Laura @ WholeYou Resilience ☀️🌻

Recovering from #burnout requires us to undertake the hero’s journey back to Self.

It requires courage to release the security of your defense mechanisms and sacrifice your illusions about life.

Headshot of Lilly Ledbetter.

Happy Mother’s Day to …

All the Lilly Ledbetters out there!

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Never give up.

This is what a bad-ass strong woman looks like. ❤️

Woman with child surrounded by flowers. Photo by Liana Mikah on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-kissing-girls-cheek-between-white-roses-garden-5rL71DCxn7s

I don’t place significant value on made-up human holidays. I hope some day I may be able to find joy in them again. Mostly, I find them stressful as our capitalistic society exploits our obligation to participate to make money.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Photo of woman in profile, eyes closed, head tilted up.

🌀 🌀 Inner Listening is the Path to Freedom 🌀 🌀

#Burnout recovery demands we listen less to external definitions of self and more to the messages arising from within. The more we align with the Self, the more purposeful and vital our lives become.

It's hard because it requires we let go.

Woman standing with eyes closed and brow knitted in exasperation and weariness.

🌀 🌀 Growth Requires Discomfort 🌀 🌀

Questioning the identity we’ve built in life is disorienting, and often painful, but it’s essential for personal freedom. Only by challenging our assumptions can we begin to discover a more authentic way of being.

This is the work of #burnout recovery.

Kid wearing superman costume.

🌀 🌀 Don't Mistake Adaptation for Identity 🌀 🌀

Our beliefs about “who we are” stem from roles we assumed in childhood: the responsible one, the pleaser, the rebel. These roles were survival strategies.

#Burnout recovery requires we recognize some of these ways of being no longer serve us.

Giant red face sculptures in grass.

🌀 🌀 Our Identity is a Construct 🌀 🌀

Our conscious identities—based in the ego mind—are shaped by early life experiences, cultural expectations, and adaptive responses. They are not our true Self, but a provisional version meant to help us survive.

#Burnout recovery demands we transcend these.

Sandcastle disolving back into sand.

🌀 🌀 🌀 If it matters to YOU, it matters. 🌀 🌀 🌀

"Doing it anyway” means we act with courage and clarity, knowing our efforts matter even if we receive no external validation and the outcomes don’t last forever.

#Burnout recovery demands a real mission.

Woman sitting with hands on head, looking down.

🌀 🌀 🌀 Disillusionment Demands Meaning 🌀 🌀 🌀

Understanding and accepting our goals/ideals/roles will eventually fall apart is not pessimism. True inner power begins when we accept disillusionment and choose to live purposefully in spite of it.

#Burnout recovery must transcend apathy.

"Dead End" sign.

🌀 🌀 🌀 Collapse is a Powerful Opportunity 🌀 🌀 🌀

When what we’ve built fails or falls apart, the void makes way for deeper connection to our values, character, and calling.

Sustainable recovery from #burnout must include resolute self-discovery to re-align with our inner authority.

#Burnout isn’t just about being unhappy and exhausted by life.

It’s feeling — a deep knowing, really — that the work you are doing is debasing and degrading you in exchange for just enough money to keep you trapped on the hamster wheel until you break or die.

It’s realizing you’re a prostitute.

Giant bronze face sculpture surrounded by flowers.

Conscious Choices | Not Obligation Fulfillment

Actively choosing rather than reacting or staying in repetitive action involves questioning our conditioned responses and moving toward the discomfort when it aligns with our authentic personhood.

This is how we reclaim our Self from #burnout.

Woman wearing t-shirt that reads: it takes courage to choose hope over fear.

The life we desire lies on the other side of fear mountain.

True change requires us to move through fear, not around it. A life of meaning and vitality come when we confront what we fear and reclaim the parts of ourselves we left behind in our youth.

Authentic #burnout recovery requires courage.

woman holding old-time gas mask in front of her face.

➡️ Old Ways of Being are Rooted in Survival

Many of our habits and decisions are shaped by childhood / young adult adaptations aimed at safety or approval. These patterns usually persist into adulthood, unconsciously limiting our ability to thrive.

Discarding these is key to #burnout recovery.

Every single one of us are divine expressions of source. Duality is an illusion.

My X was an alcoholic, narcissistic, abusive deadbeat who seriously F’d up my life and our child’s life. I still grieve some days.

Both of these are valid and true. 3D living is a paradox. Honor your journey. ❤️❤️

Tree with exposed roots that have grown around rock.

Well-Balanced Isn't Flourishing

Striving to be well-balanced or “normal” is a superficial, top-down "tactic." Balance is not inherently healthy when it comes at the cost of authenticity. In this scenario, it is not an effective solution for #burnout recovery.

Solid foundations are bottom up.

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” — Carl Jung

Becoming Who We Truly Are

Key to recovering from #burnout and cultivating psychological and spiritual wellbeing is owning our personal authority.

This requires confronting fears, doubts, and inherited beliefs.

One red tulip in thousands of yellow tulips.

👉 🌟 Authenticity Over Conformity

Foundational to recovering from #burnout is embracing that our life goals may not conform to societal or familial expectations. Going along to get along is death.

We must pursue our own unique path, even when it challenges norms or makes us uncomfortable.

What am I in service to?

> society’s expectations?
> family obligations?
> old wounds?
> indoctrinated conditioning?

Answering this question with brutal honesty is how we begin to untangle ourselves from #burnout and stress.

This is the hard work our time demands.

When answering the question “what am I in service to?” the answer better have something to do with your instinctual values, meaning, and purpose.

If it does not, you are on the difficult path of survival mode to #burnout , depression, and grief.

Live YOUR LIFE. Not anyone else’s.

Real selfie of me.

#Burnout is working harder within the existing system to “make it.” The endless hustle and side hustles culture into which we’ve been indoctrinated.

The theme this week is about how we begin to liberate and reclaim our Self, individually and collectively, from the toxic system we have created.

Celebrating that my husband is cancer free at Cleveland Chop tonight! Enjoying life in spite of the challenges that abound. We will all persevere! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Celebrating that my husband is cancer free at Cleveland Chop tonight! Enjoying life in spite of the challenges that abound. We will all persevere! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Monkey cymbal toy

The road to burnout looks like:

“Thirty years, two degrees and $50k of debt later, and I’m doing basically the same damn trained monkey work I did when I was 19 years old and for essentially the same pay and exploitive treatment.”

Makshift robot with human mask. Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-brown-human-robot-illustration-YKW0JjP7rlU

The road to burnout looks like:

Realizing you spent 10-20-30 years of your life working for a system that places profits over people. And you’re still living just barely better than paycheck to paycheck.

Some of us have no desire to climb the corporate ladder. We just want meaningful work.

Until debt tears us apart written on a brick wall. Photo by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/until-debt-tear-us-apart-brick-wall-vandal-Ql3ULtlplsQ

The road to #burnout looks like:

Working for an organization that supports / makes its money via a system built to exploit for profit. And you realize you’re nothing but a prostitute.

Ex: Higher education so unaffordable only people with family money can afford it.

Woman standing in front of a white board with a diagram giving the thumbs down with a "tired of this" look on her face.

The road to #burnout looks like:

Work that feels meaningless.

We are wired for purpose. When your tasks are repetitive, disconnected, or void of impact, your sense of self starts to erode — and your motivation goes with it.

You’re not just tired — you’re wondering why you’re even doing it.

Man wearing hoodie holding white mask overlaid with 0s and 1x (digital code).

The road to #burnout looks like:

When your job asks you to do things that go against your ethics or integrity (even subtly), it creates internal conflicts. Over time, that friction becomes emotional exhaustion.

Example: Selling something you don’t believe in.

Blurry image of man with hands over face.

Here’s the truth no one tells you:

#Burnout isn’t easily diagnosed. And it isn't easily treated.

People seem like they have it all together—until they can’t fake it anymore.

We need to stop glamorizing “pushing through.”
We need to stop treating rest like a reward for breaking ourselves.

Human looking android screaming and shattering.

#Burnout doesn’t always look like a breakdown.

You don't miss deadlines.
You don't underperform.
You don't call in sick.

Between the flashes of anger and rage, you're completely numb.

Your life is a problem to be solved. Everything is an obligation bleeding your life force dry.