I have been hearing it a lot lately… “I’m exhausted, but what can ya do… gotta keep plugging along” OR “I’ve been working like crazy and now I’m sick” OR “There just isn’t any time left in the day once I take care of everything the kids need”. We wear our exhaustion and burnout as a badge of honor. Then, we brag about it to friends, family, and acquaintances. It is commonplace to complain and vent, but we don’t take action. I am here to call BS on this madness. That is right, I am done with the idea that we have to run ourselves into the ground to earn anything… money, status, love, worth. None of it is worth my physical, mental, emotional health and well-being.
Okay? So now what?
I can tell what you are thinking. “Well that sounds great and all, Candice, but what does that even mean and how do I change society?” And I will stop you right there. We absolutely do not change society. It all begins when we change ourselves. We change the way we think and talk and behave. It can be as simple as showing others that its okay to take breaks and rest through leading by example.
It is absolutely okay to not be grinding every second of every day. What if we take a break from watching the news and studying covid numbers and tracking every snow storm across the country? How good would it feel to give our bodies and our nervous systems a chance to rest and regulate? Welcome to a new way of living where we take care of ourselves before we are able to take care of others.
Burnout Buster #1: your invitation
I invite you to make a slight shift in your day to day life. I invite you to check in with yourself. Every morning for the last year, I wake up and I say to myself “What do I need today?”. Some days the answer to that question is 10 minutes to read in quiet. Other days, I need to get something done that has been hanging over my head. More days than not, it is connection with others: a call to a close friend, a text to a family member, or a conversation with a coworker. We all have needs, and finding ways to meet your needs is not selfish. It is a great way to life a happy and fulfilling life, one day at a time. So I invite you to ask yourself the same question, “What do I need today?”.
more important than ever
The last 2 years have been a pressure cooker. I am done with it. I am blowing the lid right off. The quality of my life has dramatically improved since I have started these practices. Stay tuned next week as I dive into another Burnout Buster.
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