When you’re barely keeping your shit together, self-care sounds like just another impossible thing to do. At best, too prissy, too privileged, too IG. At worst, another failure, another loss.

Like many, many people around the world, I experienced a loss this week. Although this one was long in coming — the inevitable culmination of an eight-year Alzheimer’s journey — it lodged itself in the tender place where small losses over the last year have added up. Little losses, not grieved because they paled in comparison to bigger struggles going on in the world. Vicarious griefs: empathetic resonance with the…

For me, the biggest gut-punch of this calamitous year has been my racist awakening. Of course I knew there was racism but, until George Floyd’s murder, I did not understand how it is woven into the DNA of our country. White people have been intentionally sheltered from its existence.

White people who think they “succeeded all by themselves” willfully ignore the foundation of this country which is literally on the backs of black enslaved prisoners. …

Does the conflict and negativity surrounding this election cause your precious internal flame to flicker? You’re not alone.

Election burnout is a real thing. Even in ordinary years, elections trigger increased anxiety, stress, fear, anger, and mistrust (according to Psychology Today). And 2020 is no ordinary year!

Since burnout is a recognized disorder with serious symptoms, be aware of early indicators that may require medical intervention. These include:

• High blood pressure
• Losing or gaining weight
• Over-/Under-eating
• Increased use of alcohol or drugs
• Feeling stressed and worried
• Feeling irritable or moody
• Difficulty sleeping
• Burnout steals health, joy, and that fire inside.

…

Burnout has many causes, but one thing its victims have in common is they are pushers.

They push those around them (employees, colleagues, spouses, children). They push against what is. They push themselves. Relentlessly.

This pushing works for them until it doesn’t. Eventually, inevitably, their fuel sources deplete.

I know. I pushed my way out of the trailer park, through a college education, up through various levels of outward success, right into burnout. I ignored my needs, my dissatisfaction, all the warnings. …

When you retrace your life, examining its course as a series of forks in the road, an alternate landscape emerges. At each fork in the road, you made a choice: left or right, either/or, yes or no. You probably weren’t aware of most of those binary choices, yet each of them set your path, leading to subsequent forks, more choices, ultimately placing you right where you are now. EVEN ONE DIFFERENT choice would have dominoed into a different present reality for you.

Not all forks are the same.

There’s something else needing to be said.

During this pandemic crisis, I’ve seen resilience twisted and used as a weapon against others in three ways: Shaming, Shoulding, and Misappropriation. These three forms of resilience abuse are related and interconnected.

This was evident as employees shifted quickly to working from home. Mostly without missing a beat, they set up home work-spaces, communications, and technology.

Concurrently, many experienced additional stresses as their loved ones struggled with change and potential illness. …

The gap between what you want (deeper relationship, stronger body, more money, whatever) and what you have (well, you know what you have) can seem ENORMOUS! And this is sooooo exciting.

That big gap says so much about you…

• You have gained clarity on what you want. That is the most important — and often, most difficult — step.
• You have taken stock of where you are and decided you deserve more. That is self-love at its purest.
• You are at the start of a journey that will bring you closer to True You, closer to living your big life…

Burnout prevention is a lifestyle. Accumulate actionable practices you can adopt, strategies to implement, to support you in building and sustaining your energy reserves.

Essential Strategy #1: Self-Management

Your body is your vehicle for life. You will only go as far as it takes you. Just like your car requires basic care and maintenance, your body is a machine with certain requirements in order to function. For optimal, sustainable functioning — for you to be and do all you want to be and do in this life — your body’s basic needs must be met. …