Overcoming Burnout: Embracing Self-Love and Transformation with Jamie London Wollberg

Imagine waking up daily feeling utterly exhausted, yet pretending everything is fine. That's a reality many of us, especially educators, face with burnout. Together with burnout expert and spiritual guide, Jamie London Wollberg, we explore the roots of burnout and discuss powerful tools like the self-love audit and Healing Beyond Burnout webinar that can lead to genuine transformation.

Burnout isn't exclusive to teachers; it's a silent epidemic affecting nurses, IT professionals, first responders, and more. Jamie shares a compelling narrative of a "tri-awakening" experience, where burnout impacted not just physical health but identity and spirituality amid the pandemic's pressures. We shine a light on the symptoms many of us dismiss, like persistent exhaustion and emotional disconnection, and stress the importance of transforming professional environments to prioritize human needs, especially in education.

Want to try the free self-love audit? Schedule here:
https://calendly.com/wake-in/self-love-audit?month=2025-01

Learn more about the work Jamie London Wollberg is doing by connecting here:

https://wake-in.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wakein2love
https://www.instagram.com/wakein2love/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/wake-in/about/?viewAsMember=true

Jamie's Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiItTKaT6L4&t=1s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdw3txFS7aA

Chapters

• 0:04 Teaching Burnout
• 4:31 Recognizing Burnout Across Professions
• 10:52 Balancing Human Needs in Education
• 21:44 Overcoming Burnout With Spiritual Routine
• 37:42 Navigating Resistance in Self-Love Journey

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

The first thing that comes up is exhaustion. A lot of the time, right, Because we're so used to meeting someone saying, hi, how are you Right? And there's like this immediate autopilot of I am fine, or I'm really tired or I'm exhausted. You don't usually get too much deeper than that and oftentimes people don't even say the truth of what it is. Their autopilot response is I'm fine, I'm okay, they're masking to make it through. And I, for example, I didn't realize that I was masking when people would ask me how I was doing for a long time. It never occurred to me for, you know, for the longest time to think about that. So I think that what happens with professionals, especially who are providing a service that require a lot of nurturing? People don't often ask how they're doing.

Speaker 2: 1:10

A few years ago, I started writing a fictitious story based on my time as an educator. It is called Taught, and the story was partially inspired out of anger and frustration fueled by burnout. Okay, actually, it was more than partially inspired by anger and frustration fueled by burnout. Okay, actually, it was more than partially inspired by anger and frustration. But taught has also become a vehicle for me to tell what I thought at the time and in some ways continue to think was and is the real story of teaching. I now realize that my perspective is not everyone's perspective, but there are some pieces of taught that resonated with many educators perspective, but there are some pieces of taught that resonated with many educators. This podcast is an extension of that story and I, a former teacher, will interview other educators, asking them to share how they really feel about the current state of education. Why are so many teachers burnout? Why are so many like me leaving the field? We likely won't solve any problems or come up with any solutions, but we can create a community of voices that maybe begin the conversation around how educators can take back teaching. I'm Melissa LaFleur. Welcome to Taught the podcast. I like to be educated, but I'm so frustrated.

Speaker 2: 2:35

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Jamie London Wahlberg, a leader of love providing impactful spiritual experiences for corporate leaders, entrepreneurs and their businesses. With his company Wake In, he's also providing that for people like me as well. He is a burnout expert dedicated to inspiring life-giving transformations, with a passion for creating a meaningful impact in the world out of burnout, which is what caught my interest. Jamie is a purpose-driven mentor, coach and healer who empowers leaders through personalized programs and workshops. As an Usui Holy Fire III, reiki Master, teacher and intuitive empath, he creates a safe space for clients to explore their potential and heal. Drawing on his own transformative journey and diverse skillset, jamie guides individuals to unlock their true selves.

Speaker 2: 3:29

He is dedicated to nurturing leaders of love and their families using some of the following, because there are many other things that Jamie offers as well, and this first one I just have to say is the self-love audit. I did it myself. I highly recommend it. I'm going to say right now all of his information and contacts. I will be putting in today's show notes so that you can check out the self-love audit and all of his products and programs that he's doing. So here are a few other ones the Healing Beyond Burnout, webinar Manifestation. Spells for Making Life Better the Wake In Wellness, deck the Schedule Soother and Getting Intimate with Intimacy. In today's episode, jamie's going to lead us through some perspectives on burnout and how we can navigate all of that with self-love. Jamie, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Namaste, melissa and listeners, thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.

Speaker 2: 4:31

So, as you know, this podcast has primarily been about educator burnout. But as I continue to do this work, I'm realizing that educators aren't the only ones that are burnout here, and I'm having people contact me saying hey, you know, guess what? Fields like nursing fields, like first responders lots and lots of burnout. And while I was on a gondola ride going to see a botanical garden, the people I did not know them that were on the gondola with us. I was talking to my husband about the podcast and the guy says hey, I just want to tell you I'm an IT and guess what it's? It's pretty bad in IT right now too. And I actually took his name.

Speaker 2: 5:17

I think he might end up being on the podcast himself in the new year. So there is a lot of work to be done in this area and you yourself have had your own burnout journey that has led you to where you are currently doing this work. And folks, like I said, I'm going to put all of his stuff in here. I know you're going to want to follow him up and one of them is a YouTube video where you tell your story of burnout and kind of how it led you. Can you kind of summarize that for us?

Speaker 1: 5:50

I sure can.

Speaker 1: 5:51

So a long story short is that I had what I refer to as a tri-awakening was based on my awareness and becoming of my physical body and my health journey that was going on there, my identity within myself, my sexuality, my gender and my expression, and then my spirituality, my connection to spirit, source, god and myself, frankly, and everything that was around me.

Speaker 1: 6:26

And it wasn't until many years later I would realize that on this journey where I truly burnt out every which way that I could have imagined from burning out emotionally of heartbreak, my physical body just totally breaking down and not knowing what's wrong with it, and being bedridden in my 20s, my identity coming from someone who was assigned female at birth to someone who has transition and is trans, not binary, and my spiritual, which was really just going from zero to 60, from having not really a lot of guidance in a very conservative place to grow up within guidance of spirituality and religion, into my own thing and, frankly, diving too deep into that direction, forgetting everything else.

Speaker 1: 7:23

So along the way I burned out in all these different ways and I came to realize through the pandemic that what actually happened was burnout. That word wasn't even like in my vocabulary, I would have referred to it as you know, overworking or not having a work-life balance. I never really understood that there was a different spectrum, that's even more extreme and it's really rampant. It's something that became very clear to a lot of us during the pandemic, and so through this journey, I have realized how to get out of burnout and how to get back in and how to get out again.

Speaker 2: 8:08

Yeah, you know some of those groups that I mentioned before well educators and, I think, healthcare professionals and first responders. Again, pandemic took what was already a slow burning fire and just turned it into a massive forest fire. And then there were other people who may have been in that burnout space but actually had that moment in time and said, wow, upon reflection, these things that I'm doing in life aren't working so well for me, and made drastic changes. But the pandemic certainly was this very weird moment in history that seemed to really, as you said, bring burnout just like up to the surface level, where we all had to either look at our own or notice that you know some of the things that maybe we were kind of taking for granted. As far as people working in the service industry again, people working in the medical profession we had to kind of feel what they were going through, which I think has led to hopefully some better awareness and people doing things like what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 9:31

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2: 9:34

So I do think that educators are part of this. Some of the other groups I mentioned. What do you think were some of the commonalities that you had in your burnout story with some of these things that we're hearing on the news right now about? Like I said, I've already mentioned a few groups that are going through burnout, but what were the things that you felt that are kind of common that we see in people who are in burnout?

Speaker 1: 10:06

The first thing that comes up is exhaustion. A lot of the time, right, because we're so used to meeting someone saying hi. Too much deeper than that, and oftentimes people don't even say the truth of what it is. Their autopilot response is I'm fine, I'm okay, they're masking to make it through. And I, for example, I didn't realize that I was masking when people would ask me how I was doing for a long time. It never occurred to me for you know, for the longest time to think about that. So I think that what happens with professionals, especially who are providing a service that require a lot of nurturing people don't often ask how they're doing require a lot of nurturing. People don't often ask how they're doing, and so they spend all day, you know, supporting the emotions and the growth and development of however many tiny to adult babies that they're, you know, supporting.

Speaker 1: 11:21

And then, well, what about them? And so they often forget about themselves. And so, whether it is that they're exhausted because the hours are really long, right, they're taking their work home with them. I was an absolute floor to ceiling workaholic. I had multiple things that I was doing my own business, a full on career. That I was doing my own business, a full-on career that I was doing to meet other expectations that I felt were placed on me.

Speaker 1: 11:49

I know what it is to be totally exhausted physically, but there's also emotional and mental exhaustion. There's also spiritual exhaustion, and teachers are humans first, educators are humans first, and they're going to have all of these layers of experiences and if they're not nurturing them, they're going to feel exhausted. So exhaustion is not just a word of like I'm tired, I didn't get tons of sleep. It's a perpetual exhaustion where you are to a degree where you're probably exhausted by the whole month. That hasn't even happened yet, and so that is a really big one.

Speaker 1: 12:33

Another one is stress, right, now, oftentimes we're like, well, stress isn't about burnout because everyone is stressed. Well, yes, everyone is stressed, right, there's also healthy aspects to stress, believe or not? Right, if we go to the gym and we exercise our muscles. Technically, we are stressing our muscles by stretching them. They heal, they grow right. But burnout is not about what like happened for a couple hours or what happened for even a month.

Speaker 1: 13:06

There are people that feel like they've never not been burnt out, and so when I'm talking about stress, it's life ruining, it's not affirming of oh wow, like I'm doing so many amazing things and I care so much, and so I'm kind of stressed about these things. It is. I am so stressed that I can't sleep, that I can't eat, that I'm taking out all of my emotions onto everyone that I care about, especially my anger. You know these are two examples of many different signals or symptoms. However you want to look at it, I like to call them signals of what burnout is and how it can present, and I've certainly experienced both, and I would say that those are two of the most common, especially because they show up so much in the physical body, which, as a human, we often pay attention to the physical body first, because that's where we feel it right.

Speaker 2: 14:05

Yeah, yeah for sure. Again, as a teacher, I think that I experienced a lot of this in that and I just read a graphic. It was really good, but it kind of gave kind of the stages of how you get deeper and deeper into burnout, and so one of the things that talked about was this dissatisfaction with kind of where you're at in life and then a lean into perfectionism. So I would say that dissatisfaction is what you're talking about, that little stress feeling that you start getting. And as a teacher, I remember the first thing that started it for me was feeling like I never got all of my tasks done.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Now I taught by year 15, I could say to anyone who asked you'll never get it all done, but certainly starting my career, I expected that of myself and, as it was always in the back of my mind, well, there's these 10 things that I didn't get done and that turned into just a bunch of negative self-talk over the years and that turned into chronic stress.

Speaker 2: 15:16

And we know that chronic stress is that thing that you are in it for so long you kind of change your whole mindset and that's when you enter that burnout zone that kind of takes your life away from you and leaves you just feeling like you're in this really ugly space that you don't know how to get out of, and in my case it took a long time. It was not something that I was able to come out of and I know you're going to talk a bit about that, but you know, one of the things that you've discussed with me around educator burnout is that there is this pervasive lack of balance and space for students, and when I said this before, you corrected me said for students and teachers or educators not just teachers everybody in the system to be human, and you know I love this, so can you expand on that for our listeners?

Speaker 1: 16:19

Absolutely so. We are human first, right, we're let's be real first, yes, but we're having a human experience and regardless of whatever career label you place on someone when they walk in the doors or they turn on their laptop or they open their account, whatever it is that you're doing for your career as an educator, and however you're educating, from whatever method and platform, educator, and however you're educating, from whatever method and platform, you're yourself. And oftentimes there's this expectation through the container of education, especially in public education and I'm sure that that does not stop there, but that's where my experience is, so I can only speak really to my experience but in public education there's this major container of this is how you are to behave, this is this decorum, this is the structure, right, the framework of how we do things, this is how it's done, this is how it's always been done. Who's heard that before? Right? And and you're just expected to fit into that, and so on both the student and educator's side, there is masking, and when we mask, when we are not authentically ourselves, when we do not factor in the wholeness of who we are, when we go into a space, we share a fractured version of ourselves and that chips away and that causes stress and exhaustion, and that chips away and that causes stress and exhaustion, and what happens is this connection that is sacred since forever, like since ancient times, since education existed of any kind, since humans were learning, okay, since we were remembering this has been a core scenario where it's meant to be a connection to be nurtured, to be intimate.

Speaker 1: 18:09

There's intellectual intimacy, there's support, and, in primary, there's also perhaps even more so emotional support. Or, if you're in a religious or spiritual development or otherwise, perhaps there is spiritual support, right. So there's all of these different layers. If you're a coach, then there's probably physical support, right, and so if you can only go there with part of yourself, then how can you properly learn, how can a student flourish and develop if they can't develop from who and where they are?

Speaker 1: 18:49

It's not possible. You're developing half a human and you're pulling away half of what's possible to be taught when you're stuck in this framework. It's why we have a disastrous sexual health education system and so on, but this goes in every direction throughout the ages. This does not stop at Ivy League colleges and universities. If anything, it's more prevalent.

Speaker 2: 19:21

You know, I've had a couple of university professors on who have, speaking to your point, feel that burnout is at an all-time high at that level in education as well, and a lot of it being this box that they are trapped in. And one of my guests talked about quiet quitting, which is really a kind of burnout. I mean, I'm just making that connection right now. We didn't talk about that on the podcast but, to your point, it's these people showing up but not really showing up. Right they? They are not living to their passion.

Speaker 2: 20:08

Yeah, that's very interesting to think about, and I also think about the fact that you said you're educating half a human to these certain standards, but you're also educating them to a very specific way of doing things that I think we're seeing isn't effective for a lot of people. We're at a all-time high, in my opinion, for people who don't value learning for learning's sake and thinking for thinking's sake and problem solving, because then you have that tool to use however you choose to use it. We see these as hoops and I think that's kind of what you're describing what that does to a whole system, and I think that's kind of what you're describing what that does to a whole system, absolutely Especially for those who learn differently.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Yeah Right, and those who learn differently teach differently, and that ought to be valued.

Speaker 2: 21:15

It really should. It really should. You know, we are in education, we're a female profession, really, up until you get to the high school, college level, and as things become more, actually, less intimate in ways and more content focused, we tend to have more men coming into that space. Boy, that could be a podcast topic all on its own, but we'll save that piece. So what about you? During your education experience, would you say, you encountered burned out educators.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Absolutely, I think, though I didn't have the language for it. I had, especially because I was very much an old soul and I was very bullied and I was very misunderstood. And so, though, I did have friends more so in high school that started to develop, and a little bit of middle school, but I was still bullied, and so I spent a lot of time with my teachers little bit of middle school, but I was still bullied and so I spent a lot of time with my teachers, even in university level. I took interest in them, I looked at them as my mentors, and I spent all the time that I could. I even had a particular art teacher that I loved in primary school, and, bless her, she used to let me eat in her room.

Speaker 1: 22:36

I would go to the art room and I would eat there, and she would spend time with me so that I wouldn't be alone or I would be able to express what I was experiencing through art, and I could very much tell that they were unhappy, that there was a low level of energy. Of course, again, I wouldn't have explained it that way then, but it got to a point where, you know, I'm sort of like this liquid truth serum. People just start to tell me things. It's been like that since I was really really young. People who are like 30 to 40 years older than me have always kind of felt comfortable. They, they sense somehow my unconditional love and they just they don't even realize it and start telling me things.

Speaker 1: 23:21

So I had teachers that would tell me about their life and I realized that they were not happy. And when I realized they weren't happy, I would think is that because of me? You know, am I doing something wrong? Um, you know, I would notice when a teacher would leave, I would notice when an assistant teacher would leave, I would notice the different moods and impressions from, you know, teachers that would come in, you know, temporarily, if there was a teacher who was out.

Speaker 1: 23:54

It was very clear to me and I think that if I had to put it to, how could I tell? It was sort of my awareness of feeling safe and loved, attended to, because I had teachers who would see me bullied and did nothing about it. So it definitely impacted my education and I think that, especially now with the technology that kids have, they are so much more aware, they're more emotionally intelligent as we are growing and treating kids differently and allowing for them to express regardless of sex and gender. Allowing for them to express regardless of sex and gender and I think they get it faster, so it's harder to hide to them. Like me, at age four is not age four now.

Speaker 2: 24:46

It's not even close.

Speaker 1: 24:47

I don't even recognize them. They're amazing.

Speaker 2: 24:51

Well, you know, you said something that really struck my heart, which is that one of the first things you said was you know, when you were around this low energy, this people who were probably burnout and in no way am I victim blaming here, because burnout teachers don't choose to be there, nobody wants but knowing that children internalize that as did I do something, am I causing this person to have low energy? Is there something I did wrong? Can I fix it? It is really a mind shift. Is really a mind shift? So, educators that are out there, whatever level you're at, this is something for us to ponder.

Speaker 2: 25:45

I know for myself, in complete honesty, here I left. I even said my administrator said are you sure you don't want to stay another year? We love certain things that I was doing and I said I'm that teacher that needs to go. I need to go because I could not show up like I wanted to show up every day and that was a hard choice to make. And I actually spoke with a future podcast guest today and she said you know, most people take a gap year between high school and college or between college and going into the workforce. And she said, at my 10-year teaching point. I had to take a gap year because it was getting harder and harder for me to show up the way I wanted to show up, but I still wanted to stay in the game.

Speaker 2: 26:40

So I think sometimes we need to regardless of whether you're an educator or not, we all do need to be aware of the impact that we have when we're in that space and perhaps begin whatever journey we need to take, because, again, nobody wants to be there. So why don't you talk to us a little bit about your program, speaking of getting out of that space? Because I think you know, as I've talked with other guests and we've talked about different strategies a lot of times we just don't know how to start and what the first step is to move away from burnout, and I do think your approach is different than what I've had other people come on and talk about.

Speaker 1: 27:29

I would love to. I would say that the overarching lens of what I have used to get out of burnout and how I guide people is a spiritual lens. This is not like a you know partisan. This is anybody of any faith, any belief system, whether you're religious, spiritual, both neither can flourish within the program so long as you are open-minded and open-hearted. Flourish within the program so long as you are open-minded and open-hearted. It's really about bringing a spiritual and practical together, because what I've realized, the success mechanism is a routine, but it's not usually the way that people look at routines, right?

Speaker 1: 28:12

Usually, people dread their routine. They look at it as the things that they have to get done in order to go do X, y, z, and this is not shaming that at all. It's simply saying I invite you to consider that there's another way to look at a routine, which is these are the things I love to do, and when I do these things, I am my best self and I am able to be exactly who I want to be and show up exactly how I want to show up at the things that really matter. And so if you are someone, for example, who does not like to exercise while, yes, it's important to exercise. Maybe don't put that in your routine. Put something that brings you joy, that fills your cup. What's really important about this routine is that it needs to touch upon the physical body, anything in the meat suit, so that physical health right. The emotional body, anything of the heart, anything I feel, anything within those emotions. The mental body, anything I think and I process. So anything about that self-talk that's going on or how you're processing something, giving yourself the time to process that. And the spiritual body, anything of the soul, the process, the soul's purpose, or anything larger than that, your higher self, whatever resonates with you. That is all needing to be touched upon.

Speaker 1: 29:41

Whether your routine is five minutes, whether it's 10 minutes, 30 minutes an hour or, like me, two hours. That is not a gold standard. Do not put me on a pedestal. That's just what I require, because this is what I do all day. I can't do what I do all day if I don't do it for me, but it's really about doing it consistently, finding things that you love and allowing for that to change and grow, just as you change and grow, and sometimes that may look differently. My routine changes when I travel, right, because I factor in other people and what's going on. It's a process. My process is four months because, well, actually I have a one month process, but I believe that four months is really for people who want to truly say goodbye to burnout forever.

Speaker 1: 30:33

But the core of what we're going to be doing, in addition to coaching and healing, is making sure that you have an ironclad routine. So, even if you never listen to me again or talk to me ever or meet me, please think about this around what a routine means. Shifting your routine to things that fill you up are exactly what you need in order to be your best self. It doesn't mean don't brush your teeth, right? A lot of people don't like to brush their teeth. Frankly, it's boring for me, right? But that doesn't mean that I don't do it. It just means that's not a part of my routine. Figure out what your routine is. Do it. It just means that's not a part of my routine. Figure out what your routine is, allow yourself to change it and grow within that routine, and you'll see how much it changes everything about you. You will feel so excited and alive to start every day, and that's where we all deserve to start.

Speaker 2: 31:32

So I'm going to say that I did the self-love audit and I have actually, which is, I'm going to guess that's like something that everybody starts with with you, Okay.

Speaker 1: 31:47

Right.

Speaker 2: 31:48

So, of course, I've told many of my friends, but I've been very hesitant because I'll say it's this, this and this, and then they ask questions and I'll say you know what? I don't want to answer any questions about it, because I want you to check into it. If you think it's right for you to sign up, if you don't, that's okay, because I did feel that it was such a sacred thing and I want to say between you and I, but really it was between me and me, and when you led me through it, I mean, you remember what it was. But there was one area that it was like oh well, gosh, I. I'm kind of a type A person. I feel like I, you know, I've got my checklist every day, speaking of routines, so I don't want to forget things and I, I want to make sure that I'm I'm doing it all. I'm having my smoothie every day, I'm doing my little yoga stretches. You know I'm trying to keep it all, keep all the balls going. But this one area I was not and I would not have known that had I not gone through that. So, but what I want to say is that it was easy to incorporate a small routine around that and it was amazing to me how it was maybe a five-minute thing I implemented.

Speaker 2: 33:22

And let's see, you and I met on Tuesday. Today is Friday and today my husband and I spent probably a good hour doing something within that area I needed to work on, because he wanted to and I wanted to, and we were just vibing back and forth on this and it just presented itself back and forth on this, and it just presented itself and I know that he felt really good about it and so did I. And yeah, it was just amazing to me how quickly the process began to work. Now I understand it's been four days and I understand that the reason that that came up in that audit with you is because it's something that's been neglected for months. So I think it'll probably take a while for me to you know, and who knows, maybe I'll be back to do another self audit in a few months and see, see where I'm at. But I just want to say for my listeners, it was a very impactful moment for me to go through that process with you. So I do think that you have a gift and I can also see that, if those four things are not balanced, how that lack of balance really contributes to.

Speaker 2: 34:50

Well, it's like anything else in life. You can't have one tire missing off your car. You can put a donut on there for a while. And something else you said. I was thinking all the things that and I actually said it I have my checklist. Those things on that checklist are not my routine that fills my bucket. Those are the I know I should things. They are not. You know, even my yoga is not the one I really enjoy. It's my walk every day. So the walk is more probably important for me to get in and that's not even on the checklist because I know I'll do it.

Speaker 1: 35:30

There you go. It is a huge impact. I'm so grateful that you shared that. It's for anyone listening.

Speaker 1: 35:39

we're on Zoom right now, so Melissa can see my reaction as she's sharing this, Like my whole body is hot. My face literally got red because I'm just so filled with joy and love and excitement to hear this. It really is such a game changer. The self-love audit is. It's very simply put an analytical look at your relationship to yourself and how that impacts your professional and personal performance, and within an hour or less, you have the clarity to see these things within yourself.

Speaker 1: 36:19

As Melissa said, it is a conversation with yourself. I'm simply holding the space. Yes, I'm the manual tool, guiding, asking the questions, but outside of that, it's all you, and so I mean it's like another, as if you had a mirror talking to yourself, but it feels like you're talking to another person, which is why it's so important that it's not just a written document. Let's face it, you probably would never do it, Not even you, Melissa, like the royal you. I wouldn't have done that either.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Someone has to guide you through, to hold that space for accountability so that you can feel like you are reflecting. It's almost like this guard that was initially up with yourself is now down because you're talking to someone else, doesn't feel like you're talking to yourself, because there's these parts of you that resist yourself right or resist the other parts of you, and that's less possible when you're talking to someone else and it doesn't feel like you're talking to yourself. You're kind of tricking your ego. You know to look at things differently and you can't really unsee it. And when we can't unsee something as a human, most of us have a really tough time with that, which propels us into an inspired action like yourself. So that's amazing. That is like the coolest thing and I'm so excited for both you and your husband. That's awesome.

Speaker 2: 37:42

Well, and you know I was thinking as you were talking too, and you know I was thinking, as you were talking too, that if someone had come up to me when I was burnt out and, hey, I think that you need to do something because I think you're burnout, I think I would have been very resistant and I'm wondering, and I'm not even sure, how I would have done with the self-love audit back then. Which brings me to the question of you know, do you encounter because I can be a little bit of a hard nut to crack you do a very nice job of creating a very safe space and part of that is just you. You make people feel loved and you make them feel seen and safe, and through Zoom you can do that, but there has to be. I think a few years ago, me would have been a bit harder of a nut to crack. Does this come up with your clients? Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 39:00

I mean, I think that it's human nature. We've been programmed a certain way by ourselves, by society, by educators. There's so many layers. I mean, if you think about marketing, especially nowadays most parts of the world, especially I live in Brooklyn, so I live in a city that's dense. I'm marketed to and educated major quotes like a million times a day, like I couldn't even possibly count how many times a day that something comes up in front of me and I'm being programmed without thinking about it. Right, and so a lot of it is that awareness.

Speaker 1: 39:42

And I definitely understand resistance as an aries and I also understand it as someone who's been burnt out and what I've seen in my patterns of burning out and then getting out, and burning out and getting out is we resist any time. It is that we a fight or flight response. It's not wrong or bad. It's what we are doing to protect ourselves. And so when someone comes forward and they are resistant in some way, part of it is just me allowing them to do that, Because something about them being resistant in the process, through the self love audit especially, and me just sitting there and existing, they see things almost immediately that they probably wouldn't have.

Speaker 1: 40:44

Because if you think about, for example, if you have a parent or a guardian and a child especially. Let's take a teenager right we're talking about preteens earlier and teenagers very resistant age right, Because they're very powerful or even a toddler learning how to say no right, Very powerful, and you're having that conversation a lot of the times because, again, we're human, we get triggered, we get activated and so we can also respond or react. It doesn't matter what age you are, because the first thing that hears it inside of us is our inner child, whether you are 100, or whether you're 10. Your inner child is hearing it first. And the inner child is brilliant and sensitive and perceptive and aware and has very high, powerful emotions, and so it feels that. And sometimes we respond and sometimes we react. Sometimes we respond and sometimes we react, but when they come in with me, I'm not going to react.

Speaker 2: 41:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:52

I even usually tell people that ahead of time that I'm going to speak in a monotone way, that I'm not going to answer your questions during the audit, that I'm not going to coach you. Some people are like what, what do you mean? You're not going to coach me, and it's like that's not what we're doing here.

Speaker 2: 42:09

Yeah, because this is not the Jamie. You get in the self-love audit right here. No this is yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:16

No, no, I mean, you're still getting all of me, but you're getting a specific version of me that's intentional in that capacity for that purpose. Yeah, so that, because if I emote the way this is, or you're staring at my face, you're going to come to all sorts of conclusions because we feel judged.

Speaker 2: 42:38

Yeah, I think you're onto something there, because I I like I said, if I think about burnout Max, melissa, melissa, I had a lot of shame around that and a lot of it was. You know I should be able to handle all of this. I should be able to. It goes back to that should word again, these are the things I should do and I think that I would have been. It would have been a little harder to be vulnerable about some of those questions that you asked, because I was already feeling kind of shame and weakness. So I guess that's my message to anybody going through this is you don't have to be ashamed and you are not weak. So you've probably been a lot stronger than you realize for a lot longer than you should have been.

Speaker 1: 43:35

Absolutely, and it takes strength to even acknowledge these things right.

Speaker 1: 43:40

So many people live within these emotions or don't know how to process the emotions, to understand the emotions that they are experiencing, and these are one of the million moments a day usually where I say thank God for Brene Brown and if you're listening to this, you probably know who Brene Brown is already.

Speaker 1: 43:57

But if you don't, number one, don't feel ashamed about it, because Brene would tell you not to, but also immediately drop everything. After you listen to this podcast, of course, go and check out her TED Talk following literally everything else that she does, and you will learn a lot of the foundational things. And if you like Brene Brown, you will love the self-love audit, because I often look at the way that she looks at vulnerability and shame is the way that I look at burnout, and I think that, in fact, I wouldn't even say I think I know that if I did not have Brene Brown, experiences and education from the means that she's put out in the world, that the self-love audit and the back to self program and all of this would not exist because she's she's deeply ingrained in me now.

Speaker 2: 44:53

She is me too. She got me through my divorce. The gifts of imperfection got me through my divorce. And, brene, if you're listening to the podcast, feel free to reach out to Jamie and I. We he'll have you on his show, we'll have you on, we'll even do you know a group one If you want to. Brene, just saying you never know.

Speaker 1: 45:15

I might pass out from joy. I might pass out from joy, but yeah, the invitation is open any, any day of the week, any moment, or Brene's team listening to this.

Speaker 2: 45:31

That's right, we're here. We're here for you.

Speaker 1: 45:35

Yeah, I don't know. I feel like technology these days. We're what like three degrees of separation from anybody. So someone listening to this knows somebody, who knows someone else, who knows Brene?

Speaker 2: 45:45

And all Brene has to do. She can just like something of ours and we'll still pass out and be thrilled, so you know, okay. So, Jamie, is there anything else that you would like to say? Before we end this? And you know, I'm going to ask you to do a little affirmation for us at the end, but before that, is there anything that you would like to say? But before that.

Speaker 1: 46:06

Is there anything that you would like to say? I would love to simply come to a space of acknowledgement. I know that I often listen to podcasts when I am having a day, as one would say. And again, as we spoke about with educators earlier, they often don't get asked how are you doing? And if they are, they're probably not going to feel safe to express actually how they're doing, maybe not even in a teacher lounge, which makes me very sad to think about.

Speaker 1: 46:37

And so, if you are listening to this, I want you to know that I see you and that I acknowledge how burnt out or not that you are, that it's taken all of your courage and all of your purpose and your passion and your whole life and aliveness to show up every single day and with each and every challenge that you are experiencing. If you are burnt out, it is not forever, it is not. I was bedridden for so long. I burned out so many different times. I promise you there is a light at the end of that tunnel. There is another side, there is a world that you are actually living in and can choose to embody and perceive, where you are not in burnout anymore, and whether you come to me for support, or you just listen to Brene, or you finally listen to that beautiful inner child that's within you to get there.

Speaker 1: 47:39

I don't actually care how you get there. I just want you to know that you are worthy, that every part of you is lovable, and every part of you is worthy of unconditional love and worthy of being here. So thank you for being here, thank you for being who you are, thank you for choosing to be here and keep choosing to be here. Do not give up. I promise you it's worth it. I could not be more grateful to be alive. There were so many moments where I thought that I was going to make it all over, and I'm telling you firsthand it's worth staying.

Speaker 2: 48:19

I'm glad that you stayed and I'm glad that you came on the podcast and I appreciate you so much. I thank you and I appreciate you so much.

Speaker 1: 48:28

I thank you and I appreciate you so much. I appreciate this opportunity. I really believe in this fully and I wouldn't be here if I didn't.

Speaker 2: 48:41

Can you close this out with a little affirmation? This, again, is something that you can find on Jamie's website. I believe in the power of the positive words for sure, so I'd like us to be able to share a little of that with whoever listens.

Speaker 1: 49:02

I would be honored. So this is a little teaser of the Waken Wellness Deck. So this is a little teaser of the Waken Wellness Deck, which you can purchase the sample deck today. It is a tri-collaboration, but I channeled in the original affirmations. It is, in fact, an affirmation deck. It's multipurpose, it's multimedia and it's very accessible.

Speaker 1: 49:24

And the one that I feel called to share with you today is new perspectives, because when we get burnt out, we often get into a very narrow perspective of this is how it's always going to be all the shoulds, as Melissa was talking about, the shame and so it requires new perspectives and choosing to open up in order to get out and stay out of burnout. So my intention is that this affirmation of new perspectives will help you to choose new perspectives that are for your highest good and for the highest good of all. So, without further ado, I invite you, if you desire, to close your eyes, if you're listening, and breathe in as we listen to new perspectives. I am open to new perspectives from those I trust most. When I accept my perspective isn't the only one, I unlock possibilities which make life so much easier. There are so many ways to make something happen. There is often more than one way to reach the result and you get to choose.

Speaker 2: 50:59

Amy, thank you, thank you. I wish I knew Today's episode was produced and edited by me. The theme music is by Otis McDonald featuring Joni Ines. If you know someone who might enjoy these conversations, please share the podcast episodes as much and as often as you can. It's as simple as copying the link you use to access today's episode and sending it in a message or sharing it on social media.

Speaker 2: 51:32

I'm a small, independent operation and your shares broaden our audience. Perhaps you or someone you know will be inspired to talk about teacher burnout. If you would like to get your voice on my podcast, contact me via the link on my webpage, totbuzzsproutcom. Coach speaker and author Rashid Ogunlaro said it may take many voices for people to hear the same message. Join me in being one of the many voices rising up to get the message out around educator burnout. This is Melissa LaFleur. Thank you for listening to TAUT, the podcast.

Speaker 2: 52:27

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Content provided on this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as professional advice. We encourage you to do your own research and consult with qualified professionals before making any decisions based on the information discussed in this or any other episode. Additionally, any opinions or statements made during the podcast are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company or individual Listener. Discretion is advised. Thank you for tuning in.