11 Quotes by Jenn Bruer

Helpers carry a heavy load, they listen, love, cry, and often go into the depths of others’ pain. They sometimes enter darkness that no person should have to step into: the darkness of the abuse of a child, of mental health, of our cultural propensity to sit back and do nothing about it. They bear this each day.

While burnout obviously has something to do with stress, overdoing things, not being centred, and not listening to yourself or your body, one of the deepest contributors to burnout, I believe, is the deep disappointment of not living up to your true calling, which is to help.

Each of us wants to fuel our bodies and walk the earth with health and energy, to honour the vessel that takes us through life. We have allowed food, of all things, to divide us. Food is meant to bring us together. Food is celebratory, nourishing. Our world needs less conflict and more “live and let live.

As helpers, we often feel the need to see our impact in tangible, measurable ways. We allow negative language into our head about the “broken system;” we look through a lens of “it doesn’t matter, I can’t make a difference”. These ideas are surely contributing to our burnout.

Dig deep, past the pain of knowing you failed or that you could have done things differently and past the temptation to self-loathe. Live in the pain of the mistake, notice your ego's attempt to protect you by justifying your mistake or blaming another for their part in a situation. We must go deeper into ourselves, to tap into the wisdom that resides underneath our mistakes.

I now know that surrendering, allowing, and “BE-ing” is far more productive than grasping for control. I don't know why one child is born with autism and another isn't, or why some children have to fight cancer and some don't. I have lived long enough to know that life is not fair, never will be fair, and we shouldn’t expect it to be.

Have you ever stopped to contemplate how you might respond biologically, physically, emotionally and spiritually to the various experiences in your life? Is it possible that your thoughts become your biology? I believe wholeheartedly that they can.

So, while I knew what burnout was, I never thought it would happen to me. Even-keeled and rarely stressed out, I perhaps thought I was superwoman and nothing could break me. Burnout carries a stigma as a sign of weakness and since I am not weak, I think my young helper mind couldn't reconcile how burnout could come knocking at my door.

As you move through this world advocating for what you believe in, do it with love and an open heart, not with anger and a closed heart.