Monday 20 March marks the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere; which means that we’ve finally shifted out of the tail end of Winter and we’re officially into Spring. The days are now longer than the nights, and will continue to be until Midsummer. Aaaaaaand breathe.

One of the biggest takeaways I have from my Burnout Recovery and subsequent Burnout Prevention journey is the value of leaning into seasonal fun.

Building a relationship with yourself is like dating yourself! Hear me out. I’m a firm believer that a lot of us burn out because we’ve forgotten how to care about ourselves…

I hate New Years resolutions. I used to sit on New Years Eve or New Years Day and write out this great long list of things I had to do the next year.

Intentions are much simpler. I really like to have just one, overarching, simple Intention to come back to again and again through my year.

Something that can be really frustrating about Burnout is the total lack of perspective that we have when we’re stuck inside the boiling pot of it all. It’s so hard to step back and see the bigger picture when we’re spending all our energy just trying to keep our heads above water.

If you are struggling with burnout, stress and overwhelm, and self-care seems like the last thing on your to do list, let me and my handy snooker table analogy help you to step back and get on the road to recovery.

I quit my job and THEN healed my Burnout. But what if you aren’t in a position to do that? Is it possible to recover from Burnout while holding down a job? Let’s find out.

A much requested topic; let’s look at how to say NO. I get asked about this a lot. And what I want to explore today isn’t so much about the words, it’s about the stuff behind that, because I don’t think the problem that the people who ask me this question are struggling with is the wording. I think it’s the inclination. The motivation.

This week, I’m talking about taking breaks - taking breaks when you don’t actually NEED to take breaks. This is a novel concept, I know!

I’ve been thinking about expectations. Good expectations, bad expectations. The way that we dream about some things, the way it should be; the way we hope it will be, and the way we fear some things; the way it might be. I’ve been thinking a lot about the pressure expectation puts on us, the stress it causes, and how that can contribute to Burnout.

Here’s why using a Planner can be really practically helpful when you’re recovering from Burnout: When our little frazzled brains drag ourselves out of the boiling pot of Burnout, they’ve been pretty bashed about. There’s brain fog, often anxiety or panic attacks, there’s exhaustion and fatigue, general confusion. It’s a mess. What you really need is some very simple structure.

Here’s what happens when we get stuck in the Burnout Cycle. We Burn Out. We hit the wall. We think, I’ve got to get out of this. So we make some kind of surface level change like quitting out job, moving, leaving a relationship - whatever it is. And then we go somewhere else and for a minute, it feels great. It’s new, it’s different, we’re focussed on learning, acclimating, making new connections. However, it doesn’t take long before we start making those same mistakes - bad habits like taking on too much, people pleasing, never saying no, not setting boundaries, they all come back.

If you are Burning Out right now and you need help, but you don’t know what it is that you need - this post is for you.

Here’s the thing. Self-love and self-care is important, not just for you and your Burnout Prevention or Burnout Recovery, but for the world and people around you as well. When we make time for ourselves, we can restore our depleted energy levels, we can rest and reset, we can do things that make us feel good, and we can listen to ourselves and our needs and give ourselves what we need.

Lately, my timeline has become awash with Burnout content. AWASH! Which is great, on the one hand. However, most of the content I’m seeing is about how to AVOID Burnout. But if you’re Burning Out right now taking a couple more breaks in your day and trying Yoga just aren’t going to cut it for you right now. Here's how you ACTUALLY heal from Burnout.

This is a post that admittedly won’t apply to my whole audience - but after seeing what’s been going on in the Theatre and Live Entertainment world this past week, mostly via the social media posts of friends still in it, I felt compelled to write something - and I hope it’s helpful at least to the people it’s intended for.

In this post, I’m sharing a not-exhaustive list of the ways that Burnout can manifest - and it’s worth noting that this isn’t a case of needing to tick every single symptom off the list before you can consider yourself ‘Burned Out’.

Let’s talk about why you need a Burnout Recovery Coach in your life!

How can Journaling help you prevent, or recover from Burnout - and how are you supposed to even do it anyway?

I’m here to tell you that it’s totally okay to be weirded out by journaling. If sitting down and pouring your heart out onto an empty page doesn’t feel natural to you, that’s okay! There are actually LOADS of different kinds of journaling, so many in fact that I’m pretty confident there’s one out there for you.

I get asked ALL THE TIME for reading recommendations. And I totally understand why, because I’ve been there! When I Burned Out, when I first even heard the term Burnout from my doctor, the first thing I did was start looking for books, podcasts and Instagram accounts to understand what it was I was dealing with.

These are the books that make up my own Burnout Busting arsenal (so far).