×
"I have barely time to breathe", we say.
Is it Thursday already?
We get angry at our boss,
angry at our colleagues,
angry at our customers,
angry at ourselves.
We want to save the world.
And we want to do it better than anyone.
The world keeps applauding us.
People seem to enjoy the race.
Time slips through our fingers.
It is never enough.
One more coffee.
One more sleepless night.
There is no time to breathe.
Until one day,
at the worst possible time,
there's no air.
And the fire goes out.
The body is exhausted.
The mind is paralised.
The days drag on.
We just want tomorrow to come,
because maybe tomorrow we will feel better.
The world moves on around us.
And it's too fast.
Where's the strength that was here?
How did this happen to me?
"Stop asking difficult questions",
we say
when someone says,
"are you ok?"
Everything is exhausting.
Days and nights are a blur.
Endless medical appointments,
endless exams,
endless prescriptions.
It seems that we will never be able to live a "normal" life again.
We try to go back to "normal" for way too long.
Until one day,
we realize that "normal" is invented.
That our normal can be invented by us.
It can be anything we want.
And the flame slowly reignites.
The sun shines through our bedroom window again.
We've spent months, perhaps years,
in the dark.
At the same time,
it feels like it's been so fast.
The days have a spark of joy again.
We are again able to make a promise
and keep that promise.
We understand our limits.
We come to grips with our traumas.
We allow ourselves to pursue our desires.
We learn to walk again,
to relate with others,
to work.
We are still jolted by relapses,
but we learn to live with them.
Our essence is now visible,
crystal clear.
Life keeps shaking us from our center,
throwing us back and forth.
But we now know the way back.
Things keep getting out of our control,
but now we laugh about it all.
Now, our fire can heat without hurting.
And we learn, day after day
that we can shine without burning out.
Learning day after day about how to hold onto the spark of joy that keeps burnout away is an important part of Carol’s third act but it’s also a message worth considering for us all. Burnout is slowly becoming better understood but there are still so many people who think it isn’t real or is “just being a little tired”. Let’s continue to educate ourselves so we can look after ourselves and everyone else too.
Carol does this on a daily basis. As a writer and facilitator in the world of burnout and mental health, there is no better place to start learning than Carol Milters website..
