Running towards mental burnout, unable to stop?
Very often when we start to burn out we’re all too aware that something needs to change, for me it’s a physical feeling of running in my body, thoughts racing but at the same time having keep going. Everything about my physical self is sounding the alarms but I’m being the strong one, nothing will bring me down, until I crash.
You don’t need me to tell you how fast this world can feel, we are on the go from the minute our feet hit the floor in the morning and sometimes well into the night as our brains keep the thought party going. “I just can’t switch my brain off,” is something I here often from clients. “There’s just so much to do and only one of me,” it feels very much that we are all in some way running to stand still in our lives, all the time, but it’s happening to everyone, only we’ve got so good at pretending, keeping up the front, we see and believe whole heartedly in others coping well with life, going through it with ease and often nailing it, when underneath we can’t see the racing they’re doing too.
And there must be something else to be done? I need to work harder is often the response.
But how do you get your brain to stand still, yes you can drop the things off your to do list and if you are able to ask others for help and support but you can’t always get your mind to catch up so easily. You can physically stop but mentally stopping a pile on can be a very different game.
Here are a few things to try when you feel on the edge of burnout but can’t slow your brain down enough to start calming all those stress hormones creating that whirlwind in your head.
Give it to the ground
When I feel like this I have a daily grounding practice, I take myself somewhere, even just our patch of grubby lawn out the back door and I plant my bare feet on the grass. I place one hand on my heart the other on my belly, you can close your eyes if you like and I breathe as deeply and as steadily as I can. My performance training means I can breath from my belly into my diaphragm quite easily but if you find this style of breathing challenging, simply imagine the air coming into your body and filling up not just your lungs but under your hand on your stomach too. Slowly, calmly, in and out. Feel the grass under your toes, the security of the solid ground under the soles of your feet, familiar and supporting. You might just be able to manage up until this point for a little while, breathing and feeling the earth but if you can start to listen for other sounds of nature, the birds talking, the breeze in the leaves or maybe if you are really lucky, a moment of quiet with no cars or people, allow your brain to settle on the noises of nature if you can, the world that goes on outside of yours but can be a huge source of support if you need it to be.
Ink it – Creatively letting things out
I’m not a huge fan of journaling but what I do love to do is free write and quite often if I’m feeling really wired or on the edge of possible burnout then I will write it all out to help calm my brain down. What do I mean by that, well, more often than not it involves a blank piece of paper and what ever makes it onto the page, literally writing what’s in my head with no compulsion to have it make sense or to write with any fixed purpose other than to get out the backed up energy I’m feeling. Sometimes I read it and sometimes it gets popped straight in the recycling or deleted if I’ve used my notes app but if you do choose to read it there can be real insights into how you got to this point, unfiltered and un hindered by other people’s words. If you do choose to read what you have written or noted – don’t forget you can speak this too, using your phone recording app if writing is something you struggle with, I have a severely dyslexic daughter so I fully understand writing might not be the best choice for folk. But regardless of how you do this, you must review your words with softness and compassion, treat them like a friend trying to talk to you, no one is judging this is your sub conscious talking, so let it and if you find something illuminating maybe when you feel ready it might be good to dig into it in different ways. You might like to ask yourself the following questions
1. Can I find comfort in this?
2. Is there something new in what I have written or is this the recognition of a patterning?
3. I would I respond if this was a close friend telling me this over a coffee?
4. What is my body/mind/soul trying to tell me?
5. Can I do anything at this time to support myself or will this have to be a gradual work in progress?
Choose a healing card to work with
In the minor arcana the suit of Cups resonates with emotional energy, the element here is water which again is symbolic of the emotional flow of energy we experience. When it comes to burning out we’ve used up all those resources, we’ve literally burned them up, our emotional reserves might feel as if they have dried up or are being held back and if you were to let them go all at once you might not be able to stop yourself from being swept up in a flood. But somehow it’s important for you to return to flow, the emotions that are keeping you in the flight or fight state need to be calmed. If you are drawn to working with a card, the Princess of Cups and Queen of Cups can be a good place to start, both these cards hold full cups in meditative states, in my deck they are particularly soothing cards with the Princess of Cups bare foot and grounded and the Queen channelling the energy of the Moon to bring healing into the water, between the energy of the moon and the still ness of the water she finds peace and healing within herself. Another possibility would be to work with any of the cards that resonate with a 6 energy, 6 being the number of rest, healing and balance, so the 6 of Cups, Swords or Wands although all these have slightly different energies you are working with the numbers first, or of course you can work with The Lovers card from the major arcana, with calming, loving energy at its core. But what does working with a card look like in reality, here are a few ideas to get you started, you can place the card somewhere you can see it throughout your day. On your desk, a picture on your phone, I used to put them on my fridge back in the day when it was covered in kids drawings and school letters, but it would just be there and I would spend time looking at it when I could. You could sit with the card in your hands and see how you feel, imagine the water within it softly moving over your hands or the healing 6 energy radiating from the card and into your mind, softening, soothing and calming. If you are experienced with your cards then you might be able to connect to your intuition using this process, what does the card have to tell you, can you gain any advice from this card in this moment. Don’t worry if you don’t feel fully connected to your card other than the physical sensation in your hands, you can still ask the card for support and to share its healing energy with you or appreciate the cards imagery to help you feel calm in this moment. You can work with a single card for as long as you need to, I’m not a believer in a card for a day type way of working, unless you are just starting with a new deck. The energy of card can be worked with or lasts as long as you need it, that’s why you get repeat cards in readings you haven’t completed the energy cycle of that card to move forward, so keep talking and keep listening until you feel it’s time to move to another card.
Creating space and diverting the flow of urgent, racing energy is essential if we are to step off the rollercoaster we can create in our lives, so we realise that the stakes are seldom as high as we perceive them to be and perspective and boundaries are needed so we don’t burn out. I hope you find these suggestions helpful and if you’re like to know more about how tarot and holistic coaching can help you please send me a message.