A Love Letter for Your Exhausted Heart

{This article was originally posted in 2013. I decided to rewrite and re-post it today, because it is probably even more relevant now, given social media and screen time occupies more and more of our waking hours. What used to be normal and natural, such as enjoying some down time alone or with family unplugged, gradually becomes a real luxury. I want to remind you that your wellbeing is not an option but a necessity.}

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”

– Lin Yutang

Your eyes are dry. Your head is spinning with thousands of thoughts.

You can’t remember the last time you had a really good night’s sleep.

“If only I could have more energy right now!” You sigh.

You experience anxiety – something is missing in your life, but you can’t put a finger on it.

You have been pushing yourself so hard due to the pressure of other people’s terms and rules.

Once you have built this mentality, you find it hard to stop.

You feel guilty by stopping even one small thing in your life.

“My customers need me.

My boss needs me.

My family needs me.

My children need me.

My business needs to grow…”

How about you then, dear one?

Do YOU need YOU? When was the last time you put yourself first and were proud of it?

Decades in the masculine environment make you feel as if “keep working” is the only way to thrive. But at the moment, you feel that you can barely survive.

Right now your heart is heavy and exhausted.

Somehow it…hurts. You might not even know why, but you feel a deep yearning.

You just don’t have the time to fulfil that yearning.

You look at your calendar: schedules after schedules; meetings on top of meetings.

You don’t even love doing most of those tasks. Perhaps you used to, but you wonder where that passion has gone?

You are tempted to take a break.

You intellect shouts at you:“No, no, no, you can’t take a break. Drop this? Postpone that? How dare you?!”

Take a deep breath, and ask your Higher Self, is this concern true or just a fear.

How does this sound? The way you attract clients and money is just an extension and out-flowing of your own self-love.

Do you feel the change in the world right now? And you are meant to anticipate.

The way you do business will be significantly different from the traditional approach.

Remember that your business is a form of art, not a bunch of soulless to-do lists.

While living in a time that cares too much about output, let’s not forget about all the input required to produce that level of outcome.

That means, sometimes you just need a perfectly lazy afternoon, “faffing around”, drinking tea, and appreciating the simplicity of life itself.

That means, as a creative or intuitive, you feed yourself at least 8-9 hours sleep. No, that’s not useless. It’s a smart discipline so that you can stretch time and fulfil your vitality while you are awake.

If you have been serving, encouraging, healing and inspiring others, try to do the same for yourself for a change.

I met a fellow blogger last week. She said that blogging had become draining and she was not sure whether to carry on or stop.

I asked: “How do you normally blog?”

“I aim to do it every Monday, sometimes I have a lot to say, but lately I feel like I’m running out of topics. As much as I want to help my readers, I am not that excited about it anymore. Now it feels like such an obligation!”

“Do you write for yourself daily, such as free style journalling, or morning pages.”

“I used to, but I stopped after having a professional blog for my business…”

Ahhhh, that is why!

I’m 100% sure many bloggers share this challenge. If you have been blogging to help your clients/prospects for a while, don’t forget to write for yourself too. No pressure. No self-censoring.

It doesn’t even always have to be joyful. If you need to moan, then moan all over your “morning pages”. You can not serve at your best, until you constantly empty your emotional garbage.

Writing for yourself, it is YOU to YOU communication that we are talking about. It only needs to be honest and raw.

Your plot line doesn’t have to be logical or perfect. It’s OK for your story to be cheesy. And you don’t even have to get the spelling/grammar right all the time.

You are completely safe with your own morning pages. (This is not the writing that you will share on your blog. Instead, your blog topics will come to you more effortlessly after you have done your morning pages).

The more you write for yourself, the easier you can write for others.

The more you love yourself, the more love you can give to others.

So, self-love, how do you do it?

The good news is that no matter how exhausted you are right now, it’s actually simple to re-connect with your loving essence again.

– Firstly, try this 3-step-approach to reconnect with your Spirit immediately, it takes you less than 10 mins. Practise it every time you face a dilemma or being hard on yourself, until it becomes your second nature.

– Book a massage/facial/pamper session, or better a week long retreat. Yes, you can take time off, you can! When you believe that you have absolute no time to relax – that’s when you need time out the most. If you feel it is tough to get results, chances are you are not in alignment. By taking a break, you grant the Universe an opportunity to correct the course for you.

– If you are a healer yourself, be sure to book a session with another healer. So that you can get full attention for a change – you deserve it you know?

– Once you start to restore your energy, declutter your physical environment and daily to-do list. Clear out your wallet, get rid of old receipts, replace them with affirmation such as :“I am prosperous”; clear out your wardrobe, get rid of old clothes, replace with some new colours that you never tried before, put a note such as “I am fabulous” in your wardrobe.

– Stop doing things that don’t make your heart sing. Even if you must, set a clear and healthy boundary.

– Have a balanced diet. The whole world might praise a particular diet, but you need to use your intuition to discern if this is right for you. Eat what is genuinely good for you, not what they say is good for you. For example, if I take a pure veg diet, I will get hungry and dizzy every 10 mins. I need carbs and moderate red meat to stay healthy.

– Move your body. Join a gym, sign up for a dance class, explore yoga etc…It doesn’t matter what you do, consistency is the key.

– If you are an intuitive but haven’t learnt how to stop absorbing negativity, try boxing – a great way to invite spirit back to your body again.

– Cultivate your creativity – whoever told you that you are not creative, it’s simply not true.

– As your energy continuously rises up, learn to appreciate the appropriateness in everything, that includes your past wounds and pains. This is a short-cut to inner-peace.

Finally, Your struggles and frustrations are acknowledged by the Source. Please don’t feel like that you must “destroy” your pattern or that you need to be “fixed”. There is nothing wrong with you – this very idea is the wound from which to recover + return to wholeness.

Embrace your burnout, it’s barely a beginning for your new transformation.

Yiye Zhang