Slowing Down or Burning Out - Seren Holistic Lifestyles

There are messages & lessons to be learned every day. Paying attention & recognising these messages does take skill. Slowing down & listening within, keeping your eyes open & mind present is what is required.

Life has got very busy for me these past few weeks. It’s nearly three months since I went out on my own to start building my Reiki & intuitive healing business. I’m loving it. Every day is different & I’m enjoying the variety. However now my marketing efforts are paying off & my manifestations are becoming a reality my days are filling up fast.

It’s an amazing feeling to actually see my hard work coming alive. The most spiritual path you take is one of action. Successful people didn’t get where they are by sitting around wishing & wanting. They put in the hours & did the work to achieve results. Utilising my background in design to produce my own marketing is awesome. Finally I can use my creativity for my own projects & I am getting results.

The excitement of new client inquiries really fired up my Soul. Especially with first timers I was keen to fit them in ASAP. I love my healing work so much I want to do it at every opportunity. What happened next was a great lesson in sticking to my boundaries, staying slow & not sacrificing my self-love time.

I completely over booked myself. My yoga-teaching schedule was at full capacity & I took on an extra cover. Fitting in healings, tarot reading & Skype sessions took up every spare hour I had. My busyness didn’t affect my energy levels or my sessions. Both were still strong. I was pushing through & enjoying the ride of spending so much time connected to spirit. To ease the pressure I decided to use my day off from yoga for healing too. This day off is supposed to be a ‘day off from everything.’

Big mistake. I needed this day off in the middle of two busy weeks to regroup. Working with energy can be demanding & if you don’t take a break between you can burn out just like any other activity. At the time you don’t realise as your very zen & chilled out from it all. We live a dualistic life, both human & spiritual. There needs to be an even balance. I was so busy letting the spiritual side take over & was neglecting my human side & was risking becoming ungrounded. Just like with weight training it’s a good idea to take time off between sessions to allow the muscles relax & grow.

After ten days straight without a day off I was whacked. I can’t even really remember the afternoon I finally realised I had to stop, it’s a bit fuzzy. My message came to me it was time to slow down in a rather painful way. I got sunburnt.

Having lived in Australia for eight years I am no stranger to the danger of UV rays. My hectic week left me a bit scattered & careless one afternoon. I was attending a teacher’s workshop in an outdoor location. I packed my sunhat and toxic free sunscreen, however I didn’t use the latter. My morning started early & I really was hanging for a coffee. A fellow teacher was also at the studio & she was going to follow me up to the park, as she wasn’t sure where we were meeting. The day was overcast & breezy so I totally dismissed the need for sunscreen. I was also aware I had someone waiting for me. There was just enough time to get coffee & be on time. Busy, busy, rush, rush off I went sans screen big mistake. My saving grace was at least I wore my sun hat!

Needless to say my fair European skin got fried. The breeze of the sea kept things chilly so I didn’t even notice I was burning. Such a rookie mistake. A few hours later I was glowing. I can’t describe how annoyed I was with myself, stupid, stupid mistake.

Of course I needed to look up the metaphysical reasons for a burn. No surprise it is all linked with over committing & pushing too hard. Not knowing when to stop & difficulty saying no. Feeling burned out & tired. Point acknowledged thank you universe for pulling me up. Time to slow down.

It took another two days to honour my appointments then I stopped. Well actually I physically had nothing left so I kind of dropped. My skin was so sore & inflamed it was hard to sleep making it an extra tiring week.

Reflecting back I achieved a lot & grew a great deal in those busy two weeks. However with more stringent planning & time management I could have saved myself hitting exhaustion point. I should never give up my day off either.

Bookings are still rolling in thick & fast but now I just have to tell people they can’t get appointments in the same week. If they value my services they will wait & they are. No more giving away my ‘me’ time. That’s my time to let all my muscles relax & repair.

Love K xx