But then what? How do you tackle this thing? Here I was at burnout 2.0, and obviously I hadn’t learned anything from my previous one. But I didn’t want to go through a burn-out 3.0. I wanted to be myself again, that cheerful, good-humored Julie.
Good coaching in combination with a lot of structure, rest, doing the things I liked, helped me move forward. Systematically things started to improve, some days were better than others, but the curve shifted to the right side. I felt I had a little more carrying capacity. But on my own I would never have been able to do this.
By reading a lot, trying things out, I systematically climbed out of that deep valley. I started to reflect on my own life. How do I want it? What exactly do I want to do? What do I feel good about? What is not going well? What eats up my energy? How can I better learn to take care of myself? What are the signals mentally/physically that indicate to me that things are starting to go wrong?
It was a long road, but I have come to a point where I have gotten to know myself even better, where I now recognize my own body’s signals more quickly so that I can respond to them better. Self-care has become important to me. It has become a priority to feel good about myself and to be myself.
