Listen to your body to prevent burnout: a deeper conversation about life’s seasons

Have you ever wondered if you’re ‘burned out’? Or maybe you’ve wondered, “how do I know when I’m doing too much?”

In today’s society, especially if you are a parent, most of us can relate to the complete exhaustion, overwhelm, and constant fatigue that comes with burnout and doing too much. But many of us don’t know how to identify when we are headed towards burnout, or if we are already there.

Burnout is definitely widespread in our society, and at the same time, I’ve been seeing a new conversation popping up to help combat this. The conversation I’m hearing is there’s a time for rest, and a time for hustle. The whispers of, “it’s ok to rest” and “rest is productive” are getting louder. I am ALL for this (hello, cyclical living!), but I feel like there’s a big piece missing in this conversation.

So many of us have ignored our body and your inner queues and our intuition for so long that we have no idea if rest is the right thing right now. We have no idea if hard work or reflection or goal setting & getting is what we need.

So, sure, let’s recognize and respect all the seasons of life – the slow seasons and the high energy seasons. Yes, let’s do what we can to prevent burnout.

But how do you know if you’re burning yourself out?
How do you know if this is your season to relax and let go?
To plan, but not quite take action yet?
To put in all the hard work and reap the rewards?
To celebrate, slow down, or to speed back up?

This is where cyclical living comes in.

We’ve been taught for so long to fight our bodies and ignore our cues that it’s really easy to get caught up in a season of doing too much.

Or maybe you feel like you’ve been in an inner winter for quite a while, but you don’t know when it would be supportive to start to emerge, or even how to begin to emerge.

Paying attention to the energy around you and within you is the missing piece to understanding your physical & energetic needs and preventing burnout.

This is a conversation I don’t see anyone having, and here are the steps to take:

Step 1: recognize and understand all four of life’s seasons; their energies and needs.
We can’t just live in summer all the time (that’s what creates burnout!), but it probably doesn’t feel great to live in winter energy all the time either. A life full of ease and sustained wellness & energy requires all four seasons.

Winter: Rest, reflection, story-telling. Intention and goal setting.

Spring: (a transition season). Planning, organizing, creating.

Summer: Take action, play, explore, grow.

Autumn: (a transition season). Focus & complete, celebrate.

Remember, your life’s season does not need to align with nature’s seasons.

Step 2: recognize and understand what energy, what “season” feels right for you each and every day.
Once you accept the cyclical nature of life and understand the supportive energies of each season, it’s time to learn how to apply this to your life. This will help you not only prevent burnout, but to do more and feel better, with less effort.

But how do you know what season you’re in? How do you know what actions and energies are most supportive to you on any given day?

This is where a Holistic Cycle Tracker comes in!

Using a Holistic Cycle Tracker will help you get in tune with your natural cycles and how they play off of the energies of the moon cycles and seasonal energies around you.

This is like finding your super power! The more you tune in with the energies within you and around you, the better equipped you will be to recognize when you are doing too much and eventually, to end burnout for good!

Step 3: implement this in your daily home & work life.
OK, it’s not always quite as simple as using a cycle tracker and understanding your needs…sometimes (always?) life has demands that you simply cannot ignore. Kids need to be taken care of, the house needs to be cleaned, and people at work are depending on you to complete certain tasks.

BUT, before you can work on figuring out how to set boundaries, delegate, manage tasks, take time off, etc. you’ve gotta start with YOU. Get really comfortable with steps 1 and 2 then the implementation will become much simpler, trust me.

To learn more about using cyclical living as your foundational practice to prevent burnout and create a life of ease, come join me in the Cyclical Living: balanced hormones, body literacy, and self love for women Facebook Group, or join me in the next round of Deepen!