value – bring that into your life. You’re learning in essence, the way I look at it is to put yourself in the center of your life. Not in a, you know I don’t care about anybody else it’s all me me, me, me but as in you’ve probably beforehand had work potentially at the center or somebody else in the center and you’re off in the peripheral barely getting a look at a look into in your own life.
So it’s like you’re putting yourself in the center and beginning to really know that by caring for myself by looking after myself, then other people can benefit from that, my work can benefit from that. But if I have nothing inside, if I am empty, I’m no use to anybody. And you’re probably used to over giving, prioritizing other people’s feelings over your own, used to potentially relationships and friendships that take, take, take. Used to always being on the go, used to being the one that everybody falls onto for support and these are beautiful qualities but as I said they can also cause harm to ourselves.
Establishing Rituals & Self-Care Practices for Burnout
A TIME OF INTROSPECTION
So it’s this deep time of introspection, reflection and unfortunately it just takes whatever time it takes. And you’ll always be learning more about yourself. And then you’re learning to really listen to your body moving forward, listen to the telltale signs. Because the way somebody described it to me was it’s like that’s your Achilles heel now – is when I put myself off the center of my life, that’s my Achilles heel. And my body used to let me get away with it for a long time and it would take months and years for me to see it, where else now within 24 hours my body’s like ‘you did it again’.
So it’s like this part, it’s not that it’s when I say weak but it just means it’s being really gentle but really straightforward with you going ‘you cannot keep that pattern’ so when you do it it’s like ‘nope come back again’, let’s just tweak this, you can’t do that now. So you’re learning to reparent yourself, give yourself the care, the emotional support, the attention that maybe you didn’t get but yearn for.
A TIME TO FACE THE HURTS AND PAIN
And we have to face what hurts and that’s what healing is you know. And that’s why I can sit
opposite people and go ‘we don’t see things until we see them’. Do you know I could go ‘God if I had of spotted at this 30 years ago when I was a teenager – I wouldn’t have seen it. Even like 20 years ago I wouldn’t have seen it because it wasn’t at the forefront. It was working in the background.
Do you know I could probably say I was probably burnt out leaving the accountancy but I was starting a business at the same time so I passed no marks on and kept going. like I just thought it was just stress. So the build up, the cumulative bold up of so many things that my body was holding to the point where just went ‘yeah no we’ve got to stop this’.
IS IT COINCIDING WITH OTHER PHASES OF LIFE E.G MIDLIFE
And of course for me, it was for me not everybody would be going through it in this way it came with those beautiful transits in your early 40s.. I think 41 I was when it came at those transits, where I looked at it and just laughed. I went surprised but I’m not surprised and because I knew sort of what aspects of life I was working – with didn’t make it easier – because it brought me so many gifts and insights into myself that I couldn’t have potentially even imagined 10, 20 years ago.
In essence it came when it needed to come, like to give me that little shake, that little wake-up call that I needed. Now I would not wish it on my worst enemy to experience burnout, adrenal fatigue to the level that I had it but for me I needed it that way because I probably wouldn’t have stopped to be honest.
DON’T HATE YOUR BODY FOR THE SIGNALS
So don’t hate your body for what it’s going through. Thank it for looking after you. For letting you know that things are out of whack. Thank it for the little subtle signs that it’s maybe giving you, nourish it and take control over what you can take control over because not all aspects, you can sort of adjust and change within life sometimes depending on what else is involved like.
TEND YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM
Another part yeah, would be to look at – because obviously adrenal fatigue is, what they chat about now is going well some people don’t believe it even exists. And I’m like experience it and then tell me it doesn’t exist. But is it’s often called now system dysregulation. So anything to do with your nervous system is beautiful work to turn to.
We’re not looking for a nervous system to be a still place where it can never move. We’re looking to like – it’s meant to ebb and flow and change – but we often get stuck on certain patterns like. So usually for adrenal fatigue, it’s fight or fight but there’s usually a big aspect of fawn in there as well like. So anything like craniosacral, somatic work and all that there is gorgeous for supporting the body when it’s going through burnout.
ITS TIME TO REST, RECEIVE AND RECOVER
And consider like even for anybody burnout or no burnout is like when do you take the time to rest receive and recover in your own life?
Do you make space for that, do you put it in your diary and treat it as a full commitment or is it the thing that gets moved around the diary and ends up only being there maybe once a year if you take a little holiday. But sure that’s usually busy and full of things to be doing as well like.
HOLD ONTO THE POTENTIAL TO HEAL
So there’s really important questions to be asking yourself during that time but throughout it all is to hold the potential to heal rather than the mind will go ‘oh my god we’re always going to be this way, this will never change, oh my god what happens if we’re always like this’. And then that’s where that depression that heaviness, that emptiness, that numbness comes in.
So it’s to hold on to the potential to heal, to find the support that works for you and letting people hold you, support you. To count all the small wins along the way. To know that everybody will have an opinion on what you should be doing to get out of it and sort of let it flow over you. Take what works leave what doesn’t and just to keep implementing little small changes that keep you moving forward in a direction.
WHAT PARTS OF YOU ARE NEEDED NOW
It’s a big time to move inwards like. It’s a huge right of passage, initiation like because you’re really peeling away deep conditioning to reveal more who you truly are and it’s probably covering up parts of you that are that are the gold, the gifts, but they weren’t accepted or they weren’t allowed to shine when you were younger.
Or you had to adapt and fit in with family or fit in with school or other people and that’s exhausting. It’s exhausting to wear masks, it’s exhausting to play other roles, it’s exhausting to live other people’s stories for you. So by clearing out the debris and reclaiming yourself and your energy, your life force – you’re getting decide then where you’re going to place your life force moving forward.
ITS TIME SIMPLIFY LIFE
You’re going to have so much more discernment over where you’re going to place it. So life in essence can become more when I say simple, streamlined would be the word streamlined. You become so much more clear about where you want to place yourself, your energy and where you want to step forward into. You notice far more what’s yours and what isn’t yours.
And the beauty is that you’re like cleaning up all the back end stuff that’s just slowing you down. If you think you know in the computer you defrag the computer and that’s suddenly doing things and you update the drivers and update whatever the windows.
It’s kind of like you’re doing the same like, you’ve just been running along in your life and the whole programs are like not really getting upgraded but they’re not getting deleted and they really run out of use and you don’t need that part anymore. So there’s this beautiful opportunity to do that deep work of taking time to clean out, to empty out, to create space so something else can arrive in that space like.
TEND THE GRIEF AROUND WHAT IS ENDING
And it is an ending and it is the death and it is the completions but in within all of that there it’s to hold the hope and hold the little tiny sense sometimes of what has yet to come – like what will emerge from this space? what will grow from it? So when you move forward then and turn it that you no longer neglect who you are, you no longer neglect what you’re feeling, and you no longer neglect your own needs. And you really begin to care for yourself the way, you’ve probably cared for everybody else.
And throughout burnout, adrenal fatigue which if you work in the holistic video also coincide probably with compassion fatigue, give yourself the same grace, patience, nurturing that you give a friend or a loved one.
CREATE SIMPLE ROUTINES
Create very simple little routines for yourself. Like I have a little bedtime routine, I used to just like keep going to about 11 o’clock at night, 12 o’clock at night like a duracell bunny, on the go because my partner’s a night owl. So then I decided I’m not, I’m not naturally a night owl – I’m the early little bird in the morning. I’m like up really early seven o’clock. I love it so I was like right I have to do what I need to do. So I have my little foot bath, my phone all put away a couple hours before bed, read a little book, I read a couple pages, a couple chapters off while having a little castor oil pack on and away off I go to sleeping world.
So you’re creating these little rituals throughout the day or stepping into certain points of the day that work for you.
ASK FOR HELP
And throughout it all reach out to those who care for you and help let them hold space for you if they’re able to. But reach out for support for your physical body so you can understand what’s going on within that, the mental bodies you can understand the conditioning, the sort of the looping patterns, the beliefs that are driving certain things. The emotional body for the fears of ‘oh god like what will happen when I start taking control of my life.’ ‘what will happen when I start standing up for myself, what will happen when I start reclaiming parts of myself’.
ITS TIME TO RECLAIM YOUR POWER
And then of course, the spiritual, the bigger picture of this rite of passage, initiation. What parts of you are being called back into you and then how do you wish to carry that forward into your life. The wisdom because oh my god you’ll have earned the hard-earned wisdom navigating it.
So then what do you want to do with that there? How can you use it in your life, in yourself for your family. And ways then of moving through it sort of in a sense of spiritual ways would be for me it was always ceremony and ritual. Creating little mini rites of passages for myself,
my shamanic work and those are all things that I offer people now.
Because I’ve always known what it’s like to walk these thresholds, these cycles of birth, death rebirth. And it’s so important that we have a space where we can be honest about them, where we can really just honestly ‘this is how I feel’ and nobody tries to make us feel better or pull it, pull us out of it too soon.
But where we can also really name, what we’re going to claim. Reach your hand out for and go ‘this is mine for now, this is what I feel is growing in me, this is what I feel wants to emerge. These are the parts of me that I’m remembering, I’m re reclaiming at this moment. And that I’m going to embody moving forward.’
TEND TO YOUR NEEDS
And if you’re moving through burnout, exhaustion, adrenal fatigue is to ask yourself ‘what do you need right now’ and even if you think you’re not moving through them, if you’re tired all the time,
feeling blah, life’s just sort of lost vitality. Think about ‘what do I need, where can I reach out for some support’ because as much as we can do as much self-healing as possible in a lot of the rites of passages, initiations and threshold moments, they need to be witnessed. For us to be heard, seen in that metamorphosis and to name and commit to the path forward.
I often say I wouldn’t be without it, I needed it and I knew I needed it when I was in it. It didn’t make it any easier but I knew I needed it because things had to change. I’m still a lot of the same person but a lot of the deep ancestral stuff has shifted and I have deep compassion for all the parts of me that thought that was the only way to do things. And I’m still in the process of rebuilding a lot of things from that trying out things, experimenting with things, to see how I want to be in the world now with my work. And I step tenderly into things as I’m not rushing but going
‘is that really where I want to place my energy’. So the yeses don’t come as quickly there’s more the curiosity, the sitting with things.
Wrapping up
Wherever you are in your journey of life force, vitality, and energy, let it be a place of playful exploration. Know that you’re not alone, and don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for help.
And that’s all I have to share about burnout and adrenal fatigue for now. I could probably go on for another six hours, but I’m feeling a natural ebb at this point.
I’d love to hear from anyone who is currently experiencing burnout or has experienced it—there are probably things I’ve missed along the way.
Please ask questions, drop me an email at [email protected], visit my website at thethirstysoul.com, or reach out on Instagram at @thethirstysoul. Share your insights and experiences because, often, it can be a lonely place, and it’s always beautiful when we realize we’re not alone.
I look forward to sharing another episode with you soon—probably coming up to Bealtaine, all about the gorgeous energy of Bealtaine that occurred on the 5th of May. And yes, on the 5th of May, I’m also holding my Reclaim Yourself Ceremony, an opportunity for you to take back the parts you’ve disowned, set aside, or let go of, and bring them back into your life through a beautiful heart-thorn and rose tea ceremony along with other rituals. It’s going to be a truly beautiful and powerful ceremony, and I look forward to sharing it with anyone who feels called.
Take care, and chat to you soon.