Burnout recovery and burnout prevention go hand in hand. Of course, you want both if you don’t want to simply keep cycling from burnout to burnout. But there are a few key differences that are important to understand and will help you do both more effectively.

Rest is vital for burnout recovery, and it’s only part of the solution.

If we rest and recover, but then go back to the exact same life that burned us out in the first place, then what we’re really doing is creating a cycle. A pattern where we go from burnout to burnout. Fill and empty. Fill and empty. Here’s how to exit that cycle.

Why do we put masks on? There are lots of reasons, but if you dig into them, you’ll find many of them are sprouting off one big tap root: shame. In this article, we’ll unpack the shame that often accompanies sensitivity. How it gets passed on, and how to stop the cycle.

Revealing our true selves is a many layered process. Likely, each layer has layers of its own. As we go through the stages of reclaiming our authenticity, we find tools and strategies that worked and some that didn’t. Some that are still useful, and some we never want to use again. This list isn’t linear, it’s more like a spiral or concentric circle. For example: lots of us have unmasked with really close friends before we felt safe to unmask just in our own company. Here are some of the levels of unmasking…

If you’ve been on social media lately, you might have run in to terms like “Freeze mode” and “functional freeze”. Can I be real with you? When I’m really deep in freeze mode, NONE of the quick tips and tricks from Instagram work for me. Here's what does, complete with a freeze mode 101 infographic.

Have you ever been working away at your creative project and felt the inspiration and motivation just drain out of you? Maybe it came on slowly like a leak in a tire, or maybe it knocked the wind out of you like the rug was pulled out from under your feet. Either way,
Welcome to your rest cycle! Here’s how to navigate it.

Let’s start with what it’s not. The difference between work and play isn’t effort. Anyone who’s had a hobby (skateboarding, marathon running, golfing, knitting) can tell you that much. Exerting yourself doesn’t make your play feel less playful. Quite the contrary.

And it’s not merely about money either. Making money from play doesn’t automatically turn it into work.

It’s not about what you add. It’s about what you take away.

This isn’t a sermon on going outside (but also, go outside! It’s nice there! There are cool things like moss and small birds and rivers). But I want to point out the blind spots we have because of our values. I know this is good for me. I believe in it. I espouse it. So it must mean I do it. Only, does it?

The inner critic has a really important job to do. It has been training for years. The more you push it away the more it will pop up because it is a clever mechanism for keeping you alive.
The critic uses any means to prevent us from being rejected. It berates us to keep us from being berated by others. Bigger, scarier others that used to stand between us and resources back when we were too small to get them for ourselves.

I frame my work around creativity in the context of the abundance of nature. If the natural world is so abundant and diverse then it means that you, as part of the natural world are adding to its diversity and subject to its abundance the same as any other creature.

Ok, cool you might say. But what if I don’t live near nature? Do I have to move to the (so-called)Canadian woods or the jungles of Bali to feel this connection?

No. You don’t. And I’ll tell you why.

I’m forever amazed at how quickly people expect to bounce back after a big life change. I often hear my clients say: “I left my corporate job/my marriage/school/moved across the country/retired a while ago, but I don’t feel any desire to work on my business/dive into studies/get creative in the studio. What’s wrong with me?”

Recently I’ve noticed people don’t always make decisions in the way they think they do.
It looks like they are deciding. They’re talking about it, they’re weighing pros and cons. They’re hesitating. They’re doubting themselves. But ultimately, The decision has already been made, They’re just convincing themselves of it.

You know, the thing that everyone else thinks is so obviously the best thing to do. The thing you would be crazy to say no to, but… that leaves you with a small sinking feeling deep inside.

Listen to that feeling. That small sigh is the sound of everything in you that yearns to be born.