A few blogs ago I wrote about recovering from burnout. In that blog I mentioned that I believe there is a spiritual aspect of burnout and that this occurs when we have starved our soul from what it yearns for, when we have become disconnected from ourSelves.

One of the groups of humans I coach are lawyers and once a month I host a call for them that includes various stress-management techniques and a guided meditation. I usually base the topic of the month on what challenges and stressors for clients show up as a theme; this month overwhelm won out.

I had a shitty day. The day itself wasn’t shitty, but the way I felt throughout it sure was. Still kind of is. OK maybe it’s been a shitty week. What do I do when this happens? This time, the first thing I did was wallow. Actually that’s not true either, the first thing I did was panic, then I wallowed.

When I posted one of my Soul Shares about burnout last week I received a lot of direct messages and comments. It reminded me about the stigma that still exists for people going through burnout and the shame and feeling of failure that surrounds this diagnosis (or lack thereof).

Each time I open this page to write, I allow myself to become distracted by something else, social media, harassing my daughter or… anything. I tell myself it’s because this subject isn’t the right one, maybe I don’t have anything really interesting to say about it …

I was weeding my garden this weekend; a chore I don’t particularly enjoy, but I had let it go for a few weeks and it was in dire need. I set out with the intention of doing the whole thing, but after an hour crouched over with my hands in the dirt, I came to the conclusion that I would have to finish it in another session.