From Surviving to Thriving: Navigating Burnout and Embracing Soulful Healing with Anita D. Marshall

Have you ever felt like you're on the brink of burnout, desperately needing to flick the switch from 'surviving' to 'thriving'? Our latest conversation with Anita D. Marshall, a spiritual life coach and energy healer, promises to offer that beacon of hope. Anita combines personal experience with professional expertise to illuminate the risks and realities of burnout, especially poignant for working mothers. We unpack the criticality of early stress recognition and the structured techniques she advocates to help individuals reclaim their light and energy. If you're seeking solace it maybe a sign to start taking self-care seriously. Anita's insights are the guiding light toward healing and wholeness.

Throughout the episode, Anita introduces us to the transformative potential of Soul Plan readings, integrated with coaching to propel you toward your true potential. From her own transformation to now empowering others across the globe, Anita's journey is nothing short of inspirational. Learn about the subtle adjustments that can redirect your life towards soulful fulfillment and how her Sacred Re-Energize program is designed to realign with your soul's journey. This isn't just a conversation for the burnt out; it's a roadmap for anyone feeling a little off track, yearning to elevate their vibrational energy and attract the positive change they deserve.



Anita D Marshall is a Spiritual Life Coach, Soul Plan Teacher and Energy Healer who helps people go from being blocked and in burnout to brilliance through sacred self-care and soul purpose alignment. 

She has 2 coaching/healing programs to help; SACRED. Re-Energise to help avoid or recover from burnout (https://anitadmarshall.com/sacred-reenergise/) and Live Your Purpose Breakthrough (https://anitadmarshall.com/soul-aligned/) as well as single sessions in Soul Plan Reading and Energy Healing. 

She additionally teaches a certified course in Soul Plan Reading to teach others this powerful system of life purpose guidance from the soul's perspective. 

You can find more information on her website at: www.anitadmarshall.com or follow her on her social media channels for more soul alignment guidance at: www.facebook.com/anitadmarshallcom, www.instagram.com/anitadmarshall or www.linkedin.com/anitadmarshall

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 2:30

So welcome everybody to another episode of Barn to the Soul, and today I've got a lovely new guest to talk to and her name is Anita D Marshall. So thank you, anita, for coming on the podcast. Thank you for supporting Barn to the Soul.

Speaker 2: 2:47

It's lovely to be here.

Speaker 1: 2:48

Thank you for inviting me, so I'm very excited because Anita is very close to my heart, to what I do and what I sort of believe in. So Anita is a spiritual life coach and an energy healer. But a lot of your work is more focused on people who have suffered burnout and overwhelm, isn't it? So how to navigate your way through that and how to really sort of realign your path Is that, would that be accurate, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yeah, it's something very close to my heart, having been there myself, but I think naturally through energy, vibrations, things, I attract a lot of people who are in that situation and feeling really blocked, sucked, overwhelmed, and so it's become quite a passion of mine.

Speaker 1: 3:45

Yeah, because when you're in that scenario, when you're in that situation, it's almost impossible to sort of think clearly, think about. You know, it's even difficult to get headspace sometimes when you're so busy and stressed. So it's very difficult without assistance to sort of work out what's the best thing to do, really, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 4:11

Yeah, that's absolutely, because you literally can't see the wood for the trees and all it does is you just feel more and more hemmed in and you just don't really know which way to turn.

Speaker 1: 4:23

And stress is really debilitating, isn't it? I mean, physically it's debilitating, and mentally it is, and that in itself can cause lack of sleep, and then you just sort of dig your head, you get stuck in this hole, don't you, and you really can't see a way forward.

Speaker 2: 4:43

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it starts in the beginning with just minor things, but if it's left and you're not dealing with it and you're not making changes, then it really can take your health absolutely down, like it did for me. And that's when you're at burnout crisis, everything stops. So it is literally addressing it because you will. You know, from your body's perspective, but also from the universe. The universe is wanting you to be back to your light and your wholeness, and so it says enough's enough, and you end up kind of being forced to stop. So if you can make the changes before you get into the forced situation and start to return back to your wholeness, your light, and into that more expanded state, then you can start moving forward again in a way that is lined.

Speaker 1: 5:45

So if people are feeling stressed because I suppose that's how it starts, isn't it Feeling stress, whether that's at home, whether that's at work, you know, whatever that scenario, what should they do? If they reckon that, because I reckon majority of people are stressed at some point, aren't they so? But if they start to feel that this is getting more common I'm feeling this more often what sort of things can they do?

Speaker 2: 6:13

Well, to kind of phrase from you know, from a travel and things is you need to put your oxygen mask on and that means you know you've literally got to look after yourself and start to put creating the space that is the first thing is to create some space for self care and really to come the chaos down enough that you can breathe, because otherwise you're just gasping, and that's what we want to do firstly. So I use a program that I've got and I use a technique and structure to create that space, to create that putting the oxygen mask on. Then, once that's in place, you can start to move forward. We can move forward with the alignment part of it, but that's the highest priority.

Speaker 1: 7:13

So it's really. It is about you know, because, being energy therapists, it's you know, it's. I suppose you and I are very self-aware as to what's going on in our energy field all the time, but maybe other people aren't. And it's about becoming self-aware, isn't it? It's about that self-care, self-awareness, what's happening, you know. I mean, it could start with a few sleepless nights, can't it? But so you've got to sort of what can I change? To sort of help me, basically.

Speaker 2: 7:51

Absolutely. That's why I because I've gone through the burnout routine a couple of times in various initially from being in corporate and being out of alignment and that was my initial aspect of burnout and that was my big one. But I then burnt out. Next time was when my children came along and I had my children and that's during that process. It was another aspect and that is you know, there is some of our burnout scenarios. Just there is the corporate or being in work that's misaligned. The other one is that mothers end up in burnout. They are so you can imagine that by the time you get to, maybe a woman and mother in a business or something like that, it's very, you know, the statistics are quite high. I think it's something like 75 to 80% people have ended up on the path to burnout, if not in full burnout.

Speaker 1: 9:02

So Wow, and I suppose when you're in full burnout, like you say, you come to a full stop. Really, you just cannot cope with the normal day-to-day activities, can you?

Speaker 2: 9:15

Absolutely not. You know, for me, when I was in corporate, I was very stressed. It was really hard work and I ended up collapsing, being rushed to hospital and I was told that I'd had a TIA and if I carried on I was at risk of a full blown stroke. It was my real wake up and it was like, ok, you know, at that point I was only in my early 30s and that was my real wake up, but absolutely, this is not where I want to be and that's not where I want to be going. So I was forced into a stop situation that timing absolutely aligns with from a soul's perspective, when because I do something called soul plan reading. So, from the soul plan reading perspective, we move into our spiritual path, either naturally from that 30 onwards, or we get the big crisis situation that can awaken us up into the spiritual path.

Speaker 2: 12:27

And for me, obviously, it was a crisis situation that aligned exactly with that beginning of the 30s. But it was ridiculous. I was pushing myself and absolutely exhausting myself doing work that was so misaligned, but I couldn't see the way out, because I was in there. I just couldn't see the way out. I couldn't see how to get out of this rat race and off this treadmill. And so I kept, I just kept going, pushing and pushing, getting faster and faster until my body just couldn't keep up with it. And that happened and thankfully I had the opportunity in space then to reassess and that is how I ended up moving into what I now do.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Yeah, Through it. So if somebody comes to you having had a crisis or feeling that they're going to have a crisis if they carry on with whatever they're doing, how do you start reading their energy or start helping them to realign to what they should be doing? Because my understanding is there's a plan for all of us. Our soul is always pulling us towards a certain path, a certain way, and sometimes we can't always hear that, can we, because of modern day society expectations, whatever it is. So how do we start listening really? How do we work with that? How do we start thinking Right? How do I realign myself?

Speaker 2: 14:11

Well, for my clients I go through an eight week program which combines. It's called sacred re-energize and we use a very clear structure because when we're in over one, when we're in burnout, our thought processes have usually gone out the window. We can't think so. Making it simple, making it straightforward, it's aimed at not adding more to you but really coming into what you said the self-awareness, starting to develop the self-awareness, starting listening back to the body. And during that program I also do energy healing.

Speaker 2: 14:56

So, as well as giving practical tools and techniques and things, I do energy healing with the person to start realigning the energy center, starting healing the wings in there and some of those are just can be from aspects of ourselves, not aspects like not being able to say no. That can be. That's often what's linked to it, the struggling, and that again will link with it in with a chakra center and there'll be some history and wounds around that. So that is what I will explore from the healing perspective. But it's really important they get empowered and give themselves some tools to. Otherwise they're going to just repeat the pattern. So we need to bring that awareness back, develop the awareness, develop the self-awareness. So I move them through self-awareness into then soul awareness through that program.

Speaker 1: 15:58

And it's not for the faint hearted, really, is it? It's not easy doing self-awareness work and sort of bringing those wounds to the surface and examining them. It can be actually very, very emotional, can't it? It can be really difficult, although it's cathartic and it helps us clear stuff. It can be. I wouldn't want people to think that it was oh well, that's easy, we just work our way through that questionnaire and we'll be fine. It's a difficult process, definitely.

Speaker 2: 16:34

And you do. Some people can. If you've got a level of self-awareness, some people will do it on their own, but a lot of the times I find that the people will go. I've tried it on my own and I need the support and the space. They need the safe space for that and the reflection space, because we can't always see, but somebody who has had that training, who is in that field and things, can reflect back and then kind of bring into awareness, help bring into awareness something that they maybe haven't recognised as a source of core of this and that is the benefit of working with people like ourselves is that we provide that space but we also provide the reflection and the support to allow that process to happen.

Speaker 1: 17:37

Yeah, and not only the self-reflection, but if you're doing energy healing as well, that's going to bring stuff to the surface, isn't it? And you're going to have emotions and realisations and understandings about why things happened. And all of that is triggered by the actual energy therapy itself, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 18:02

Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 18:04

As you're going along and depending on the energy modality that you use because we're often trained in a variety of techniques that we use to bring to the surface we'll use our intuitive channel of guidance from soul what needs to be what we can use to help that person the best, yeah, and so whatever modality will bring what needs to be brought up for clearing because until it's cleared, it's going to sit in the background as a sabotage, a repeating pattern, and once it's brought into awareness, we can then start clearing it.

Speaker 2: 18:49

But also, awareness is our powerful tool because once we're aware, we go oh, I can see you, I see you've come again. Right, okay, what do I need to change? Yeah, the change once we have the awareness. It's just when it's. The biggest problem is when it's outside of our awareness and it's operating from the back seat and it's moving us from the back seat, and that's often why we've ended up in burnout in the first place, because we've got something in the back seat that's pushing us or driving us or sabotaging us and taking a soft path and we're having to work extra hard to try and keep up, get back in line or whatever.

Speaker 1: 19:34

Yeah, and? But we don't have to wait until burnout to do this, do we? If people are just thinking you know what, I'm fine actually I feel fine, but there's something I'm not. I don't feel that I'm quite doing what I should be doing. They, you know, they can come and do your courses as well. We don't have to wait until we're on our knees, do we?

Speaker 2: 19:58

And I'd absolutely prefer people not to prevent it, and it's not the place, it's not the best place to be. So, yes, if life is starting to feel hard and you feel like you're going against the current, if you feel like you're constantly swimming against the tide and the current, that is a big indicator that you're. You know there's a misalignment happening from a soul's perspective, from an energy's perspective, and that's absolutely when, if you can jump in at that point, before you've got exhausted, before you've got burnt out and before you're struggling and going under, then you can make course adjustments and get back on track. And then life starts to come into a flow state, because that is when we're in soul alignment. That's absolutely what it feels like. We feel like everything just flows.

Speaker 2: 20:58

And yeah, you know there'll be the challenges, but those challenges will have a degree of refuelling. They'll refuel us in some way versus absolutely depleting us. We will get something back from them. You know, when we're in alignment, yeah, the challenges you'll think actually that was a great challenge. I've. You know, I've grown, I've learned, I've expanded and, oh, I've learned so much from that experience. And it will have that expansive quality to it rather than that contracted energy.

Speaker 1: 21:34

Yeah, so if people are like, perhaps going through a situation or sort of a situation keeps repeating itself and that isn't feeling comfortable with various different people in various different situations, that's an example, isn't it, of something running the show, as you talked about it being in the back seat usually an emotion, a negative belief or something. So that's the sort of indication to somebody who's listening to us that perhaps there is something that perhaps they need to work on. Start clearing, start looking. You know when that same, perhaps like repeated relationships finish the same way. Or you know repeated jobs finish the same way or you're coming back. You know that spiral again and again, aren't you?

Speaker 2: 22:31

Absolutely. It's because, ultimately, it's sitting in your vibrational field, it's sitting in your energy body and we, our energy vibrations, attract our life experience. That's the fundamentals from a Soul Plan perspective is we have this energetic vibration which is our Soul Plan and that influences our life, our relationships, our work, and by understanding that, we can then make change those vibrations or transmute the challenge, the challenge vibrations which are attracting that. And if we look at it from a Soul's perspective, our Soul is about growth. If we didn't have those challenges, there wouldn't be any growth opportunity. So those challenges are given from a Soul's perspective, as a opportunity for learning and growth. And so those repeating patterns when we see those repeating patterns it's like, okay, that's a challenge, but now I need to transmute it, now I need to change that energy vibration so I can achieve my potential, so I can move forward and into my most light, expanded form of myself.

Speaker 1: 23:48

So just tell us about your Soul Plan reading so presumably anybody at any point in their life can come along and have a Soul Plan reading. And what do you do in those readings? What do you look at?

Speaker 2: 24:06

So a Soul Plan reading is based on the vibrations of your birth name. So your birth name holds the energy vibrations that was chosen by the Soul. It's like a beacon, an identifier that comes out into the world and within those energies are both your worldly and spiritual path, and both of those paths hold, each displayed as a star we call it the Star of Creation. And we have a downward facing triangle, the worldly part, which influences us for the first 30 odd years of our life, and there is our. We've got challenges, talents and goals from the worldly perspective. And then the upward facing triangle points towards spirit and it refers to the more from 30 onwards when we start to question are we more than this physical body? Is the more we can do to change and help the world? And we have those challenges, talents and goals and ultimately we have a soul destiny, a highest potential. And as a reader, what I do is look at those challenges, talents and goals and help you see what each of those are and how to kind of move through them and achieve them and what else, what the next step is. So it is a really foundational tool to awakening into soul, soul alignment, soul purpose, and I I learned it over. I've learned it over 15 years ago. I've been a teacher for the last 12 years now. So 12, 13 years.

Speaker 2: 25:48

And if it hadn't been for Soul Plan I know it seems ridiculous, but I wouldn't have become a Soul Plan teacher. Not because of the obvious reason, but when I was first asked if I wanted to become one of the first teachers of Soul Plan by its, the modernised founder of it, the modernised system of it, because it is an ancient system, my challenges made me tell it, tell it, blue-master, and I went no, no, I couldn't do that. I couldn't be a teacher. Thankfully, he said just go look back at your Soul Plan, look at what your goals are, look at what your soul purpose is and then come back and tell me. So I looked and I was like reminded that I had the teacher energies in me. So I accepted and I never looked back. You know the first course. I did it very nervous, but I have now taught hundreds and hundreds of students around the world. But knowing that is exactly what it does, it helps us say yes to opportunities and recognise when our challenges are getting out in our way and stopping us and always sabotaging ourselves.

Speaker 1: 27:02

It sounds amazing. I was going to say, and on your website you can. You know you can. What's the word I'm looking for? You can put your name down to. You know for the course, can't you that you teach as well and go through that if people are interested to do that.

Speaker 2: 27:22

Absolutely so. People either come for a Soul Plan reading or they'll go for a Learn it themselves, and then, of course, they can do it for themselves and for other people. So there's two ways of experiencing Soul Plan, and it is such a powerful tool and it is foundational to my coaching and energy healing. I will always have a look at somebody's Soul Plan, whether I'm just, whether I'm coaching, whether I'm energy healing with them. I will have a look because that is the best and most powerful way I can help them.

Speaker 1: 27:59

It's amazing, it's really some. It's just such a powerful way to help people, you know, to help people see where they can go, where the potential of where they can go, because I think a lot of people just play small, don't they? And they just think, you know, I'm okay as I am, let's not push it, and they don't actually reach their full potential. So it's a lovely way to sort of nudge people off in the right direction and get those. Get them thinking maybe I can do that, maybe I can move off into that profession or whatever it is really.

Speaker 2: 28:40

Absolutely so. Yeah, you know that's the next step. After we put the oxygen mask on, we've started to kind of be able to breathe again. Then the next step is to actually look at what our Soul is wanting for us in this life, because ultimately we've, you know, we're off track. If we've ended up in burnout, we're off track in some way or we're not aligned and we are stuck somewhere in the challenges that are causing that and we need to look at how we can move, then forward, so you don't go back to you, don't go back into repeating the same old patterns.

Speaker 1: 29:21

So do you ever get people who come to you and say I know I should be doing that, but I'm way over here. How do I? One, can you affirm I should be doing that? And two, how do I get from A to B? Do you ever get people who have sort of that, you know?

Speaker 2: 29:40

coming from a slightly different tangent, Absolutely yeah, and they have that inkling. But then they'll want the confirmation and the clarity. But then it's a case of how do I do it. You know, I can say from my experience it was like I was stuck in this corporate job doing IT and things like that, and I was like I don't know how I can leave this. I don't know how I can change, because I've got a mortgage. That time I didn't have kids and I didn't have those kind of commitments. But I was still locked in the mindset I've got a house, I had a certain lifestyle and I was so attached to that. But when it was all taken away.

Speaker 2: 30:30

I had to you know, I was forced to stop. I actually reassessed that and with that perspective I actually realized that there is some ways. And that's, you know what I do with people who are in that situation. We look at how we can make changes or how we can achieve the goal. Sometimes it just needs small tweaks, Sometimes it is throw everything up in the air, but then we have to look how we can do that without adding extra burden. Or we all have responsibilities and I absolutely know that, now that I've got a family and kids, that changes what I can and can't do. I've got responsibilities, but that doesn't mean I can't make adjustments to get some of that refuelling happening from soul alignment.

Speaker 1: 31:23

Yeah, it doesn't have to be a complete jump either, does it? It can be step by step. But just having that goal and just thinking I want to be over there in the next 18 months or whatever, or at least on my way over there, I suppose gives somebody a plan, rather than what I'm doing here. What's going on?

Speaker 2: 31:46

That's absolutely and that's the coaching process. So that is what the coaching does is we? We develop that and we work through and we, and equally, as you're trying to achieve it, things will come up and I'll go. I'll go OK, that's your soul plan challenge. You know you're playing into your soul plan challenge there. Let's have a look, well, what we can, because then we have to look at clear again and how we can stop that kind of impacting the moving forward.

Speaker 2: 32:15

But yeah, there is, there is always a way to move more towards soul alignment, even if you can't sometimes, yes, absolutely recognise we cannot fully align. But if we can bring degrees of alignment, yeah, then you get refuel. You get that refuel Because it's the lack of that that is depleting. When we have something that fills us with joy, makes us feel fulfilled, even if it's in small parts, it is like feel for the soul and it's like right, ok, that lifts us and ultimately it's really straight. You know, it's not strange, I'd say really, but ultimately when we do that we change our vibrational energy, we start to lift our own vibrational energy because when we're in the low vibrational energies, that is, it tends to have that attractive quality of similar energy vibrations, bringing in and changing our own energy vibration by bringing in alignment, bringing in those, those more positive energies. So we start to lift our own vibration and then the universe miraculously sinks with us and we start go, you'll never.

Speaker 2: 33:36

You know, quite often my clients will go. You never guess what has happened. I can, probably, but go on Exactly and they will bring in that you know. They'll say, oh, this has happened and it's just a perfect, you know, serendipitous moment, and they say it's just so exciting. I never thought that was possible yet because you've done the inner work, you've done the aligning, we've started to raise your vibrations into alignment, to bring that and make that a possibility.

Speaker 1: 34:11

Yeah, fabulous. So they can come to you for and I'm going to put Anita's website details underneath the episode but they can come to you for a soul plan reading. They can come to you and be taught for that. They can come to you to be coached, presumably you do like one session and then, or a series, or however much. People need that help and guidance, I suppose.

Speaker 2: 34:40

Yeah, so my soul plan reading is probably my is what I say is like a single session coaching. It's the most powerful Coaching packages where we have. Are you usually work in six sessions because through that process we really bring into the, into awareness, into the light and stop shifting forward. So I use coaching packages and that's the most powerful way of doing it. Spiritual life coaching involves energy healing. That's the put. You know. That is the difference between standard life coaching and spiritual life coaching. It's from the soul's perspective, it's very holistic, but also I will be bringing in energy techniques into that coaching process to create the biggest shifts. Yeah, I do some single energy healing sessions for people who you know are kind of needing some clearing. Going there, they're very, you know, they're aware of what they might be aware of, they might not be, but they know that there's a blockage and I can do that through single sessions.

Speaker 1: 35:50

Yeah, which is, start shifting things. Yeah, it's all of these things that people can do. It's about self awareness, isn't it? And it's about self care. You know, if you're really stepping into the flow and you're in your passion, you're less likely to have physical, mental, emotional issues, aren't you? It's going to be a little easier, course, life happens. We're not saying that you'll have a perfect, but if you're in the flow, where everything seems brighter, easier and and you know so much more enjoyable actually.

Speaker 2: 36:29

Absolutely, you know fight. You know if you're fighting yourself as well. Yeah, if you've got that going off and you're going against your own flow whether that's your energy, phone flow, your soul flow, whatever you you know that is exhausted You've got an internal exhaustion happening, let alone Outer life. Yeah, so that's so. Yes, absolutely, we move from solar work itself awareness into solar awareness.

Speaker 1: 36:58

Yeah, and I suppose it's Getting people to think what am I passionate about? And maybe what really makes me feel, puts a smile on my face and makes me feel good, and that might be their first clue as to when they need to realign themselves to.

Speaker 2: 37:15

Yeah, and it's not to question how that is possible. You know, that is the thing. Well, you know, oh, I couldn't, I could never do that, that wouldn't Make you know, no, that wouldn't pay the bills, and things like that. Firstly, we, you know, put all that aside, let's find, let's find what you were about, what your soul is here to do and achieve, and then we can look at how that's possible. And there is, you know, there's some Amazing people out there who have absolutely done things and you think, how on earth are they made money in that? But they've gone with their passion and they've gone with their soul and James, and they've made it work. And you like, looking at the outside perspective, but that is the power of soul. Alignment is, if it's, if it's absolutely what you're about, then there is a flow state that happens. You are a co-creator with the, the universe, and it makes it happen.

Speaker 1: 38:25

Yeah, and it's almost. You can't stop it then, can you? It just blows to you. Well, thank you, anita, it's been absolute pleasure talking to you and I hope we've inspired people to really think about you. Know what their passions are, are they in alignment, do they feel a niggle, that they need to shift over, and how perhaps they can start that process? So, thank you for talking to us, it's been a pleasure.

Speaker 2: 38:54

Oh, I've loved it. Thank you, it's been an absolute delight.

Speaker 1: 38:57

So if you've, enjoyed listening to Anita and I please share and like and leave a review for Balm to the Soul and I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will speak. You speak to you all again soon.