Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! bit.ly/UNFRIED“What kind of 85-year-old do you want to be?” asks Cathy Richards, exercise physiologist, wellness coach and best-selling author of “Boom! Six Steps to Living a Longer, Healthier Life” who joins the podcast to help us learn what we can do to protect our brains against neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. The habits we build now—starting with as little as just five minutes a day—will help, in large part, to determine the quality of our later years.The best thing you can do? Get moving. This doesn’t have to mean exercise. Cathy and Cait discuss the power of movement to not only yield physical benefits such as weight loss, but helps to promote neuroplasticity that will help us develop healthier thoughts and, ultimately, belief systems. The point is to build small consistent habits over time.The future is coming faster than we think. Though none of us has entire control over it, we can begin today to form the best version of ourselves in the future.Quotes“I will say that I think that sleep is one of the biggest things we can do…I don’t think in general that sleep is protected as much and it’s not part of American culture to get enough sleep, I would say, in my opinion. I feel like we’re always deciding if we have more to do, we just stay up late and we get up early.” (9:32 | Cathy Richards)“Totally modest investment of time can yield enormous benefits. It doesn’t have to be a lot, it doesn’t have to be complicated and we really can’t afford not to. That’s the thing, if we could prescribe movement, whether it’s for migraines, or whatever it is, or whatever your problem, movement can fix it, or can help fix it. Almost every single solitary time.” (17:30 | Cathy Richards) “People get stressed out thinking, ‘What do I need to do to prevent my heart disease?...what do I need to do to protect my brain?’ Guess what? It’s all the same list…Moving your body has more impact on your brain function than anything else you could do.” (33:18 | Cathy Richards) “You don’t turn into the kind of 85-year-old that’s in a nursing home versus traveling the world at 84. We’re building the kind of 85-year-old we want to be right now.” (47:52 | Cathy Richards)LinksConnect with Cathy Richards:https://www.cathyrichards.net/blog/taking-a-year-to-inspire-vitality-in-yourself https://www.cathyrichards.neet https://www.instagram.com/inspiringvitality https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathymrichards/ https://www.cathyrichards.net/brainpower.html https://www.facebook.com/groups/intentionallivingandlongevityConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“We really need to break our limitations of what we say rest is,” says Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine physician, internationally renowned thought leader on well-being, and author of the bestselling book “Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity.” By overwhelming demand, Dr. Saundra joins the FRIED podcast to discuss the seven types of rest, which she explains is distinct from—but nonetheless essential to—sleep. She’ll explain how you can determine in which area of your life—from the mental, physical and emotional, to the sensorial, spiritual and creative—-you are experiencing the greatest rest deficit, and how you can begin to fill those empty buckets amidst your busy life, not around it. Along the way she reveals some surprising insights about the nature of rest and unpacks some of our most enduring misconceptions about it. Often what we think of as rest is really more work and when we think we are relaxing we are just indulging ourselves. She explains the difference between fitting in and true belonging, why trauma dumping can actually cause more stress, and why that watercolor painting class is not as creatively restoring as you may think it is. Over 250,000 people have discovered their personal rest deficit with Dr. Saundra’s help. Join today’s episode to learn how you can discover yours and start your journey toward overcoming burnout and living your best life. Quotes“I got to this point where I realized all of the work and energy that I put into building that life that looks so good, I could put the same energy into building a life that actually felt good, and that actually was a life that was satisfying and did give me the things that I desire.” (4:49 | Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith) “Do something. Don’t settle for exhaustion. I feel like that’s the culture we’ve lived in. We’ve settled for, ‘Well this is just how everybody feels. Everybody’s burnt out. Everyone’s exhausted. Nobody’s happy.’ It’s not true. It’s a lie.” (13:51 | Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith)“I think for a lot of people, we feel like sleep is the end all/be all of rest. And so we try to bypass all other forms of stress and just go straight to, ‘Give me six, seven, eight hours of deep, restorative sleep,’ and that’s just not the reality of it. You can pop pills all day, you’re not going to have restorative sleep. It just doesn’t work like that. It’s something that comes when your body, your mind, your spirit, your relationships, all of those components of rest feel safe, they feel rested. So, then it’s like your whole self is able to completely go into the truly helpless state of deep, restorative sleep.” (17:32 | Saundra Dalton-Smith) “Fifty years ago…we trained our brains for memorization, concentration and focus, whereas now we train our brains to multitask.” (21:08 | Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith)LinksConnect with Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith:https://www.drdaltonsmith.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drdaltonsmith https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdaltonsmith/ https://restquiz.com/Connect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“Making yourself feel good in your own space is really important,” urges host Cait Donovan on today’s episode of FRIED, the second in a six-part series dedicated to the various factors that make us more vulnerable to burnout. Following the episode which covered factors in the workplace, today’s episode discusses the impact of our environment—both interior and exterior—on our parasympathetic nervous system and our ability to handle stress. Today, Cait will cover the importance of light exposure—and lack thereof—as well green spaces, clutter piles, and when. You’ll learn why even the way you store your cutlery can change the way you feel in your own space. No matter how much time, energy or money you have to devote to changing your environment—every little adjustment makes a difference. Cait shares research and science behind her suggestions, while also encouraging you to cater to your own individual preferences. She’ll share the three colors that are proven to inspire calm in the home, how to increase the function of your prefrontal cortex and how to create community around you even when you live alone.What small shift can you make in your environment in the next week? With that one small change you will begin to buy yourself the energy you will need to make the larger changes in your burnout recovery. Quotes“A lot of times, this is something that we have a lot of control over for relatively low cost—if not totally free—and we’re not thinking about it because so much of the “self-help” work out there is about fixing your mindset, and managing your perfectionism and doing something about your boundaries. Sometimes, when you can’t do any of those things, I want you to know there is still something you can do, some changes you can make, some influence you can have without having to be focused on doing all this work all the time.” (2:02 | Caitlin Donovan) “When you view the sunrise and view the sunset and your eyes are exposed—there are actually cones and rods in your eyes that are exposed to a particular level of blue light that’s given out during those hours, that help to set off your hormonal cascade, the circadian rhythm of your hormonal cascade properly.” (6:49 | Caitlin Donovan)“When we’re thinking about burnout recovery, we [often think] ‘Go boundaries, and have these conversations and maybe even quit your job or talk to your manager,’ and do all these big life things. Sometimes, the first thing you need to do is buy a round nightstand or something else equally seemingly insignificant in your world that will help lower your stress level so that you can manage the other things in your life with more ease so that you have more buffer in your stress response system to be able to handle the rest of life.” (13:41 | Caitlin Donovan) “You should feel community within your household if there are other people who live with you, and/or around your household. So, if there is no community at all in your neighborhood, even if the only community you have is that you have a dog and the fellow dog walkers say hello to each other when they’re out, that matters.” (17:32 | Caitlin Donovan)LinksConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“I completely lost myself, my physical, mental and emotional well-being, but I lost my identity. I was no longer Claudia, I was the caregiver,” explains today’s guest Claudia Taboada, a holistic wellness and burnout prevention coach, bestselling author and international speaker who joins FRIED today to discuss the experience of burnout by those who care for neurodiverse children. After her oldest son was diagnosed with autism in 2003, Claudia left her job to care for him full time. Soon, not only was she mentally and physically exhausted from trying to be, as she called it, the “autism supermom” but she lost sight of her own goals and aspirations along the way. On today’s episode, she explains how a guide dog who had been gifted to the family to help with son’s development, actually helped her realize how important it is for those who care for everyone else to carve out time to care for themselves, to de-clutter their minds, to get their bodies moving and reconnect with themselves. Of course, for most women, this is easier said than done. Claudia talks to host Cait Donovan about the pressure to people-please, to put one’s own needs last on the list, and the importance of filling your own cup. She also discusses setting mental boundaries against toxic people and influences, while also pushing past our own limiting beliefs and fears, and what she does to foster a growth mindset. Quotes“It was really about decluttering the mind. On these walks, I was by myself—and the dog—but I was into the present moment. They were mindful walks, I called them ‘the mindful walks.’ I was on my stride, and the smells, the sights—everything. So, I was in the present moment and that finally allowed my mind to start decluttering. The mind started to declutter and I started to reconnect with myself.” (9:37 | Claudia Taboada)“I crossed the finish line and that was the moment, that was my epiphany—my real epiphany—where I said, ‘This is it. Burnout stops here. I need to take charge. I need to take charge of my physical, mental and emotional health because I have been neglecting myself and as the mother of a severely autistic child who is going to be dependent on me for the rest of his days, I cannot die. I need to recover from this burnout and I need to stay in peak mental, physical and emotional state to be able to not only take care of him in the long run, but also go after my dreams and my aspirations, which I had lost.” (13:26 | Claudia Taboada) “I also have my own identity now. So even though my life is harder now because I’m by myself, taking care of my son, I’m also feeling fulfilled and I’m doing my things and I have my business and all that. And I have learned how to put my boundaries around my caregiving role so that I can do my own things as well.” (20:15 | Claudia Taboada) “Women, we have been conditioned to give, to be everything to everyone and we put ourselves at the bottom of the priority list, and when we start setting boundaries and when we start saying, ‘Well, maybe I also have needs,’ we feel guilty. Whether it’s at work or it’s at home, we feel guilty.” (22:02 | Claudia Taboada)LinksConnect with Claudia Taboada: https://claudiataboada.com/ www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-taboada-216a901bbhttps://calendly.com/claudiataboada/30-minute--gameplan-callConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“Irrational fear is just a sign of depletion,” said Sarah Vosen in a recent conversation with co-host Cait Donovan. This profound insight became the foundation for today’s episode. According to Chinese medicine, the paralyzing anxiety that often accompanies burnout—leaving you disconnected from yourself and others, doubting your intuition, and retreating from the world—stems from a depletion of energy in the kidney system. Citing the book “Rooted in Spirit: The Heart of Chinese Medicine,” Cait explains that when the heart and kidney systems fail to connect and communicate, it leads to insecurity, hesitation, and a loss of perspective on life’s possibilities.So, what can we do about it? Since fear is a physical symptom of a deeper issue, the solution lies in the physical realm. Sarah and Cait discuss dietary changes, exercise, and environmental adjustments that can help restore kidney energy. They also delve into a specific visualization technique and even suggest the best fashion choices to support this healing process.Join the conversation to discover the surprising and common physical signs that may be linked to the kidney’s energetic system, along with a specific exercise that could bring you the relief you’ve been seeking.Quotes“When you’re feeling irrational fear, it feels like it’s the biggest thing, top priority, it is coloring everything in your world. It’s a big deal.” (2:31 | Sarah Vosen)“It’s just a sign—not to minimize that it feels gigantic, but it’s just a sign—it’s just one of the ways that your body’s telling you, ‘I’m so depleted that I am terrified of everything on purpose. I’m telling you that I’m scared of everything because I want you to sit still. I want you to honor this fear and stop pushing yourself because you are dangerously depleted.’” (3:45 | Sarah Vosen) “This goes both ways: when this communication is disrupted, fear is the result. And also, when there is too much fear, a disruption of this communication can be the result.” (9:11 | Caitlin Donovan)“Your hesitation to take a step forward in any direction because you feel like it’s all wrong and you’re going to hurt yourself and you just don’t know. You can’t trust because you’re disconnected from your heart. Your heart is no longer leading you in the way that it used to. We didn’t even used to think about it, but a lot of times, you just thought, ‘Oh. That feels good. I’m going to do that.’ But when you’re not connected to your heart anymore and this fear is driving you, it actually just drives you straight into the ground.” (10:29 | Sarah Vosen) “Most people don’t necessarily know this but the heart sends more signals to the brain during the day than the brain sends to the heart—this is not Chinese medicine, this is Western research. So, your heart is sending more information to your brain than the other way around. So, your heart has a lot of influence over how you function on a day-to-day basis.” (11:19 | Caitlin Donovan)LinksConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“If you’re ready to recover, understand what’s going on with you, and get a life you love, let’s do this,” says Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, a leading expert on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia. The author of 12 books, including the best-selling “From Fatigued to Fantastic,” Dr. Teitelbaum joins the FRIED podcast to discuss the similarities between these conditions and burnout, including four key symptoms, and how they are distinct. He likens the hypothalamus—a crucial brain area controlling hormones, adrenaline, and thyroid function—to a circuit breaker that trips to prevent the body from “burning down.” He suggests that living inauthentically and ignoring our true needs can trigger these health issues, serving as crucial warnings that we need to realign our lives.Dr. Teitelbaum critiques the shortcomings of a profit-driven Western medical system that often fails to recognize these conditions, despite its claims of evidence-based practice. He and host Cait delve into the benefits of homeopathic and natural remedies, and discuss a common hormonal issue affecting a significant portion of the population.Dr. Teitelbaum also shares his personal struggle with chronic fatigue, which led him to drop out of medical school and briefly live on a park bench. His journey to becoming a healer in his own right is not only a testament to his resilience but also serves as a beacon of hope for anyone on their own path to recovery from burnout.Quotes“Burnout includes the physiology of CFS and fibromyalgia, sometimes, but burnout, to me, is when you’re not being authentic. You’re doing stuff you don’t want to be doing—you’re doing what you should be doing, but you hate it, you’ve outgrown that.” (8:25 | Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum) “Do you see chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia or long Covid as a more extreme place from burnout? Yes. It’s when your body’s giving you a symptom of burnout to say, ‘You’re on the wrong path; Cliff Ahead,’ and getting you to slow down and change direction. The cliff is chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia or that part of long Covid. That’s when you go over the cliff because you didn’t listen to your psyche when it said, ‘Wrong Way.’” (12:04 | Caitlin Donovan and Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum) “People need to realize there’s not a single way to get to where you want to go. You can go north and south and get to the same place, you just need to turn west. There are all kinds of ways to get there. In medicine, we’re geared to, ‘What is the most profitable?’ The doctors are almost all really good people who think they’re doing the right thing. They say their catechisms every morning, they say, ‘Evidence-based medicine. Domini, Domini, Domini.’ And the drug reps are these cheerleaders.” (35:13 | Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum) “Steer with some simple things. Number one: how does that feel to you? Your brain is a computer, it’s a product of your programming… It has no clue who you are. Your feelings know who you are.” (43:45 | Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum)LinksConnect with Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum:https://endfatigue.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jacobteitelbaummd/ https://endfatigue.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/gifts/3-Steps-to-Happiness-Healing-Through-Joy.pdfConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“We sometimes resist our own healing because it feels like punishment,” says Sarah Vosen in this latest #sarashares episode of FRIED. Today, she discusses the challenge of healing, which despite being good for us, doesn’t necessarily always feel great. And because of this, we are tempted to self sabotage, retreat back into our old coping mechanisms, and continue to sacrifice long term growth and greater reward for smaller, short-term rewards—or merely the illusion thereof. You may recognize yourself in a few of the scenarios that Sarah shares to illustrate how we can backslide down the slippery slope of healing. She also shares her own journey toward healthy eating and forming a new relationship to alcohol, and the incremental success in forming new habits. As with everything in nature and the universe, contraction is as natural an element of the growth and healing process as expansion. So, on our healing journey, for every step forward there may be a retreat back to old, comforting habits, especially when we’re physically and emotionally exhausted. That’s why we must take it slow and steady, show ourselves grace and reward, and look for and accept support. Sarah discusses the subject of “revenge procrastination,” and the big questions that lay at the heart of our resistance to change. With vulnerability and courage, Sarah continues to share her own journey with us so that we can learn more about what it means to heal from burnout and take bold action along our own path. Quotes“Continuing to use only these instant gratification comforts is like choosing a consolation prize that’s depleting over time because they’re like empty calories—sometimes literally—or sometimes more like empty fulfillment, like how a diet soda is sweet but not really. It isn’t exactly satisfying.The real prizes are the ones that healing provides.” (2:33 | Sarah Vosen) “All periods of growth have a retreat following them, just like winter is a retreat of energy from the full out growth period of the summer.” (8:23 | Sarah Vosen) “When you are embarking on a healing journey, remember that in order to change, you have to change, and with change comes growing pains, mostly because you have to shift your habits away from a lifestyle that is the only safety you know, and has been comforting you in some way, for years. Even if it wasn’t helpful for you in many other ways.” (11:52 | Sarah Vosen)“You’ve heard it said before and I’ll say it again: make smaller changes. If you’re very tired, make even smaller changes. I know it won’t seem like enough, but it will add up.” (19:04 | Sarah Vosen)LinksDahlia blooming: https://www.instagram.com/thesusanakennedy/reel/C4IFC-wA3pN/Scheduling acupuncture with Sarah near Minneapolis, MN:https://acusimple.com/access/7008/#/appointments/8888/list/42506/2024-03-14/FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/friedtheburnoutpodcast/Newsletter sign up for office hours: https://www.caitdonovan.com/newsletter-office-hours1:1 coaching consults for Sarah: https://caitdonovan.as.me/coachwithsarah1:1 coaching consults for Cait: https://caitdonovan.as.me/initialConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“I’m giving you permission to give up,” says Courtney Clark, author of the recent book “Revisionary Thinking,” who joins the FRIED podcast to talk about the power of quitting. After being diagnosed with cancer four times starting at a very early age, she became acutely aware of the demand our culture makes on staying positive at all costs, creating a vacuum around anything even resembling a negative, or even more realistic thought. In workplace and career, this means we tend to stay on a career path past the time we realize it’s not working, convinced there is only one way to do things. Quitting doesn’t mean abandoning your dreams—or just lazing on the couch. Instead, Courtney encourages us to ‘supersize’ our dreams, to realize what you really want in the big picture, so that you can allow for more than one path to get there. And the more paths there are to get to our dreams the more chances we have to achieve them. Most of us have done this type of pivoting in our lives, perhaps without even realizing it. Courtney and Caitlin share their experiences in ‘supersizing’ in their career as well as in their personal lives. Quotes“We’ve very much romanticized the idea of powering through and putting on a happy face and I think part of the reason we like it, and we tell ourselves that story that other people are suffering’, Oh, they’re doing it with so much grace,’ we like that because, I believe, that it allows us to cling to this thought, this hope, that, if it were us, we’d be OK, too. ‘It’s bad but it’s not so bad.’ But the reality is then, that can lead friends, family, the support system to minimize.” (7:33 | Courtney Clark)“I believe we’ve created this culture where if you can’t find positivity, you’re bad and wrong. And if we could just kind of let that go, and maybe just allow two things to co-exist at the same time. You can have gratitude for something for where it got you and what you have because of it and also decide, ‘I don’t have to hold onto this forever.’” (12:23 | Courtney Clark)“There are a lot of people shouting and saying, ‘Change the system so that it’s what I wanted it to be.’ Instead of, ‘I’m going to quit the system and still help people or still engage with people in a way that’s more aligned.’”(18:17 | Caitlin Donovan)“A lot of times when we set what we think is a goal, we’ve really made a plan. And when we realize and we buy into the more ways you have to achieve something, the more achievable it is, then in order to build a lot of paths to something, you need to make a bigger goal. This is a strategy I call ‘supersizing’ your goal.” (23:14 | Courtney Clark) LinksConnect with Courtney Clark:https://www.courtneyclark.com/ https://www.instagram.com/courtney_l_clark/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneylclark/Connect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDHey, FRIED Fam! Host Cait Donovan is back with another #straightfromcait episode, this time discussing the six factors which leave you most vulnerable to workplace burnout. Drawing from leading research, she will explain how you can evaluate these factors in order to make the best decisions for yourself going forward. These factors will be all too familiar to longtime FRIED listeners—or anyone going through burnout recovery. Cait discusses the many ways that values can misalign in the workplace as well as how to respond when you feel your contributions are being under appreciated. She’ll reveal just how many friends the average person needs to have in the workplace, according to research, and how to deal with a micromanaging boss. Tune in to today’s episode where you’ll also learn how to deal with a lack of autonomy and how to determine when your workload is unmanageable. Quotes“If you know these things, then you can start to make some changes, see where things can be shifted and where they can’t be shifted and then maybe make some better decisions moving forward in your workplace.” (1:44 | Caitlin Donovan)“If you have high levels of job strain and low levels of resources, that becomes an unbearable workload.” (2:28 | Caitlin Donovan) “There’s a ton of research that says that you need one solid friend in the workplace in order to feel like somebody’s got your back and to feel connected to your workplace.” (3:08 | Caitlin Donovan)“There’s only so much you can do when someone hasn’t learned how to trust the people that work for them. You can’t change that for them, that’s their own stuff that they’ve got to work through. The only control you have is whether or not you work under this person.” (5:18 | Caitlin Donovan) “If you’re feeling a lack of fairness, you need to know what it’s about in order to decide whether or not you can influence it.” (7:47 | Caitlin Donovan)LinksConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“You’re such a light and I feel like your flame is being extinguished,” said Maggie Reyes’ husband when she was experiencing burnout. For many, addressing their partners’ burnout and its impact on the relationship—stress, resentment, uneven distribution of responsibility, feeling unacknowledged—is as challenging as recognizing their own burnout. Today, Maggie, a master certified life coach, modern marriage mentor, and author of the bestselling book “Questions for Couples,” as well as the host of the popular podcast “Marriage Life Coach,” returns to FRIED to discuss how couples can navigate burnout recovery for the benefit of all involved.Maggie will discuss how those suffering from burnout can start to vocalize and recognize their needs and wants, starting with small steps. Women, in particular, often find it difficult to speak up. Maggie will explain when it’s best to be direct and specific, when to be gentle and loving, and how to know when it’s time to take a break.What should you do when both partners are burnt out, but one can’t—or won’t—acknowledge it? Tune in to today’s discussion to find out.Quotes“What are the symptoms or the byproducts of burnout? If you think specifically in a marriage or in an intimate relationship, it’s the stuff you stop doing where the other person has to pick up the slack, so to speak. If you’re feeling a lot of resentment or they’re just piling on one more thing on top of you and you feel overwhelmed on a regular basis. For you it feels overwhelming, and for them it feels like they’re not being seen, they’re not being seen or being heard.” (4:57 | Maggie Reyes) “When we have enough self-awareness to know that we’re in it, there’s no subtlety. It’s ‘I’m drowning. I need help. You may not see it because everything is put together, you’re not feeling the effect of it at all because I’m still juggling all these balls, but everything’s about to drop.’” (8:48 | Maggie Reyes)“What’s hiding in the middle of burnout is, we don’t even know what to ask for because we’re so overwhelmed with everything. But the minute we have any awareness of, ‘I would like it to be warmer,’ then that’s my ask: ‘Can we just close the window?’” So, what is my ‘ask’ here? What would bring me relief here?” (10:27 | Maggie Reyes) “For some partners, their burnout is their identity. It’s so tied to who they are, how much they do is so tied to who they are that it’s almost like, to deal with their burnout would threaten their self-concept and their image of themselves.” (13:30 | Maggie Reyes)“If you have to be at a 2 for someone else to be at a 5, you need to run.” (30:39 | Maggie Reyes)LinksConnect with Maggie Reyes:https://maggiereyes.com/ https://www.instagram.com/themaggiereyes/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiereyes001/ https://learn.maggiereyes.com/powerquestionsConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIED“There is a perfect fit out there for you,” encourages host Cait Donovan in this episode of FRIED, where she and Sarah Vosen discuss the process of job searching while recovering from burnout. They guide you through a four-step framework to navigate this challenging process.The goal is to dig beneath the trauma and anxiety of burnout to where your instincts and intuition can guide you toward what you truly want. This is your chance to reacquaint yourself with your true values, not those imposed by family, friends, or society. You’ll learn how to access Cait’s complimentary worksheet and how to hold yourself accountable as you complete the exercise—ideally more than once.Though it can be scary to face the working world again while still healing, if you allow yourself to dream big, you’ll find your perfect alignment. Cait and Sarah are living examples of this journey.Quotes“This also sort of gives you an opportunity to tap back into your intuition, which you’ve probably lost connection with during burnout and you probably stopped trusting yourself. So, while it takes time to build trust with a new company and new bosses and new team members, it also, in burnout recovery, takes time to build trust with yourself. Can I make the right decision? What if I make the wrong decision?” (7:58 | Cait Donovan) “Anchor yourself in the belief that there is a well-aligned job out there that will allow you to earn money and keep your health and have colleagues and be joyful—not saying you’re not going to have a stressful day now and again, not saying you’re going to love every single person you work with, it’s not going to be a cult—but there is a perfect fit out there for you. We see this over and over and over again in situations where it really should not exist.” (11:47 | Cait Donovan) “Honestly, we’re these people, too. I mean, for real. It’s a little different when it’s an entrepreneurial thing because we’re making small adjustments and course corrections over time, but we have become better and better bosses and made decisions that fit each of us. We’re making decisions collectively and individually that are better and better for us and it’s working.” (13:03 | Sarah Vosen)LinksConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvBurnout Recovery works better with support. UNFRIED is our small group (7 people max!) coaching program to help guide you through your recovery. Get on the waitlist now! https://bit.ly/UNFRIEDPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Need to get started on your burnout recovery? Download the Core Values Worksheet today!https://bit.ly/corevaluesfreebie“It was something I was doing just for me, no one else, a very unfamiliar feeling,” says today’s guest Kristin Lis, reflecting on her decision to begin burnout recovery with host Caitlin Donovan as her burnout coach, nearly a year before today’s interview. At that time, Kristin's mental fog was so severe that she couldn't read or form coherent sentences, a critical issue for her role as a lawyer focused on amicable divorce and family matters. Like many suffering from burnout, her boundaries were almost non-existent. She took calls and checked emails at all hours, even conducting Zoom hearings while at Disney World—practices deemed normal and necessary in the legal field. She was constantly reshaping herself to fit into her company’s mold.In today’s episode of FRIED, Kristin discusses the devastating effects of values misalignment, whether between a company’s stated versus practiced values, an employee’s values versus the company’s, or your own values versus those you aspire to live by. When Kristin allowed herself to fully imagine her ideal life and work, and was willing to proceed without a map or a net, something truly amazing happened.Kristin’s story exemplifies what can occur when we break free from the limiting narratives we tell ourselves and allow ourselves the time and grace needed to heal.Quotes“What I do for a living isn’t a value. The role I have in family life, that’s not a value. And I also can’t borrow values from an organization I work with. I had to figure out not only what my values were, but actually what I wanted them to be, and those were two very different things.” (16:38 | Kristin Lis)“That misalignment—I’ve heard of misalignment, everybody’s heard this on the podcast—that is a huge factor for burnout. When we’re not living in integrity with ourselves, it’s this internal conflict that doesn’t necessarily show up except for that tight feeling in the chest and the really sick feeling in your stomach. When you’re perceiving and doing something and it doesn’t really truly represent the best part of you, but you’ve convinced yourself that this is the only way to do it because this is the way it’s done in this field, or my office, and it’s unsettling.” (17:42 | Kristin Lis) “I was fully prepared to take a 50% payout. I thought that if I worked half the time, I would make half the money. And instead it was completely inaccurate. Again, it was another story I was telling myself in order to kind of compel me to stay in the same massively burnout-y, toxic corporate structure.” (28:40 | Kristin Lis)LinksConnect with Kristin Lis:www.iheartdivorce.com https://www.instagram.com/iheartdivorce/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinlis/Connect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Need to get started on your burnout recovery? Download the Core Values Worksheet today!  https://bit.ly/corevaluesfreebieMany of us know what it means to be burned out, but do you know what it means to be F.R.I.E.D.? On today’s episode Cait breaks down the five elements that make up the acronym F.R.I.E.D., five pillars—Facility safety, Reprioritize, Internal world, Explore what’s possible and Dedicate yourself—which comprise the main framework of burnout recovery. Within that framework, however, your recovery process is as individual as you are. In this episode, Cait expands on each aspect of the framework, while encouraging you to determine how to incorporate them into your own burnout recovery in a way that suits you best. The goal is to make choices that align with you, while keeping you moving forward on the pathway to recovery.Cait will ask you to consider what you can do to create buffers in both your internal and external environments so that you are more resilient when, inevitably, things go wrong. Think about what you are willing to change or let go of, so that you start seeing new and better results. Understand your BRFs (burnout risk factors) and BPFs (burnout prevention factors), and recognize where you need to draw boundaries, and where you need to expand your possibilities. Burnout recovery is an ongoing process and there will be inevitable setbacks. But through dedication and commitment there will also be inevitable growth and positive change. Quotes“The F.R.I.E.D framework has everything that you need in order to recover, is generic enough to cover a lot of different processes, and specific enough to give you guidance if you feel lost.” (3:59 | Caitlin Donovan)“I have so many people asking me if they can get back to normal. I don’t actually want you to get back to normal. Normal is what got you here. So, we need to figure out what your new normal could be that can allow you to live sustainably and have well-being for the long term in your life.” (9:17 | Caitlin Donovan) “Dedicate yourself to living a burnout-free life. Dedicate yourself to living a life that feels like you want it to feel rather than looks how you think it should look.” (19:32 | Caitlin Donovan) “The body is designed to not stay in perfect harmony. The body is designed to be pushed out of center and come back to some middle-ish range.” (20:29 | Caitlin Donovan)LinksConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Need to get started on your burnout recovery? Download the Core Values Worksheet today!https://www.caitdonovan.com/freebie-values“The self-abuse—that we don’t even realize we’re doing—is so glorified in this society.” Aria Johnson, a TV personality and celebrity voice coach, is best known for appearing as the music expert in the hit Reelz series “Beverly Hills Pawn.” Though this was ostensibly a reality show, Aria was ultimately playing a character—not unlike countless people who cast themselves as characters in their own realities, and like Aria they end up burned out emotionally and even physically. There is a particular pressure on women, she says, to portray a manufactured image based on impossible standards and to overachieve in all aspects of life. As Cait points out, this is why so many burnout sufferers think they are self-aware when they are merely character-aware. On today’s FRIED episode, Aria, now a motivational speaker and host of the “Behind the Glitz” podcast, talks about the central feeling of “not enough-ness” from which so many of us–even the rich and famous–operate. She explains how she learned to view self-care as a necessity rather than a luxury, one that has nothing to do with bubble baths or bro science. She and Cait discuss the importance not just of asking for help but of asking in the way that’s most beneficial and productive for all involved, and why in order to gain peace, you must forfeit perfectionism and control. Quotes“How many of us have cast ourselves as characters in our own lives? It’s true. The perfect mother, the perfect wife, the perfect corporate baddie, the perfect entrepreneur. I think it’s something women suffer from more than men—men suffer in a different way—but for women, our image is so important. And we don’t do it for us.” (5:58 | Caitlin Donovan and Aria Johnson) “Most of us burn out because we are trying to be something that we are not. We are trying to be the superwoman version of ourselves that we are told we have to be because we are handed on a platter, every single day, 22-year-old women that look a certain way, and they’re badasses in their careers, and all these things.” (12:38 | Aria Johnson)“We think we’re self aware, but what we are is character aware. We are aware of the chosen character that we think will get us the life that we want.” (14:49 | Caitlin Donovan)“It is glorified in this society for you to abuse yourself.” (20:39 | Aria Johnson) LinksConnect with Aria Johnson:https://ariajohnson.com/ https://www.instagram.com/ariajohnsonofficial https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariajohnson/Connect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Need to get started on your burnout recovery? Download the Core Values Worksheet today!https://www.caitdonovan.com/freebie-valuesFRIED Fam!—Another fried guide episode arrives by popular demand! This time hosts Cait and Sarah are talking about the holistic guide to burnout recovery, and that includes learning to listen to your body’s signals to figure out what larger issue they’re trying to draw your attention to. Most of us are so accustomed to ignoring our bodies’ signals and burnout signs—pain, rashes, reflux—or even just having to pee!— that we forget that we have the option to address them. But when we do, we build trust with ourselves and our bodies, and over time learn to regulate our emotions and bring ourselves into closer alignment with who we truly are and what truly brings us joy.Which isn’t to say it’s easy. Our culture—from teachers and coaches to doctors—have taught many of us to push through our pain. Cait and Sarah compare the way that American Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug was hailed as a hero for putting her body in danger for the sake of her team, while fellow American Olympic gymnast Simone Biles was vilified for listening to her own needs and bowing out of the games. Sarah shares a story about a recent party that she threw for herself and what her body’s signals told her in the days leading up about her issues with knowing what she wants and asking for it. Everyone’s burnout recovery process, and body signals, are unique. Sarah and Cait will show you how you can begin to hear the personal message your body is trying to send you. Quotes“Everybody’s body does this. But there are so many physical things that we are accustomed to feeling discomfort in, that we override them and we don’t know how to interpret them, so we just move about our day.” (8:33 | Caitlin Donovan)“When you pay attention to it, you grow a part of your brain that teaches you to be more in tune with yourself. And, the research shows, when you pay attention to these small little things like peeing when you have to pee and drinking when you’re thirsty, guess what happens? Your ability to emotionally regulate improves.” (12:14 | Caitlin Donovan) “You build trust with yourself in this process, which creates safety. Not only are you meeting the immediate need by emptying your bladder, also your body says, ‘Oh! Thank you for listening.’” (13:06 | Sarah Vosen) “This is now changing because people don’t put up with things the way they used to, but Sarah and I grew up as gymnasts. You play through the pain, man! Pain is not a reason to stop. Pain is a reason to add tape. Add tape. Oh, my God, I had so much tape on my body and Ibuprofen in my system.” (24:43 | Caitlin Donovan and Sarah Vosen)“It might be overwhelming to tune in, because when you’re in burnout, all of your alarm bells are firing. Your nervous system is on high alert. So it may feel like an emergency when you tune in and that’s because it is.” (41:12 | Sarah Vosen)LinksConnect with Cait:https://caitdonovan.com/unfriedInitial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Need to get started on your burnout recovery? Download the Core Values Worksheet today!https://bit.ly/corevaluesfreebie“The home is a container for our sensory inputs, and the inputs to our sense organs affect us tremendously,” says Dr. Jaime Rabin, doctor of acupuncture, certified feng shui practitioner and executive leader of Deepak Chopra’s Global Awareness brand. She joins the FRIED podcast today to tell us what we can do to make our living spaces soothing, sanctuaries that infuse us with energy, promote well-being, improve our state of mind and help to form long term behavioral changes. As we discussed in the last episode, emotional detritus buildup blocks energy from flowing freely in the body, and it’s the same with physical clutter in the house. On today’s episode dedicated to burnout and feng shui, Dr. Jaime reveals some of the surprising aspects of your environment that may be causing that energy to leak, as well as her “green flags” and “red flags” when assessing someone’s home.Feng shui starts at the front door—and that’s exactly where you should leave your self-judgment. The process of optimizing your home is highly personal, and while evaluating your surroundings and your needs requires honesty, this should be a positive experience. Learn how to create engaging visual cues that make sense for you, even if it’s just a pretty box for your doom pile. Are your plants and pets working for your home? Join Dr. Jaime to learn more about symbology, the psychology of color, and incorporating the five elements of nature into your home. Quotes“There are two things: there’s the removal of that which is irritating you and adding to your stress and overwhelm—the decluttering, the switching things out, fixing, the mending all of that. And then there’s also the intentional. ‘OK, now, how do I bring in the things that, like you said, the sunshine yellow or whatever it may be for each person. And it doesn’t have to be a complete overhaul.” (10:30 | Dr. Jaime Rabin) “You start letting go of things. And the more the process of letting go then it opens up portals for people, because now they’ve created space for new possibility.” (12:46 | Dr. Jaime Rabin)“Something you can do is start to ask yourself, ‘Where in my home have I accumulated things and what is that saying about where I am right now?’” (13:59 | Dr. Jaime Rabin)“Never feel shame about the things that you need help and support with, and then find the personalized solution for them.” (22:28 | Dr. Jaime Rabin)“The front door specifically is considered the mouth of chi in the home. It is where the fresh energy enters the home, it’s where you welcome your friends and your family, and so the ease with which you enter your home is something extremely important.” (24:51 | Dr. Jaime Rabin)“I’m noticing vibe, I’m noticing flow and then I’m noticing opportunities for intentional design. I’d say those are the real three things that I’m noticing.” (42:22 | Dr. Jaime Rabin) LinksConnect with Dr. Jaime Rabin:lluministaliving.comhttps://www.instagram.com/drjaimerabin/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimerabin/ https://www.illuministaliving.com/feng-shui-personality-quizConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Need to get started on your burnout recovery? Download the Core Values Worksheet today!https://bit.ly/corevaluesfreebie“When I’m stressed, I trip more, I bang into things more, I stub my toe more—so there’s definitely something going on here,” Cait shares, highlighting the curious link between burnout and clumsiness. In this latest "Fried Guide" episode, Sarah Vosen joins Cait to delve deeper into why burnout can make us more accident-prone and even lead to injuries. They discuss how stress can cause physical reactions like tensed neck muscles and narrowed peripheral vision, making us clumsier.According to Chinese medicine, unprocessed emotions can accumulate in the liver, decaying and poisoning our system. This toxic buildup, combined with neglecting our basic needs like rest and proper nutrition, leads to a depletion so severe that our bodies can't even benefit from healthy inputs. Sarah explains how ignoring our spiritual needs contributes to this misalignment, exacerbating our stress and physical discoordination.So, what’s the solution? Identifying a personal outlet—whether it’s exercise, journaling, or engaging in meaningful conversations—and approaching these activities with mindfulness and intention. Cait and Sarah share how they navigate their own emotional landscapes and manage their stress cycles, offering insights into finding balance in our complicated lives.Quotes“When you’re in the flow of life, and you’re aligned and in balance with yourself, you’re in this flow with everything around you, and therefore, there’s no clumsiness. You’re on it; you’re in your center. Your energy is very intentional. Your thoughts are clear and everything goes smoothly, as you wish.” (3:45 | Sarah Vosen) “Chronic stress mode, when we’re not processing our emotions or processing life, it gets stored in our tissues and our physical body gets solid, hard, tense, and then everything’s not flexible. We’re meant to be flexible, we’re meant to be like a tree that bends in the wind, but when all that stuff builds up and you’re just hanging on tight and you’re tense, not only are you not seeing with your eyes but your body can’t, really it’s just not flowing.” (8:07 | Sarah Vosen) “The same way that we have overactive emotions when we’re burnt out, we know we’re responding ridiculously but we can’t help ourselves, this is the same when we injure ourselves and have a pain response. It’s above and beyond and not appropriate to the thing that happened.” (9:59 | Caitlin Donovan)“When you’re burnt out your body is under-resourced. So, it doesn’t have the tools or the resources that it needs to deal with the injuries that aren’t life-threatening, which is why it usually takes someone getting really sick, or really hurt, or really ending up in the hospital to start responding.” (32:19 | Caitlin Donovan)LinksConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Need to get started on your burnout recovery? Download the Core Values Worksheet today!https://bit.ly/corevaluesfreebie“Are you an introvert or just into hurt?” asks Jahmaal Marshall, certified counselor and founder of Listen Then Speak LLC and the podcast of the same name. Many of us develop behavior and personae, he explains, around a need to protect ourselves from rejection, and we carry these into our personal and professional adult lives. Growing up with a severely addicted father, Jahmaal became as he calls it, “the classic chameleon,” overachieving in school and later at work, fulfilling everyone’s needs in an effort not to cause problems. Today on FRIED, he and Cait talk about the connection between childhood trauma and burnout, the resentment that can build up in us when we feel like we are giving with no reciprocation and the resentment we can experience from others when we set boundaries for ourselves. When we give with the expectation of receiving in return, we may think we’re being generous when actually we are assuming others’ needs, or acting from our own neediness. We can also close ourselves off to the many unexpected ways in which people can show their gratitude. Join today’s discussion to find out what happened when Jahmaal drew a line in the sand at work, and the important lesson he learned. Quotes“I just wanted someone to say, ‘You’ve done well.’ Not that my mom didn’t do those things, but it’s something about when a dad speaks into his son’s life and calls the man out of him. I didn’t have that as a little boy. So, I went through most of my professional life basically searching for that.” (5:09 | Jahmaal Marshall)“My excellence, my quote-unquote high performance, was just a trauma response of a fear of rejection. I did not want to be rejected. So, it’s not that I didn’t know how to say no, I refused. Let’s key in on that word: I refused to say no, because I wanted to protect myself.” (8:09 | Jahmaal Marshall) “That expectation we have and that desire to give and receive, we’ve even been taught that—I’m a Christian— we’ve been taught that in faith-based spaces, if you give you’ll receive. That’s not always the case. It actually already puts you in the place of a false motive of life is like a genie in a bottle that I can just rub. And if I rub it like this, something’s going to pop out, and this is going to be my return on the investment I made.” (17:10 | Jahmaal Marshall)“Are you an introvert or are you just into hurt? Do you have hurt and pain that is not processed that is causing you to turtle your way through life to play it safe. There are people who are actually introverts, but you have a lot of people who are extroverts masquerading as an introvert to protect themselves from pain that has not been processed.” (29:02 | Jahmaal Marshall) LinksConnect with Jahmaal Marshall:https://listenthenspeak.com/ https://mindsetmastermethod.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/jahmaalmarshall/ https://topmate.io/jahmaal_marshallConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

“I don’t want to convince you that whenever we finish working, you should be dancing, pirouetting on clouds in ballet slippers,” host Caitlin Donovan explains on this solo episode of FRIED, where she talks about managing expectations from burnout recovery work, particularly the program FRIED offers lead by her partner Sarah Vosen. In a space that, largely for marketing purposes, will promise that you’ll come out the other side of recovery feeling nothing but joy forever after, Cait offers some refreshing transparency about what she offers, why she specifically only offers short-term help, and the seemingly simple outcomes that will completely change your quality of life. Health, peace, productivity, improved communication–these are all huge things made all the more sweet for having recovered from burnout. Yet, recovery doesn’t mean a life free from problems. Cait explains her reasoning behind only offering short-term coaching and why Sarah stopped offering coaching packages. There is no one, perfect way to be coached or to find your way out of burnout. The best first step is to get clear about your goals and the results you yourself want to achieve. Quotes“I can’t promise you that we’re going to go from burned out to blissed out. I can’t promise you that you’re going to go from burned out to fired up. I can’t promise you that you’re going to go from burned out to completely joyful and fulfilled. I don’t even think that’s what we’re aiming for.” (2:10 | Caitlin Donovan)“This initial three-month kick is just to get you out of the muck.” (3:58 | Caitlin Donovan)“Getting clarity around those goals and what those results should be for you is more important than my telling you you’re going to have fulfillment and be joyful and have bliss.” (6:47 | Caitlin Donovan)“We’re not painting this magical picture of where you’re going to be. I want to share that with you because I want you to know how we’re thinking about it behind the scenes, how we’re thinking about you behind the scenes, and how we want to show up for you as honestly as we can—I mean, this is pretty honest—in a space that often feels a little disingenuous.” (8:06 | Caitlin Donovan) “Coaching, therapy, healing—it’s not magical. It’s messy. It definitely leads to a better life—there’s no way I would want the life I had back then compared to the life I have now. But am I skating through life without problems? No. Do I never feel resentment? Jesus—hell, no. I’m still human. You’re still going to be human after going through this process.” (8:56 | Caitlin Donovan) LinksConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

“How are we not supposed to burn out? That’s what our culture wants us to do: produce, make and do until we can’t anymore,” says Dr. Erin Hinson who, with Dr. Kristen Donnelly, joins the FRIED podcast to discuss the origins of burnout culture in the United States. Early religious tenets have formed our attitude toward hard work and individualism, those tenets evolved into modern-day capitalism and the resulting false and damaging beliefs remain hard-baked into the American identity. Drawing from their bestselling book “The Culture of Burnout,” they’ll discuss the dangers of equating hard work with morality, basing one’s self worth on what they are able to produce and the myth of the lone conquering hero. While no one is immune from this type of social conditioning, female-identified and non-binary people tend to be targeted the most by this propaganda. Dr. Erin discusses caregiver burnout, the gender roles we perpetuate that we aren’t even aware of. Dr. Kristen points out the hypocrisy of American culture demanding we be individualistic while also telling us not to trust ourselves and the emotional bonds that are formed when we ask for help. We are not beholden to the stories our culture creates for us. With the tiny changes we make with each new day, we have the chance to write our own.Quotes“There are shades of this in other cultures all over the world, we are never going to say that America is the only culture that has burnout ever because that’s a lie that someone would use to sell more books and that’s not who we are. But what we will say is there’s a specific flavor of it here that’s so tied to the wellness industrial complex and the process of making money for other people that we need to call that out.” (10:25 | Dr. Kristen Donnelly) “How are we not supposed to burn out? We are supposed to burn out because that’s what the culture wants us to do. It wants us to produce until we can’t anymore. It wants us to make, it wants us to do, until we can’t anymore.” (12:12 | Dr. Erin Hinson) “America just thinks the myth of the individual hardworking hero is the archetype we should all live up to, and not only is it a lie, but it kills a lot of us every year.” (14:03 | Dr. Kristen Donnelly) “We are all just figuring it out as we go along and we can ask for help. We have to, because none of us know what we’re doing.” (38:04 | Dr. Kristen Donnelly)“I should figure it out, because I can. I should do it by myself because I don’t want to be a bother. That’s my thing. I don’t want to bother anybody. Everybody else is stressed out; everybody else is busy. I don’t want to be stressful, I don’t want to be a bother. I didn’t realize how deeply ingrained that was until we wrote this book.” (44:33 | Dr. Erin Hinson)LinksConnect with Dr. Kristen Donnelly & Dr. Erin Hinson:https://www.abbey-research.com http://www.instagram.com/abbeyresearch https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristendonnellyphd https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinhinsonphdConnect with Cait:Initial Call with Cait: bit.ly/callcaitInitial Call with Sarah: bit.ly/callsarahvPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm