Today I wanted to share a little peek behind the curtain around this idea or refilling the well. Whether you're a fit pro or a participant or someone who hires fitness professionals this is a really important concept. Refilling the well is basically how we avoid burnout. When you think about it, everything we choose to do requires some kind of energy expenditure. We work out, we work, we take care of our family, we plan the holidays, even the things we choose to do for rest can sometimes require a lot of energy, like getting a family of 4 to Disney. Fun yes, a lot of work also yes.
And we all have different ways that we get a recharge. Some of us really enjoy being around other people, others prefer quiet alone time, some of us are a mix. But whatever our thing is it’s important that we first understand it, become aware of it and then honor that, set some boundaries so that we can choose to balance that energy. So that we can refill the well.
This is especially important for helping professions like medical nursing, teachers, first responders and the like but also fit pros because people come to fitness professionals to refill their well. And I don’t care who you are, you are not a bottomless well of energy.
Not only is your job to refill other people but you also have all the other obligations and expectations in your “real life” outside the gym and studio. If you discount these things or ignore them for too long that’s when the burnout creeps in.
And for fit pros that burnout can kill your career. So what do we do? We usually start by trying to collect a new certification or going to a conference to get new ideas because as the burnout starts it feels like you just need more ideas. And we all need to keep up our professional credibility. All good.
What we don’t do until it’s too late is take a break or look to shift our classes around or let ourselves reset our professional boundaries. Why? Because those things will affect the financial bottom line. Yes, money matters. You can’t pay your bills with exposure and there’s definitely a fine line between building a business, philanthropy and exploitation. But t
As a part of my mission to bring a legacy of resilience through movement, each month you can join me for a hike on the bike trail followed by a free trauma informed vinyasa class back at the studio on Main Street. Go to savagegracecoaching.com to see the calendar and join my newsletter, Yoga Life on Main Street, to stay up to date on all the latest studio news, events and gossip. And now… on to this week’s episode.
It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business and so much more.
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.
The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get all the details.
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Hi there welcome back
Today I wanted to share a little peek behind the curtain around this idea or refilling the well. Whether you're a fit pro or a participant or someone who hires fitness professionals this is a really important concept. Refilling the well is basically how we avoid burnout. When you think about it, everything we choose to do requires some kind of energy expenditure. We work out, we work, we take care of our family, we plan the holidays, even the things we choose to do for rest can sometimes require a lot of energy, like getting a family of 4 to Disney. Fun yes, a lot of work also yes.
And we all have different ways that we get a recharge. Some of us really enjoy being around other people, others prefer quiet alone time, some of us are a mix. But whatever our thing is it’s important that we first understand it, become aware of it and then honor that, set some boundaries so that we can choose to balance that energy. So that we can refill the well.
This is especially important for helping professions like medical nursing, teachers, first responders and the like but also fit pros because people come to fitness professionals to refill their well. And I don’t care who you are, you are not a bottomless well of energy.
Not only is your job to refill other people but you also have all the other obligations and expectations in your “real life” outside the gym and studio. If you discount these things or ignore them for too long that’s when the burnout creeps in.
And for fit pros that burnout can kill your career. So what do we do? We usually start by trying to collect a new certification or going to a conference to get new ideas because as the burnout starts it feels like you just need more ideas. And we all need to keep up our professional credibility. All good.
What we don’t do until it’s too late is take a break or look to shift our classes around or let ourselves reset our professional boundaries. Why? Because those things will affect the financial bottom line. Yes, money matters. You can’t pay your bills with exposure and there’s definitely a fine line between building a business, philanthropy and exploitation. But that’s another podcast I think.
So today I want to explain a little bit about certifications and the difference between training and how to refill the well to burnout proof your body and business. We're talking specifically about the fitness industry today but I think you’ll find some overlap because everyone has burned out at some point.
Story time my friends. I am a 200 RYT and my training in yoga comes through Yogafit. I love the way they train their teachers because it’s a modular approach. Which means you can take the training hours as fast or as slowly as you like. I chose to do it slowly. Mainly because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to have to maintain ANOTHER certification. But what that allowed me to do was to curate the my yoga teacher training hours toward areas that I was really interested in.
Namely stress relief and trauma informed teaching.
I wanna share a moment with you that came in the first trauma informed yoga teacher training that I was participating in.
At the time I there was a lot of stuff on the news about the war in afghanistan and the war on terror and we were starting to hear about soldier suicide. This was big for me because all 3 of my brothers were serving in the Army at the time and one of them I started to suspect was dealing with symptoms of ptsd.
Closer to home, I had an immediate family member who had been misusing drugs and alcohol and that put a lot of stress on myself and the family as a whole. So here I was in a training designed specifically for people who have suffered trauma and I will be completely honest, I didn’t think that applied to me. When I take the ACE test I score very very low.
Anyway, we had just finished one of our trauma-informed practices that included a trauma release and were feeling all blissed out and relaxed . And then I heard a notification buzz coming from my bag. And every muscle in my body tensed up and I actually stopped breathing.
It was the first time I had been quiet enough to actually feel my stress response react in real time. That phone notification triggered an involuntary physiological response that most likely had been happening for the last year over and over again without my conscious awareness.
It was at that moment and in that training that I realized that just because you don’t think you’ve experienced trauma doesn’t mean that the body hasn’t been collecting the ingredients for you. Just because we ignore the subtle reactions to stress triggers doesn’t mean the aren’t quietly accumulating tension and changes to your nervous system.
Today I want to visit the idea of refilling the well. What I mean by that is we all have a well of energy, physical, mental and emotional energy that we can draw from. It’s not a bottomless well. Ideally we replenish that well of energy when we sleep, when we eat right, when we play and rest and form positive relationships.
Living under high levels of stress for extended periods of time from any source, whether that's work stress, financial stress, relationship stress, family abuse or neglect, or over work, poor nutrition, chronic illness, yours or someone you care for…whatever it is, when your body stays in a highly activated state for too long with no way to acknowledge or release the tension you will start to exhaust the nervous system.
The nervous system controls everything. But it wasn’t designed to be turned up all the way all the time. It’s a general system. It reacts the same way with a tiger as if you’re startled by a mouse. And the way it responds is to flush your system with cortisol and adrenaline, fire up all your muscles for action and shut down anything not absolutely necessary for survival. In that state it is almost impossible to recover from anything. You can’t rest because you’re jacked up on these alertness hormones. If we ignore the demand for action in the body eventually tense muscles tend to lock us into muscle imbalances, chronic pain and possibly inflammation. And then if those shut down systems can’t come back online we start to see physical and physiological dysfunctions like hormone imbalance, emotional dysregulation, painful gut dysfunction that can’t be explained, insulin dysregulation, metabolic syndrome and prediabetes and many more.
These are sometimes so random and disconnected it’s hard to believe they could all be related to the stress response in some way. One clue though is when /if you go to the doctor they can’t find a source. Or all the tests come back negative. And all the drugs you try don’t work.
It’s my opinion and take it for what it’s worth is that the feeling of burnout is actually a precursor to all of that nastiness. And if you can translate some of those feelings of exhaustion, overwhelm, and what I like to call that cringey lack of joy in your life…If you can notice those feelings for what they are, which is whispers for help. Then you can make some simple changes that refill your well of energy in ways that feed your soul.
Now I know feeding your soul might not be high on your list of things to do when you have to feed the kids, the dog, the cat, the hamster, the spouse and the plants and while you’re at it pay the bills and clean the house and wash the car and the clothes and mow the lawn and be there for everyone else and be happy about it. And this is the problem.
Because if you don’t or won’t take care of yourself in a way that your nervous system understands as rest and recovery then who will take care of all that stuff when it shuts you down?
This right here is why it’s important for fitness industry professionals to understand the nervous system. Because people are coming to us for ways to refill their well and we need to be able to see that and make sure that what we’re offering meets that need. Did your certification cover that? Mine didn’t.
And more often than not we operate from such a depleted position ourselves we ‘ve got no business trying to refill anyone else's well. You can’t give what you haven’t got. That’s why we need to take care of ourselves first. Should be easy but it’s not. I know I’ve been there.
That’s why I created The Well Networkshop + Retreat. I wanted a place where fit pros could get away and recharge, pour back into themselves, collaborate, network and talk a little shop, and learn new ways to recover for their own nervous system so they can burnout-proof their body and business.
I’m so excited about this opportunity. Coming IN 2022 you and 9 other rockstar fitness professionals can meet me at The Well. We’ve reserved an historic airbnb in Kentucky for an all inclusive weekend.
Yes you’ll get the beautiful countryside, unbelievable food from our private chef, Yoga classes to soothe your soul, incredible company. But what makes this retreat different is that we are going to workshop practical skills in multiple areas of the fitness industry: your self regulation, tech savvy ways to master social media and grow your business and money mindset around value and pricing services.
Then to top it all off you’ll be able to stay connected with your new network in a private (non-facebook) online group and check back in for personal and professional accountability.
Now I want to sweeten the deal for you because you’re still listening and this is a little like an easter egg at the end of a Marvel movie.
So here it is. If you sign up and pay in full by December 25 (XMAS) yes that’s christmas this is a gift to yourself.
You’ll automatically get one of my favorite tools waiting for you at the retreat. And that’s a Rocketbook fusion notebook. This notebook changed my life. It is a reusable notebook that’s like having whiteboard pages at your fingertips. The app lets you upload everything you write in your notebook to wherever you want to send it. Email a client, send it to drive to trello of the cloud and a bunch more I can’t remember. Anyway. It’s awesome and I have bins full of old workout notebooks that should be up in the cloud.
So I hope you can join me, but if it’s not for you maybe you know someone fit pro who is looking for this type of an immersive retreat experience. That’s awesome! Send them my way! You can find all the nitty gritty details at elementalkinetics.com/thewellnetworkshop
Thanks for listening to todays’ episode of the Work IN be sure to refill you well in whatever way speaks to you and see you next time!