I’m Feeling Burnt Out. Here’s What I’m Doing About It.

If you’ve been following along here or on instagram you know I’ve been in a total whirlwind lately. While I’m so grateful for all the things swirling around in my life [teaching yoga at two amazing studios, this blog, Bar Method training, and sometimes I do see my friends/boyfriend] it’s A LOT.

Things are go-go-go these days. Up before 6AM, home at 10PM most days. And it’s starting to catch up to me. I feel like I’m in survival mode, just trying to survive and power through until my next day off.

I’ve experienced patches of burnout before. Leading up to finals or big projects being due in undergrad and grad school. Especially busy times at work. It’s taken me awhile to admit it, but I am feeling burnt out.

This is something I’m scared to admit it. It’s admitting defeat. That I can’t keep up with this current state of hustling my butt off as a full-time instructor.

I can’t ditch everything. Obviously. And nor do I want to! I also don’t think giving up on my dream career path and heading back to 9-5 life is the answer. Uh, no. But I there are things I need to change so I can thrive a bit more rather than just survive.

What I’m Doing About My Burn Out:

I’m heading to LA in March.

When it doubt runaway from your problems, eh? I’m the kind of person that likes having something in the horizon to get really really excited about. A finish line to get to. I thought about heading on a solo trip to a resort somewhere tropical. In the end I decided to go where I always go to get away from it all: Los Angeles.

I feel fortunate that my air miles allow me to head to LA for a few days — and that I have a free place to stay with my bestie all week. The sunshine, quality time with my west coast friends and inevitable trip to Disneyland will do me good.

 

I decided to leave CorePower.

After 16 incredible months teaching with CorePower I decided it’s best for my body and vocal cords to stop teaching sculpt. I’m super sad to be leaving the people and teaching sculpt is the most fun. But I also think this is what I need right now. The class is physically pretty demanding to teach and it’s been a struggle-fest for me to keep up lately.

[Truth bomb:] At this second I’m a bit freaked to be giving up this income. To off-set the loss I’m picking up ALL the Y7 subs.

 

I am protecting Sunday as my day off.

I don’t care if it makes me a bitch or “not a team player” but I will not sub any yoga classes or take on any other work commitments on Sundays. And I’m sticking to it.

I never thought I’d have to fight to have one day off — but hey that’s life in the fitness industry. As y’all know Sundays are for sleeping-in these days [so. glorious] and being lazy AF all day. It doesn’t make up for the full week of craziness. But it helps me recharge even just a little bit.

 

I am giving myself permission to not always be working.

Okay this one is HUGE. And really hard.

I have this tendency to always be working. I’m constantly doing minor tasks and things for the blog — I’m checking my email, engaging on instagram, re-pinning something, writing a new post, thinking about a witty instagram caption. This constant state of work isn’t even always productive, but I find myself opening my computer at 9:00PM when I’m watching TV and trying to unwind.

I’m trying to give myself block of times where I’m relaxing and forbid [dramatic, I know] myself from working. No laptop open. No surfing instagram to respond to comments and DMs. Nada.

 

I am reminding myself this is temporary.

It really and truly is.

Things are a bit extra crazy right now because I’m in training mode for Bar Method. We don’t have a studio yet. I take classes right now at the Williamsburg Bar Method [which is about 20 minutes door-to-door].

I’m also traveling to Hoboken twice a week to teach community classes and then heading to Connecticut on Friday’s for more practice teaching.

While I am getting paid, it’s not the same rate as when I’ll be a certified instructor. I’m still teaching all my other classes [and subbing] to keep my income up. I’m teaching 16 or so classes a week counting these community classes. No wonder my legs are TIRED at the end of the day.

This won’t always be the case. The studio will open. It will be walking distance from my apartment. Soon I’ll forget I ever traveled to Hoboken and Connecticut all the time. And financially I’ll be able to survive teaching less classes once I’m certified.

I keep reminding myself: this is not forever. It doesn’t fix how I’m currently feeling, but it does help me stay positive that it will be worth it in the end.

✨

Your turn: What do you do when you’re feeling burnt out.