#FRIEDguides: How to Listen to Your Body for Burnout Recovery
Jun 9, 2024
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Learn how to use holistic methods to recover from burnout by listening to your body. Discover why it's essential to recognize and respond to physical signals and societal expectations. Hear personal stories about overcoming burnout symptoms and prioritizing self-care in a culture that glorifies pushing through pain.
Listening to your body's signals is crucial for burnout recovery.
Combining self-awareness with external support enhances holistic healing during burnout recovery.
Deep dives
Understanding Burnout Recovery Holistically
Recovery from burnout necessitates a comprehensive approach that considers various aspects. In the podcast episode, the hosts emphasize the significance of a holistic understanding of burnout recovery. Through discussions on burnout risk factors, protective factors, and the complexities of interpreting health and well-being, they highlight the multifaceted nature of burnout recovery. The episode underscores the unique journey each individual takes to navigate burnout and the importance of a holistic treatment plan tailored to personal experiences.
Listening to Your Body's Messages
The podcast delves into the essential practice of listening to your body's messages as a crucial step in burnout recovery. It emphasizes the significance of tuning in to physical and emotional cues to decipher the body's signals. By acknowledging and interpreting symptoms like pain, discomfort, or stress responses, individuals can begin recognizing their body's needs and addressing them effectively. The episode encourages gradual exploration and understanding of one's body to develop a trusted internal guide for navigating burnout.
Simple Steps for Body Awareness
The episode advocates for starting with simple practices to enhance body awareness and promote self-care. Recommendations include conducting body scans, practicing yoga nidra for relaxation, and identifying recurring symptoms as possible messages from the body. By gradually tuning in and acknowledging these signals, individuals can initiate a process of building trust with their bodies and developing a deeper understanding of personal needs during burnout recovery.
Seeking External Support and Guidance
While self-awareness and internal listening are crucial, the podcast also stresses the value of seeking external support and perspectives in burnout recovery. Hosts highlight the role of outside resources, such as Chinese medicine concepts, expert guidance, and tailored programs like Unfried, in complementing self-listening practices. By combining internal awareness with external input, individuals can create a supportive framework for holistic healing and navigating burnout effectively.
FRIED Fam!—Another fried guide episode arrives by popular demand! This time hosts Cait and Sarah are talking about the holistic guide to burnout recovery, and that includes learning to listen to your body’s signals to figure out what larger issue they’re trying to draw your attention to. Most of us are so accustomed to ignoring our bodies’ signals and burnout signs—pain, rashes, reflux—or even just having to pee!— that we forget that we have the option to address them. But when we do, we build trust with ourselves and our bodies, and over time learn to regulate our emotions and bring ourselves into closer alignment with who we truly are and what truly brings us joy.
Which isn’t to say it’s easy. Our culture—from teachers and coaches to doctors—have taught many of us to push through our pain. Cait and Sarah compare the way that American Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug was hailed as a hero for putting her body in danger for the sake of her team, while fellow American Olympic gymnast Simone Biles was vilified for listening to her own needs and bowing out of the games. Sarah shares a story about a recent party that she threw for herself and what her body’s signals told her in the days leading up about her issues with knowing what she wants and asking for it.
Everyone’s burnout recovery process, and body signals, are unique. Sarah and Cait will show you how you can begin to hear the personal message your body is trying to send you.
Quotes
“Everybody’s body does this. But there are so many physical things that we are accustomed to feeling discomfort in, that we override them and we don’t know how to interpret them, so we just move about our day.” (8:33 | Caitlin Donovan)
“When you pay attention to it, you grow a part of your brain that teaches you to be more in tune with yourself. And, the research shows, when you pay attention to these small little things like peeing when you have to pee and drinking when you’re thirsty, guess what happens? Your ability to emotionally regulate improves.” (12:14 | Caitlin Donovan)
“You build trust with yourself in this process, which creates safety. Not only are you meeting the immediate need by emptying your bladder, also your body says, ‘Oh! Thank you for listening.’” (13:06 | Sarah Vosen)
“This is now changing because people don’t put up with things the way they used to, but Sarah and I grew up as gymnasts. You play through the pain, man! Pain is not a reason to stop. Pain is a reason to add tape. Add tape. Oh, my God, I had so much tape on my body and Ibuprofen in my system.” (24:43 | Caitlin Donovan and Sarah Vosen)
“It might be overwhelming to tune in, because when you’re in burnout, all of your alarm bells are firing. Your nervous system is on high alert. So it may feel like an emergency when you tune in and that’s because it is.” (41:12 | Sarah Vosen)