If you’ve been listening to the podcast over the summer, first, thank you! I know you have a lot of content vying for your attention and I’m honored you’ve been tuning into mine. Second, I’ve been giving some not-so-subtle hints on a change I’m making in August.

Just to back up a little, as you may know, I published my first book Your Worthy Body in November. As I’m sure you can imagine, there’s a lot of work that goes into birthing a book baby. In fact, I call it my COVID-19 baby as I wrote it during the pandemic.

After publishing Your Worthy Body, I still needed to market it, so I spent a few months really focused on that. I’ve been blessed to speak at church events and guest on podcasts in addition to the other routine responsibilities I have in personal training, producing and editing my podcast, backend projects to make my systems run smoother, and of course one of my favorite content to create, my monthly newsletters.

Then summer rolled around. Summer is a busier time of year due to the teen fitness & conditioning classes I run. And for some reason, I decided it would also be a good time to launch my new online class, B.COMPLETE. 

If you listened to my episode with Hally Brooke on The Underlying Reason for your Chronic Fatigue, you may have heard me mention I’m staring over the cliff of burnout. I’ve been trying to figure out what, exactly, is causing me to feel that way.

So in August, I’m taking a mini-sabbatical. Will I stop working completely? No, but I’m clearing a lot of things from my plate so I can reconnect in several ways.

What about you? Are you feeling burned out?

The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies employee burnout as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

The WHO lists the three main symptoms as:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
• increased mental distance from one’s job or feeling negative toward one’s career
• reduced professional productivity

I have a feeling I’m not alone in feeling burned out. One statistic I found from Flex Jobs reported recently that 75% of workers have experienced burnout, with 40% saying they’ve experienced burnout specifically during the pandemic. (FlexJobs).

As an entrepreneur, I admit I have more control over my schedule (sometimes this is good, other times it means my brain never shuts off and it overrides everything I do – not good). If you’re at a corporate job, you may not be able to waltz in one day and announce you are taking a mini-sabbatical. But, it may be that you can take a day or afternoon off to focus on one thing that may fill your cup but you aren’t able to take the time to do it. Or, perhaps even take a weekend day to do this.

I lead a small group of young adult small women, and we recently covered The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. I highly recommend this book, by the way. In it, John offers four practices for unhurrying your life: silence and solitude, sabbath, simplicity, and slowing. These are some of the foundations for August.

I wanted to share how I’m approaching this mini-sabbatical, and perhaps it will motivate you to think about what’s missing right now if you are suffering from burnout and how you can fill that.

First and foremost: Begin with the end in mind

Looking ahead to September, I’m asking myself, what will make this feel successful? Because if I’m not intentional about how I want to spend my time, I’ll easily spend it scrolling Instagram and on other unfulfilling things.

I also know how I am, and if I don’t put some specific goals around this, I’ll coast on through and get to the end of the month feeling unfulfilled.

I spend a lot of time in my head, and I think I’ve boiled that close-to-burnout-feeling down to one word: connection. More specifically, lack thereof in three areas: body, mind, and soul. 

Body:

I don’t feel disconnected per se in my body. But my energy input and body output are disconnected. In other words, my body is tired. Between coaching my teens two hours twice a week and videoing my B.COMPLETE three times each, on top of my usual training and sometimes getting a quick workout in, I’m tired. August will be a time of reconnecting through primarily mind/body movements: yoga (through Apple Fitness +), MELT Method for my connective tissue (you’ll hear more from founder Sue Hitzman in September), and of course B.COMPLETE.

However, I will continue walking with friends, because that will help the second area: my mind.

Mind:

A few months ago I was honored to attend a leadership conference through my sorority, Chi Omega. In that conference, we did a Clifton Strengths Finder assessment and it confirmed what I already knew: I love connecting with people. Unfortunately, this summer my schedule has precluded me from seeing the people I care about. My mind (and my heart) need my friends. So I will be doing my best to meet friends over walks, coffee, and lunch.

This doesn’t fall under the area of connection, but it does fall under my mind, and that is clutter. I am cluttery. I may be the most cluttery person in my home. I work hard to not have clutter in our main living spaces like kitchen, living room, and bedroom but step into our catch-all laundry/mud room and it’s a mess. And it makes my chest tighten up every time I see it because I think “ugh, I need to clean that up, but I don’t have the time.” In August, I am creating time to tackle a few clutter projects. Specifically, said laundry/mud room, my desktop, and my inbox that currently has 2,945 unread emails. 

Finally, under the mind category, I want to read two delightful books. I told this to my husband and he found that adjective to be…unusual…but if you’re a reader you know what I mean. I want to enjoy and become engrossed in a book that makes me smile and lightens my heart. 

Soul:

If you’ve been listening to this podcast a while, you probably know that everything I do in writing, speaking, and podcasting everything under the Graced Health umbrella came from a season when I spent time outside with God. Being still. All of Graced Health stemmed from this time (If you missed that episode, you can find it in Season 3 entitled “How I heard from God without spending time in prayer or worship.”) I can’t express how instrumental this time was for me. But have I continued that? Occasionally, but not enough. So in August, my goal is to get outside with God four times a week. And as much as I love connecting with my friends, I also love the silence and solitude this time offers. These coexist for me and are both critical to my soul. 

My quiet time is always consistent, but the depth ebbs and flows. Recently there’s more ebbing than flowing, so I have a few studies from The Daily Grace on deck and ready for me to dig into. 

I’m also preventatively putting some bumpers around my soul and packing them gently because with my oldest son leaving, I want to allow my emotions and body to adjust to his absence. The best way I can do this is to create space for these to exist and for me to experience whatever comes. To that end, I’m taking a lot off my plate.

Here’s what I’m not doing

• Anything podcast-related. I am the host, producer, and editor of this show and I’m not doing anything. I’m also not doing any interviews for other shows or connecting with other hosts to be a guest on their shows.
• Social media. I may pop on every now and then if I’m led but I have nothing scheduled. 
• No new clients. I’m continuing to serve those I have because it’s not right or fair for me to tell them I’m taking a month off, but the new clients I’m speaking with will not start until September.
• Worrying about maximizing my time. I hope I’m wandering around the house a couple of hours a day wondering what to do with myself. There’s power in the pause. I can’t hear from God if I’m too busy listening to my planner. Or, as John Mark Comer wrote in Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, “the noise of the modern world makes us deaf to the voice of God, drowning out the one input we most need.”

Obviously, all of these are specific to me, but I’d love for you to consider a few questions for yourself:

• What would define a successful time off? (again, a weekend, day, week, etc)
• Does your body need to move less or differently? 
• Are you spending time filling your mind and soul with things that fill it or drain it?
• How can you add some silence and solitude to your packed life? Is there anything you can take off your plate, even for ten minutes, to make space for this? 

When will the podcast resume? I’m glad you asked. You’ll see new episodes beginning September 13. I’ve spent the last two months recording some incredible conversations. Next season you’ll hear conversations about sleep health, magnesium, menopause, CBD oil, connective tissue care (you’re going to be blown away), as well as conversations with a woman who performed a year-long experiment living out 1 Corinthians 13, menopause-related body image, and so much more. 

B.COMPLETE is a 40(ish)-minute class covering all the things we want to be focusing on as we age, including feeling balanced, centered, strong and limber. I’m including two phases, or levels, so you can do the one that works for you. This class is offered at $20, which is quite a deal since you can do it as many times as you want and when you want. You’ll get an on demand class for $20 to do as many times as you want. sign up now.

Join the community!

If you’re not already a member of the Graced Health Community on Facebook (formerly the Podcast Group), consider this your invitation.

My hope is community members receive recipe inspiration, pride in their accomplishments, and more educated in their movement. Come join us!

Have a graced day,

Amy