Navigating Compassion Fatigue and Burnout: Practical Tips for Healing
Compassion fatigue and burnout for women professionals is expressed in the body and mind in many different ways, such as:
exhaustion- both physical and mental
brain fog
emotional eating
autoimmune conditions
anger and frustration
unchecked perfectionism
poor emotional boundaries
and many more!!!
Because we truly care!
We deeply care about our families, friends, our work (for a paycheck or not), the people we serve, our planet… so many beings! And that’s not a bad thing- at all!
Until…
You get overwhelmed. So much so that your nervous system dysregulates and you sacrifice your well-being and feel, well… tired. Sick. Burnout. Numb.
When I pushed past my body's signals to rest... I went for my go-to afternoon sugar boost, which usually involved chocolate-anything. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with high-quality chocolate, but I would find myself craving it every afternoon when I would feel a slump in my energy. Instead of really addressing the root of my fatigue, I would just quick fix-it with another sugar bomb. This eventually led to a slow depletion of my energy reserves.
Maybe it's the 3pm coffee habit or the afternoon snack which then becomes grazing on food all afternoon.
Whatever your go-to (oftentimes unconscious) habit is for the next boost to get you through the day, please realize that our bodies can only hit the accelerator so many times before we crash.
The antidote to compassion fatigue and burnout is simply this…
Practice Self-compassion.
However, for many of us who are caught in this cycle, we may need to remember how to do this!
In a recent Be The Love podcast episode called Cultivating Self Compassion, we discuss practical ways to let go of old programming and authentically feel compassion and love for yourself.
I also address these issues along with many other stress-related health conditions in my bi-weekly(ish) email, Sacred Path Guide to Healing. I blend the wisdom of ancient traditions like yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation with practical tools to create calm in the chaos!
Crosier Mountain, near Glen Haven, Colorado
