Burn Out and Recovery : an archetypal view

Posted on | September 23, 2009 |

The last few weeks have been immensely busy for me.  Now, I know that everyone is busy these days: yet I’ve been particularly active compared to what is normal for me.  A string of house guests, several deadlines, a new venture with a consulting organization called Archetype Communications, and writing, always writing.

As I observed myself becoming more exhausted I found it useful not to focus on What-I’ll-Do-When-I-Finally-Get-Free ideas.  These tend to emphasize ‘rewards’ in terms of some luxurious indulgence, usually expensive, often unsatisfying.

What I did instead was to visualize the archetype of the Warrior-Lover.

The Warrior-Lover is the person who will work hard and even fight for what he or she believes is true and closest to the heart, and yet this archetype has a major weakness. This person will work hard until the point of burn-out or collapse.

Burn out is what happens to people, or to fires that run out of fuel, or to candles at the end of their time.  They fizzle out, unless more fuel arrives.

Once I recognized this, once I saw what I was tending towards, the antidote was self-explanatory.  The person who is on the road to burn out doesn’t need luxury but rather something that will feed the inner starvation.  In my case it’s not a holiday that I need but rather a good book, a great movie, or a stirring concert. Any one of these will do. Even an exciting conversation will give me back the food for thought that will keep me mentally topped up and eager. It might be different for you.  Whatever it is that truly perks you up, though, go for it and accept no substitute. And don’t accept anyone else’s idea of what it should be.

Sure: we’re all supposed to swoon over beaches and tropical vacations, but not all of us actually like these as much as, say, a visit to a really good art museum. How you refuel is up to you.

And once you do that, the stress will go, the burn out will fade, and you’ll be back where you feel best. if you want to be good to yourself, work out what you really need, and then make sure you get steady amounts of it.

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