Feeling close to burnout?

We all know people who have been close to burnout, whether that's colleagues in your workplace who have taken time off due to stress, or someone in your circle who has been an unpaid carer for their elderly parents or a partner.

Burnout can happen at any stage in our life and it is common in our 40's and 50s, as we navigate mid-career changes and/or financial pressure ( if we have children) or time pressure, balancing time between family/elderly parents/work.

 We can blame the outside world: the workplace, the relationship, the state of the world.

What if the exhaustion, the emptiness and the illness are all SIGNS pointing somewhere?

Maybe feeling close to burnout is a wake-up call. It could be time to review how you have been living your life and notice which patterns, beliefs and programmes have been running behind the scenes on autopilot.

You may have been fine for years, getting on with your life and building your identity around being ‘the strong, capable one’ or the person who does everything to a very high standard. You may have been avoiding the uncomfortable feelings for years and haven’t looked at what may have happened to get you to this point.

A 'midlife' crisis is asking us to wake up from our old conditioned identity (who I am in society, in the workplace) and ask the question, “ Who am I really? ( If I’m not x or y?)

What lies behind the “I should”, “ I have to”, or “ I must”?

The crisis may look like it’s coming from the outside, but what has triggered it? 

Most of us try to avoid the challenges and crave security and stability. That's natural, and life doesn’t always give us what we want. In midlife, sometimes things come crashing down around us.

This is where Logosynthesis® comes in.  

During a Logosynthesis session, we take time to uncover what lies behind burnout. You may have had to push away or suppress difficult experiences in your life. Together we will take time to explore what has brought you to this point.

Some questions might include:-

What beliefs have driven you towards burn-out?

Who have you had to be for others?

What no longer fits?

What are you afraid of letting go of?

What are you noticing right now in your body as you talk about this?

Burnout and frozen energy

From a Logosynthesis® perspective, everything is energy.

Energy is either frozen or in flow.

Any crisis that seems like it’s coming from the outside will be triggering older memories or beliefs about life that we haven’t looked at before.

In a Logosynthesis session, we will discover the most important places where the energy is frozen. Dr Willem Lammers, who created Logosynthesis®, discovered that an unprocessed old memory, fear or fantasy will appear around us in space. These memories and fears may have been there for years, unprocessed until now, when the experience of burnout starts triggering them.

The thing is, we react to these old memories and fears as if they are in the present. We mistakenly assume that what is happening now is to blame: “ it’s the job, the marriage, the government.“ Outside circumstances will affect us, but if we are BURNT OUT, we have lost our sense of power and our sense of self, which points to something deeper. 

For example, the disagreeable manager may remind you of a scary incident with a teacher at school or with a parent where you were afraid. You may have made up your mind at 7 that you would become strong and simply not care, or behave so perfectly that you would never have to experience that level of fear and loneliness again. These programmes were great strategies at the time, but as a 45 or 50-year-old man or woman, they aren’t helpful if you are burning out with exhaustion from striving to be perfect.

In a Logosynthesis session, the body provides the clues. What we feel in the moment, when we describe what the issue is, helps us locate the specific memory, belief or fear. We use the Logosynthesis sentences to clear the memories or beliefs ( stuck in the amygdala) that were frozen in time – for example, at the age of 7 in the classroom with the angry teacher.  

After one or two rounds of speaking the Logosynthesis sentences aloud (without the need to know what the words mean but simply letting them work), something SHIFTS. Clients notice afterwards that they feel more present in the room. They feel more relaxed and have a bit more energy and strength. Piece by piece, we begin to unravel what’s actually underneath the `burnout’ and begin listening to what the real message is. You can try out a Logosynthesis session with me here. Together we will begin to integrate the parts of your life that you may have neglected or pushed away. I can't promise it will be an easy journey, but it will be worthwhile.