The Moments Before Burnout
Not many of us create opportunities for rest, either because we are in a busier stage of life – think full time careers, kids, caring for aging relatives, among other pursuits – or because we believe that pushing ourselves to our limits will enable us to achieve our goals and be successful. We fill every hour of our days, treating our minds and bodies like machines without regard for the wear and tear we inflict as we maintain a frantic pace.
Much like the batteries in our favourite gadgets, our energy levels are dependent on how depleted we have become. Having the “time to do (insert activity here)” is not the same as having the energy to do that thing. For people who tend to focus obsessively on their productivity levels (reluctantly points at self), the idea that we can accomplish our usually unreasonably long to-do list by the end of each day is very appealing. To that end, we try to pack every minute of our days with busy-work deemed worthy of our time, most often spending our hours on mundane pursuits that will please others (or perhaps only what we believe will please others) rather than on activities that light up our souls and give us joy.
The result of all this accomplishment, which is usually accompanied by a lack of self-care or any meaningful acknowledgement of what we truly want, is the erosion of our energy to a degree that many of us experience burnout. People do not burn out because they worked for too many hours; they burn out because they didn’t listen to their bodies when warning signals were sent and kept exploiting their depleted energy stores until their energy ran out.
Many of us, myself included, don’t know how to rest, and may even have difficulty sleeping at night. We’ve been socialized to seek success by racking up our achievements at the expense of almost everything else. If you’re a working mother, then you get the added bonus of trying to undertake all the activities a stay-at-home mother manages to get done, as well. We tell ourselves that things will change when the kids get older and become more independent, that work will settle down soon and we won’t have to put in the extra couple of hours per day to keep up, and more. We say a lot of things to convince ourselves that it’s reasonable to keep pushing the ever-expanding metaphorical boulder we’re pushing uphill.
What’s the solution?
I wish I had the solution to this problem and could briefly jot it down here so we can all feel better immediately. I don’t. What I do know is that eventually, we’re going to slip and these boulders will crush some of us. We need to stop now, look at our lives, and find a way to replenish our energy stores so we can keep going, being the people we want to be in the current iteration of our lives.
Part of what I love so much about Integrated Energy Therapy® is that it powerfully removes the energetic blocks that keep people feeling stuck and helps lift away the spiritual, mental, and emotional baggage which keeps them acting from their wounded selves. When you feel like you’re going through the motions of life without actually living, nothing helps shake you out of it better than peeling away layers of emotional and spiritual scar tissue. Cleaning out a wound helps it to heal better and stronger than allowing it to heal without intervention, after all.
For today, I urge you to stop, be silent for a few minutes, and assess how you feel in that moment of stillness. If you silence your mind and give your body and spirit a moment to be heard, you will be amazed by what you learn. Your inner knowing is your wisest teacher and friend. Honour it with your attention.
Dora Né
Integrated Energy Therapy® Master Instructor
Founder, Reading Restoratives Book Box