Dear Earth Carer, if you’re burnt out, this letter is for you.

Dear Earth Carer,

Two weeks ago, I sat in an amphitheatre amongst a crowd of conference goers. The person on stage, unfortunately, I can’t remember which one of the inspiring speakers was making this address, but nevertheless, they said something that stuck with me. They said that when you exercise a muscle, especially after a long period of inactivity, it feels sore. Similarly, when we exercise a metaphorical muscle, a skill, a behaviour, or a response that we have not used in a while, we may feel uncomfortable afterwards, but that does not mean that we should stop.

This year, too many strangers have told me that they think I might be burnt out. You heard me right, strangers. Not friends or family, people who, aside from fleeting conversations, don’t even know me, but could still see my burnout radiating outwardly from my skin. If you remember that one episode of The Simpsons where Mr Burns is glowing green, this is what I imagine I looked like- an ominous being with a green glow of exhaustion emanating from my pores.

After the third time it happened, in a workshop at said conference, I found myself scouring the internet for tips on curing burnout. I did this as if I had never written about it extensively or dealt with it before, hoping that, amongst all the other instant gratification that the world has to offer, I might just stumble upon a secret factory reset option that would fix me in no time. That was a wake-up call for me, Googling burnout. When I find myself seeking instant gratification for something I know will take time and intention to resolve, I know I have strayed too far from my values. Do you remember when I realised that colonial frameworks burn us out because they don’t reciprocally care for us as we issue care? My burnout signals to me that I have been straying from those nourishing reciprocal relationships and have been falling back into ploughing ahead with careless abandon. That hurt me to realise and to admit. This is surely how I ended up so burnt out in the first place. The faster you go, the brighter you glow, so they say- or so I say when referring to the onset of Mr Burns-itis.

I experienced another wakeup call at a workshop I was running in February. I am ashamed to say that instead of excitement for this workshop, I felt exhausted and impostery. Could the attendees see my green glow and tell I’m a fraud? Who am I to talk about caring for ourselves and each other when I hath not been caring for myself? Luckily, during the workshop, I was forced to care for myself in three different ways. Firstly, I was forced to listen to myself tell other people how we can care for ourselves, thus sending that wisdom on a much-needed journey out of my mouth and back into my own ears. Secondly, I was surrounded by the most amazing group of like-minded individuals who allowed me to feel my video-game style health-meter rise in real time. And thirdly, I was able to convert my feelings of unease into feelings of elation by doing work that I felt very proud to be doing. If my session was helping me to care for myself in real time, surely it was having a similar impact on at least some of the attendees. Feeling these acts of care felt like finding and pulling out some long-lost tools from my Mr Burns-itis toolbox and remembering that I need to sharpen them and use them more, even if I could hear my muscles groaning just by discovering them.

Blowing dust off my toolbox and looking at what else was in there, I cast my eyes on an important tool that I reluctantly pulled out. I didn’t necessarily want to go for wholesome walks or to touch tree bark or let the healing melodies of frogs and birds drift through my ear holes and make me feel better. Imagine that same walk with some video, audiobook, or music, drowning out my brain cells, allowing me to zombie around the neighbourhood. That sounds nice. Lucky for me, muscle memory is also a thing, and in no time, I was noticing the way that the leaf curling spiders were catching little insects in their webs, tracing my fingers along the squiggles that larvae had left in the bark, and listening to the cacophony of nature sounds like no time had passed at all. I started to remember how important it felt to slow down in periods of rushing and hustling, and to stop to notice the parts of the world that nourish me as I try to protect them in return with all of my efforts. This is a tool I should leave out; it is too useful to keep in a dusty old box.

The biggest tool that lies at the bottom of my toolbox only gets pulled out when the big guns are needed. I can tell it’s time to pull out this tool when I hear my brain utter the phrase “my soul is sad.” At the start of this year, I got a little hermit crab tattooed onto my forearm. I wanted a visual reminder of what to do on just an occasion, so I don’t ever glow so bright from Mr Burns-itis that it drowns out my colour, rendering me a dark silhouette of a human. Dear Earth Carer, if you have been reading these letters to you for a while now, you may know that crabs cured my worst-ever burnout in 2024. In honour of this, my biggest and most bespoke tool was to gather a friend and organise some quality time away together to look at crabs later in the year. Because this tool requires a substantial amount of time, money, and, in this instance, a friend who is also excited to look at crabs, this tool is by no means a quick fix for a sad soul. Thankfully, the organisation of this trip has been enough to give me something to look forward to and a pathway towards a tangible, nourishing future. I beamed when a student I talked to this year saw my tattoo and said that I should go to “crab island”. She forgot the real name of the location, but I got to tell her that I was, in fact, going to Crab Island, and it felt like a little nudge from the world, letting me know that I am on the right path to personal restoration.

Whether it’s been spending time with like-minded community, slowing down in nature on my lunchtime walks, or getting excited to spend my days staring whistfully at crustaceans, I have felt the discomfort that comes from exercising these muscles after a period of neglect. But just like with exercise, the pain and discomfort from using muscles fades over time, and soon enough, the muscle memory, and sometimes even a flow state, starts to kick in. Recently, I have even started seeing the benefits of regular excersise and have noticed my habits switching from those rooted in stress, to those rooted in taking a step back and acting with care and intention.

This Easter break, I have been treating myself as if I were sick. I have been in my pyjamas more than any outdoor clothing, watching TV, reading, hanging out with my husband, and truly resting. Over this time, I have felt my nervous system start to regulate, my body start to recover, and my brain start to feel inspired again- hence me writing to you! Look at me go! Sorry, I forgot to tell you that pyjamas were also in my toolbox, along with a remote and some loving arms to snuggle. Oh, and snacks, there are a heap of snacks in my toolbox. If I am honest with you, I am a smidge proud of myself for not waiting until I was actually sick to care for my body in this way, in the past, that would have been the only catylist for this kind of rest intervention.

Both, fortunately and unfortunately for you, the toolbox you wield in your pursuit to not be a glowing Mr Burns may look completely different to mine. I mean, let’s be honest, I have never seen a paper declaring crabs to be an official cure to burnout, so I am almost certain that your toolbox has a bespoke set of tools in it. If you need a starter shopping list for your toolbox, however, try adding or sharpening the following:

• The types of rest most effective for you (eg, trashy TV, crafting, baking, reading, gardening, etc.)
• Things that nourish you (sorry to my dad for using the word thing)
• Things that bring you joy or excite you (sorry again dad)
• Time in whichever natural environment is most rejuvenating for you
• Pyjamas (standard issue list item)
• Snacks (standard issue list item)
• Snugs (standard issue list item, I don’t make the rules.)

Dear Earth Carer, I hope you take this letter as a gentle reminder that whatever your energy meter looks like at the moment, go have a look at your toolbox and start to see if sharpening any tool in there will get your bars up to full health. Let’s get our muscles pumping by lying down with a steaming cup of tea and snuggling in a blanket. You can do it, I believe in you.

From your most pyjamary personal trainer ever,

Jessie