Six Ways to Banish Burn-Out (Or at least get a good start)
starting with an odd truth–you might not feel better
What’s up, swimmers?!
I feel like cutting to the tender chase today.
You’re about to read an article that I wrote to you. It’s going to offer suggestions from experts on how one could recover from burnout. I’m going to nerd out a bit about etymology because I can. And throughout, I am going to implore you to take action, in teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, bite-sized ways, in the here and now, today.
However, I cannot promise you with absolute certainty that reading this weekly installment of The Year of Yearning, and putting effort into doing the things it invites you to consider, will make you feel any better than you do right now.
I have, like a damn fool, already today engaged in three of the six “cures” that we’re going to discuss. Two others feel like they could still be on the menu—the day is young still. Every moment is a fresh, new opportunity to do something radically different than what you’re doing right now. And I do not feel any better.
But I am writing this to you! This is an action that I am taking today, and it makes me happy do it—to craft this—for you, for me, for us. Whoever you are, at whatever intersection of life and liminality this is finding you at. Please believe me when I say that I am there alongside you, at my own crossroads, and that I am guilty of every behavior that I am going to caution you against today. That’s life?
Luckily, behaviors are changeable. It’s not an easy process. It takes time, commitment, energy, and mental and emotional focus. It takes a solid why. Perseverance, patience. Compassion. (Spoiler alert: The Hanged One is our card for February.) These are all words that vibrate to the number eight, the ruling number of 2024. This work is right on time. It is supported this year, as are you.
I saw a post on Instagram the other day, in which a cloud of philosophical concepts, references and phrases surround a trio of open-mouthed men with the caption, THE 20-SOMETHING YEAR OLD THINKERS. A real drawing you can hear. One of the floating examples is Plato’s Cave, which ouch, direct hit, I fucking love Plato’s Cave. So at the risk of being labeled loud and basic—
In Plato’s story, of the one who escapes the cave of ignorance, there are multiple points in which the seeker suffers great pain. Adjustment periods, harsh realities, a return to the darkness. Not to ruin the ending for anyone, but the seeker dies at end! At the hands of the very people they were hoping to enlighten. The Buddha, who’s on the lesson plan for next month, also teaches that suffering is a promised part of life. It’s the first of his Noble Truths. All other Buddhist teachings stem from this bruised place of revolutionary acceptance. Stick around, we’ll get into it.
So this is our pep talk. It’s our compassionate hug. It’s our gathering in the dark on the floor of our respective closets, or between the worn-in sheets of our beds.
For it is in this void space that we will begin to get ourselves unstuck.
“Last Week on SITS—”
Here’s what you’ve missed this month on The Year of Yearning:
First,
I wrote that I was “kinda feeling this year already,” and while I was honest that I didn’t fully trust it—how quickly the turntables.
I introduced our Mentors of the Month: The Fool with Reset, and the Nine of Wands with Don’t Worry, You Can Do No Wrong. These cards have asked that for January, we pause and reflect on the soup we’re still swimming in.
We turned to Princess turned Resistance General Leia Organa for inspiration: “Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it you'll never make it through the night.”
Benjamin Goss, MBA | Fractional CSO & Sales Expert told us that “more than 62% of employees feeling burned out. That’s more than half of workers in any given workplace!”
A very correct reader commented that I had glossed over a full year of the pandemic, citing three years when it’s really been four. I became even sadder than when I wrote the original mistake. Four. Whole. Years.
Psychology Today alerted us to the fact that burnout doesn’t just make us tired, but it increases the chance for other physical ailments like “headaches, fatigue, heartburn, and other gastrointestinal symptoms, as well as increased potential for alcohol, drug, or food misuse.”
I shared the bad news “that rest and time-off isn’t going to help us recover from the marrow-deep exhaustion and fatigue that we feel as a result of burn-out.” But I promised to go into some options that may help on January 19! *checks calendar* Hey wait, that’s today!
Finally, I posited “that if we have any chance of recovering from deep, spiritual burn-out, a good place to start is by reconnecting with our own divine spark.” This is referencing to a Gnostic belief that within every single person, there is a fragment of The One, Source energy, The Creator, etc, which they refer to as the divine spark.
Then,
I wrote you a love letter, and asked a question that made me feel silly and unworthy the first time someone asked me—How is your heart today?
I screamed from the top of my digital lungs about Maria Minnis’s new release, Tarot for the Hard Work. Now that I think of it, Maria might’ve been the one to ask me how my heart was!
We talked about making a Joy List, a present-tense practice of attention and gratitude that has even been medically reviewed and suggested!
I shared my own Joy List, which included my new favorite blorbos, a link to a neat 2024 Sigil Affirmation Generator, a very cute picture of Gus sleeping, and a shout-out to the spiciest boutique for book lovers on the interwebs.
To read this Love Letter in full, as well as continue on to the second lesson of January that offers next steps for moving from burnt out to neutral at best, please subscribe to be a paid pal! Thank you for your support! I love you! xx
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