Soul Joy: Ditch Burnout and Fall in Love with Life

Embracing Creativity, Sexuality, and Emotions for Soulful Living

• Dr. Julie Merriman

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Picture this: a herd of baby calves frolicking in the pasture, embodying pure joy and playfulness. That's the energy we're tapping into today on SoulJoy as we journey through the essential but often overlooked aspects of self-care—creativity, sexuality, and emotions. I'm Dr. Julie Merriman, and in this episode, I share cherished memories of my great-grandmother Wade from 1974, whose life was a testament to embracing these energies. From her creative resourcefulness during hard times on a Texas dairy farm to her stories of family and resilience, she taught me the importance of a balanced sacral chakra and living a multifaceted life.

If you've ever felt the weight of burnout, vicarious trauma, or compassion fatigue, especially in the helping professions, this conversation is for you. As a registered play therapist, I emphasize the power of play—not just for children but in every aspect of life, including relationships and personal pursuits. Whether it's designing costumes or engaging with a partner, play is a conduit for expressing sexual energy, creativity, and emotions. This episode is an invitation to embrace the colorful, messy, and sexy parts of life, offering a path to a more energized and fulfilling existence.

Speaker 1:

Hey y'all, I'm Dr Julie Merriman and welcome to SoulJoy. Today let's explore sexy, creative and messy. I believe these are really necessary components of holistic, sustainable self-care, also known as wellness. Okay, friend, thank you so much for tuning in today this episode. I hope you find some nuggets that are pretty. Nuggets that are pretty relatable is the word that comes to my head, but I don't know if that's the right word. But today we're going to explore um, sexy, creative and messy.

Speaker 1:

Before we get there, I want to talk to you about all the baby calves running around in our pastures. Oh, my Lanta, they are so cute. They're frolicking, it's a little cooler, so their tails are up in the air and they're jumping around. That. When we talk about playfulness and I'm going to talk about that in a bit that to me is just the epitome of playfulness, when those little guys are out there playing and I love to just sit in my rocker yeah, I got a rocker on that back porch and watch them, and it is just joyful. So, as y'all know, this podcast is designed for professional helpers. I want to help you overcome the occupational hazards of this field. We chose and we specifically look at burnout, vicarious trauma and compassion, fatigue All the things I talk about in this podcast have everything to do with those when we can get sustainable, holistic self-care in place that equates wellness and that helps us offset those components burnout, compassion, fatigue and trauma vicarious trauma. Okay, so the last I don't know four or five episodes we have spent looking at our root chakra, talked about some really important things there. Today we're moving on up to the sacral chakra, and this y'all is where our energy for creativity, sexuality and emotions live.

Speaker 1:

So years and years and years ago, way back in 1974, my parents were going through a pretty nasty divorce and I was sent to Arizona to live with my great-grandmother and you know, looking back, that was truly a blessing. I'm the only one of the kids that ever got to go live with her and get to know her like I did. She single-handedly taught me the importance of accepting creativity, sexuality and emotions Maybe not in those exact words, but just in what all the stories she told me about our family and how she had lived her life. See great-grandmother Wade. Not only was she Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde's cousin, I mean, she was from the Metroplex here in Texas but when she married my great-grandfather, they moved away from Fort Worth to live on a dairy in San Saba, texas. Now they were creating the dairy. So they got some cows and started to build this dairy out in San Saba and if anyone is familiar with San Saba that's a bad area to try and put in a dairy. And you know it was the early 1900s and we didn't have all the luxuries that we have now. So great-grandmother used her creative energies to make sure her family was fed and loved. She remembered those hard times, as she told me about them in 74 with joy. And she was able to keep that her sacral chakra balanced because she tapped into the creativity and sexuality and her emotions. So she wasn't just living this flatline life, she was living a very dimensionally, three-dimensional life, because I believe our life would be terribly flat without having a balanced sacral chakra. Can you imagine a world without creativity or sexual energy or emotions? It'd just be a world not very fun to live in.

Speaker 1:

You know I'm a registered play therapist. I'm trained a lot of things but for years I just focused on play therapy and not necessarily with kids. I used it in my couples counseling. I used it in a lot of modalities. But as I studied that and practiced that, I've learned the importance of play and I think play encompasses sexual energy and creativity and emotions. I mean you think of time with your lover and the playfulness there. Or you think of time where you're creating. A long time ago I was a drill team director and I used to love to create their costumes and I would just get lost in those creations and thinking about emotions. It's something we run from. But until we get to handle our emotions and sit our asses down and feel what we need to feel, we will not have a balanced chakra and it robs us of play, because play has a lot of joy in it and that's an emotion. I think what has happened is we get too damn busy adulting and we forget how necessary the yumminess of play is. It can take all forms, play that is. You know, maybe they're toys you're playing with. Maybe you're going on walks, maybe you're just sitting outside throwing the toy for your pooch to play. Maybe you're watching the calves frolic on the other side of the fence. Play can take all forms. The thing about play is it's unscripted and it's joyful. So you see how that can encompass everything our sacral chakra stands for.

Speaker 1:

I remember and this was back when I lived in Abilene, texas, and I had been asked to come in and do a presentation for superintendents there in Abilene. I forget why. It was about play, but it was. The whole presentation was about play and as I was setting up for the presentation, I put a bunch of toys on each table and you know they were little hand toys. They weren't big toys, they were just small toys that you could fidget with with your hands or whatever. And I can remember as they settled in and the presentation continued and I was talking about all sacral chakra stuff. I tell you these men and women who came in so businesslike and you know their ties, tight and stuffed shirt for lack of a better word they let loose and toys were flying through the air and giggling was happening and they were having the best time because they chose to tap into that inner child and let all the scripted crap go and just be present and play. It was. That was one of my favorite presentations. That was so fun to watch that happen.

Speaker 1:

See y'all, everyone needs to know how to be creative and embrace their sexual energy and love the mess. We've got to ditch the shame. Shame has no place in our lives. That's some old schema that we've got to release. We've got to embrace all that life has to offer. And y'all, I promise, after being a therapist for 30 years and living 61 years of life, I promise it's going to come with a mess. What are you going to make that mess mean? See, there's your power. There's where those superpower models come in, because you got to change what we're making that mess mean? No, we haven't done anything wrong. No, it's nothing to be ashamed about. It's called life.

Speaker 1:

Creativity is your ability to transcend traditional rules and shift to new, meaningful ideas that ooze authenticity. Stepping into your authentic self, you're able. See, that's what a sacral balance sacral is going to do for you, and we'll work on your throat when we get there where real authenticity lives as well. But being able to balance that sacral chakra, embrace the messiness of play and sexual energy and emotions, that gives you some oomph. That gives you some life where you thrive, some life where you thrive.

Speaker 1:

Okay, before I take you to the activity I have planned for you this week, I just want to remind you to please hop over to my website, juliemerrimanphdcom, sign up for my newsletter, to get on my email list so I can send you the weekly email with these podcasts and PDFs that I create for you. Also, while you're there, it would not hurt my feelings if you picked up a copy of my book In Pursuit of Soul Joy, where I take a deep dive on all these things I talked to you about on the podcast. Okay, so the activity I have for you this week I call it sacral chakra balancing strategies Very, very original. So I'm going to take you through some strategies. I've got these all lined out on a PDF if you sign up to get these, but I here, I'm going to walk you through it right here.

Speaker 1:

So first, you've got to get creative. How often do you make space in your life for creativity that has absolutely no end goal, just joyful creativity that isn't related to your job? Right, it's got to be both messy and beautiful. Just go get creative. Next, because the sacral chakra is a water chakra. I didn't say that just right, but water has a lot to do with that chakra. So the next thing I'm going to invite you to do is spend some time in water. Take a luxurious warm bubble bath, sit near water while you're meditating, journaling or simply sitting in silence. Then I invite you to try some mirror work. Stand in front of a mirror and look yourself in the eyes. Bring a gentle smile to your lips as you're looking yourself in the eyes, start complimenting yourself. Affirm all the things you love about yourself, both inside and out, and, when you're done, look yourself in the eyes and tell yourself I love you. Your amygdala needs to hear that.

Speaker 1:

Next dance Dancing allows energy to flow freely throughout your body. Put on your favorite music, set the mood, turn off lights, light candles. Change into clothes that make you feel your best and dance your ass off. This includes moves that connect your hips and lower abdomen to stimulate the energy in and around your sacral chakra. And this is a really good one. Write a letter to your inner child. Affirm to this part of you that it's safe to be creative. Tell your inner child everything he or she needs to hear regarding play, fun, creativity, sexuality, joy, emotions, build self-esteem. Was there something you always wished an adult would tell you? Tell yourself this now in this letter.

Speaker 1:

Next, I've got a few journal prompts. I'm not going to read them all there's more on the PDF, if you get that but I'm going to start with. What can I do in my daily life to add more opportunities for messy play. How do I feel when I get to express my creativity? What are some creative activities I've always wanted to try but never have? And the last one what brings me joy? In what ways is my life filled with joy? Again, there's more on the worksheet, on the PDF, if you sign up for my email list. If you sign up for my email list Next, I would invite you to try colored therapy.

Speaker 1:

Now, the sacral chakra is ruled by orange, so you can eat all things orange, orange foods, orange Kool-Aid I'm struggling to think of orange stuff but carrots, eat anything you can think of orange. Wear orange clothing, surround yourself in orange items when you're writing, use an orange pen. Wear a piece of jewelry that has an orange gemstone. Say an uplifting sacral chakra affirmation every time you touch or see the item. And finally, drink tea, jasmine tea, teas with ginger, orange peel, cinnamon, clove, cardamom. Those are going to nourish your soul as well, and that's an important component when we're trying to balance that sacral chakra, so we can get more in touch with our playfulness, our joyfulness, our sexual energy, our emotions, all those things that the balanced sacral chakra leads to. Okay, very, very, very cool. We've gone over quite a few things there. I hope you do sign up for the newsletter so I can get you this PDF, but meanwhile I would just say that's it for today. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen and until next time take care of you.