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

• Regularly reviewing my values

 

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)

• “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)

 

Links

Free Breakthrough Burnout Call with Cait

 

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