With care and attention to how I’m feeling

 [Note: this post was originally published on August 1, 2024 date] 

 Part 2 of 10 in the series, “How do I launch a business while on my burnout recovery journey?”

It may seem crazy to launch a business after going through burnout. Where does all the energy come from? How do you manage the stress? How do you keep going? This is post #2 of a 10-part series.

As a burnout survivor in recovery, I have had to learn how to pay attention to my body and what I’m feeling. We start out as children knowing how to do this.

But then, as a society, we start teaching children to not pay attention to our feelings, to suppress them, to hide them away. We’re told, “big girls/boys don’t cry” or simply, “be quiet.” No one addresses their emotional needs.

We forget they need to know how to regulate these emotions and deal with them and respond appropriately. We don’t teach them how to clearly communicate what they’re feeling and what they need. This gets passed down through families for generations.

Then we grow up that way. We bring this to our work habits.

When we are taught to suppress and hide our emotions, we wind up lashing out in anger, building resentments. We learn very unhealthy work patterns, like overachieving, perfectionism, and workaholism, and sometimes even disassociating from our bodies completely.

I was an overachiever perfectionist who was totally disassociated from my body and its feelings and needs. That led to my burnout.

Now, I’m learning how to pay attention. To listen to my body, learn what it needs, and respond appropriately.

Some days I do well, other days, I miss the message and wind up living in anxiety and fear until I can remember to stop, breathe, talk to a friend, and come back to what my body needs. This happened just the other day. I’m sure it will happen again.

Each day brings new challenges that I have to address, new feelings and emotions that I wasn’t expecting to show up, and different energy levels that make it easier or harder for me to remember what to do and when I need to do it.

It’s all part of being a lifelong learner and staying in recovery from burnout.