Stop Feeling Drained: 5 Minute Energy Mastery Techniques That Actually Work!

Are you feeling burnt out and struggling to muster the energy to even meet basic needs?

Feeling like you're just treading water in your career, drained by the demands yet unable to pinpoint why?

Many in our field experience chronic burnout, often without recognizing the subtle signs until it's overwhelming.

Join us in this energetic episode, where we sit down with Carol Jean Whittington, a late-identified autistic ADHD adult who suffered from chronic burnout for nearly 40 years.

Now she specializes in burnout research and restoration for neurodivergent and disabled adults and has become an energy master!

In this episode, we dive into some super practical strategies and ways that you can start to reclaim your energy in just five minutes or less.

But we don't just talk about these strategies—we put them into action with an impromptu micro-recharge session during the interview.

Tune in to see firsthand how simple practices can make a big difference in overcoming burnout and feeling like yourself again.

Guest Links:
Connect with Carole Jean Whittington: Take the Spicy Pepper Burnout Quiz and explore Carole Jean's new book 'Unleashing Sustainable Energy' at Whittington Well-Being's https://whittingtonwellbeing.com/
Book: "Unleashing Sustainable Energy"
LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolejeanwhittington/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolejeanwhittington/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@carolejeanwhittington
Facebook Business Page: https://www.facebook.com/WhittingtonWellBeing/

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Transcript

0:17

Have you ever been so burned out that you don't even know where to begin to recover from your burnout and you don't have the energy to start recovering from your burnout. You get home from work and you're like, okay, do I shower or do I actually feed myself? Because you can't, you don't have the energy to meet all your basic needs. So how do you start to take control of your energy and how do you start to thaw out from that feeling of deep burnout? And how do you do it in a way that is. Actually, like easy, quick, manageable, especially when you have barely anything left in the tank to give. Today I speak with a very special guest Carol Jean Whittington, who is truly an expert on burnout, both from her own lived experience and from a professional and academic lens as well. She is a late identified autistic ADHD adult who suffered from chronic burnout for nearly 40 years. And now she specializes in burnout research and restoration for neurodivergent and disabled adults. Her three year global research project led to the Whittington burnout inventory, which offers comprehensive insight into burnout. And she also hosts an acclaimed talk show and podcast beyond chronic burnout. Which reaches 96 countries with over half a million listeners. And she is the author of unleashing sustainable energy, which guides individuals in mastering energy with science backed methods. In this episode, we dive into some super practical strategies and ways that you can start to reclaim your energy in just two minutes or less. I'm so serious. And we don't just talk about the strategies during the interview. Carol Jean actually surprises me with an impromptu micro recharge session where we actually are implementing one of her strategies together in real time. So you'll get to see firsthand how possible it is to start taking charge of your energy in just a few short minutes. So if you're feeling burnt out, if you're feeling depleted, and you need some practical ways to just start feeling like a normal person again, just starting to recover the energy to live your life, this episode is going to be exactly what you need. and if you want a chance to ask this incredible burnout expert, any of your questions about starting to recover from burnout after the episode I have a special opportunity for you guys, but for now, let's get to the show. You're listening to life after medicine, the podcast for health professionals who want to make a difference, make a living, and still have the freedom to enjoy their lives. My name is Chelsea Turgeon, and my mission is to help you, the lost health professional, find your authentic path to helping others and generating stable income without having to sacrifice your own health and happiness in the process.

Chelsea Turgeon: 3:16

We're here with Carol Jean Whittington, host of Beyond Chronic Burnout Podcast. She's an expert in burnout prevention and especially within neuro Divergent adults we're going to explore how to become an energy master and beat burnout for good. okay, Carol, you live 40 years of your life in a chronic cycle of burnout. what that was like for you?

Carole Jean Whittington: 3:38

Yes, and I think we have to start at the very beginning and I almost feel like I need to burst into song about let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. So it was a Friday night and I know it was Friday because I was in my school uniform. And I loved Fridays because it was really the only day I didn't get teased for wearing my school blazer. Because as a young girl, if you step out of the norm or the box that everyone else has set, then you're weird or different and there's something wrong. But that blazer to me, it was like my armor. Because I felt like I went into battle every day in life. At school, in everything that I did. And it was exhausting. But at the age of six, I didn't quite have the vocabulary to express my emotions. Now, I had been identified as being very intelligent. I have an IQ of 138. And so everyone expected so much because I had this number that said, you are really intelligent. But there were things that were hard and I struggled with and I didn't understand that seemed simple to everyone else. And that Friday night in that blazer, I was sitting on my bed and I was sobbing. And it was that sob where there's no tears anymore and your body just kind of shakes. And my mom walked down the hall and saw me and she came into my room and put her arm around me. And she said, baby, what's wrong? And I just said, mama, I don't want to be here. She said, well, honey, if you don't want to be here, where do you want to go? I'll take you. And I said, no, mama, I don't want to be here anymore. And she understood what I meant. And in my burnout research over the last three and a half years, What I have discovered, speaking to hundreds and thousands of late identified autistics, people who suffer from co occurring health conditions, and who are even physically disabled, share that their experience started early as well. But from there. It just perpetuated and it was this chronic cycle. Because I had no idea around what my energy was. I had no idea what I liked, what I didn't like, because I was so busy trying to fit in and be accepted and not be rejected because I was a little different.

Chelsea Turgeon: 6:04

You said you felt like you were going into battle every day and you had your blazer to be your armor. What made you feel like you were going into battle?

Carole Jean Whittington: 6:13

Because I didn't understand how to navigate life and people. It felt like there was always an attack. There was a pitfall. There was something bad waiting to happen. And I just wanted a friend. I just wanted somebody to play jacks with at break. But I didn't have the right jacks or I didn't understand the concept because I'm also dyspraxic. I didn't know how to bounce the ball and pick up the, pick up the little things on the little rings on the ground. So that made me not feel like I fit in. And if we look at the research that I've collected, there are three main topics, main areas. main nourishment keys of where the biggest hole in most of our energy buckets fall. Number three is authenticity. And that's how we show up as our authentic self. So I talk about the integrity gap, not a lack of integrity, but the integrity gap between who we innately know ourselves to be internally. Like, I know this is me, right? We know this, we have sense in this intuition, this knowing. However, that's not how I show up externally. And the bigger that gap, the bigger the energy drain. When we start to align those two things, we then shift into our authentic self, which is energizing. That's the third most draining area. Number two is belonging. Now I mentioned that that was a big one for me, belonging and not just belonging to people who get us and understand us. And we show up and we kind of have this shortened vernacular and vocabulary that we can communicate in. Right. But it's also feeling like I belong in here. I belong to me, I belong to this world because when that doesn't, isn't our experience. Think about how draining that is, how much thought goes into that. And that was a lot of what had happened to me at that early age in particular. And then the biggest one, this is the one that usually hits home for most folks. The number one unmet, undernourished nourishment key. safety. It's not emotional safety so much on the external of I have someone I can share my true authentic feelings with. The biggest one is internal. I feel safe to experience my own feelings in my body because we feel our physical feelings first, right? I feel like I understand my emotions. I can allow space for my emotions, even if they're really uncomfortable or ones that I don't necessarily want to feel. Those are the biggest energy trainers.

Chelsea Turgeon: 8:51

Wow. There's so much here. I think what could be most helpful people coming into this from that place where you were, there is. There's no language. There is no awareness. Like we don't know what energy is. how can we identify that we're in a chronic cycle of burnout?

Carole Jean Whittington: 9:07

Burnout happens in two places. It happens internally and externally. However, that internal piece, those internal warning signs, that's where we feel and experience burnout. It's where we recognize it. That's where we see quote unquote symptoms lists, right? So I have an internal warning signs list. It's the top 20 ones. And as people go through this list, we also check and see, well, what's the degree to which you experienced this, my burnout inventory looks at eight key areas. So when we're looking at those eight key areas, we have to look at how is it impacting your sensory system? Like brain fog. Focus. You know, these are things that we commonly hear, but to what extent or degree, because I think a lot of us do some of this internalizing, like, Oh, it's, it's no big deal. You know, I just, it's one of those brain days. I just hadn't quite woken up yet and we fall into this trap and I call it an illusion trap. We fall into this trap of dismissing. Our own signs because our body is the most finely tuned feedback system we have. So if we look at not just our sensory system, so 100 percent of research respondents in my survey say that they experienced sensitivity to light. So this also correlates with some of the warning signs. If you had more headaches, migraines, eye burning. tearing fatigue in your eyes. In burnout, your eye teaming and tracking how your eyes work together can get disrupted. And so another warning sign of burnout is, have you noticed that maybe you're not reading as much as you used to. It's harder to process the information. It's harder to just track the words and you may keep rereading the same thing thinking, oh, I'm just tired. Or maybe I need, better glasses or my brain's just not functioning yet. I need another cup of coffee. How many of these areas do we just dismiss, but they're all adding up?

Chelsea Turgeon: 11:06

Yeah. And I think that's the biggest key right there is actually tuning in and bringing awareness. Cause like anyone can give you a list of here's the things to look out for burnout. But if you're not even paying attention to what your body is saying, like you said, our body makes it pretty clear. It's more of our, like our stubbornness and our, just the unwillingness to connect to our bodies and acknowledge how we're feeling. I'm not saying that to blame us either, because especially in the medical culture, there's this. Idea that we're supposed to be kind of super human and we're not supposed to take sick days and we're not supposed to have any sort of personal things happen. So we have this conditioning as well, that I think makes us not want to look at the places where we're struggling.

Carole Jean Whittington: 11:48

It's not just the internal employees. The internal experience of burnout is where we feel it. It's where we finally start to recognize it. However, it's not where burnout shows up first. But burnout shows up in our external environment first. these are the things that we can dismiss and they're so easy for us to go, Oh, I just got in a busy season, I hadn't had time to pick up my clothes. Normally what I do is I make my bed at least five days a week. Now I am known to make my husband up in the bed if he's still in it and I get up because I have that like it means that much to me. Sounds a little wackadoo but it makes me happy. I cannot stand to walk into my bedroom and my bed not be made up because I value it. But. That external signpost for me. If I notice that I have not made my bed at least three to four days consistently that week, I've slacked just a little bit. That means I need to pay attention. There is a stressor. There is something that is drawing my energy and attention away from something that matters to me. So look around in your life, look in your physical environment and notice, really notice. What have I not been paying attention to that I normally would or that matters to me? And I've just kept putting it off.

Chelsea Turgeon: 13:16

Yeah cause you know, everyone's going to have different ones. Like not everyone's, it's going to be make the bed. So it's sort of just bringing attention to what are those things that are kind of slipping through the cracks that don't normally slip through the cracks?

Carole Jean Whittington: 13:28

Yes. And it can also be these things that When we look at value alignment, because we naturally by extension do what we value. But if we're not being our values. And we're misaligned, which a lot of us are. We look in our physical space. To look and see, well, am I being by extension doing the things that I value?

Chelsea Turgeon: 13:56

Okay. I love that. So that makes more sense. So it's not just like, where am I slacking on chores or where am I not getting things done? But it's, more like where am I not making time for the things that I actually like doing? It's like you're skipping the yoga class. Not spending time with the friends that you like to see, because this is how I was when I was going sliding into my burnout and residency. It's like, you can look back and see, Oh, I kept self isolating. I kept saying no to things, even though it's actually what I wanted to do. You tell yourself, Oh, I'm just tired. I need to rest. But really, you're not living in alignment with your values.

Carole Jean Whittington: 14:28

And then, you know, you just brought up something that is definitely something we should talk about, and it's rest. How do we define rest? Because sometimes we have this idea about, well, what is rest? a lot of folks think, Oh, it has to be like me sitting still. It has to be me getting, you know, eight good hours of sleep. Well, sleep is one of the biggest areas disrupted. And it's one of the areas that we look at and in my burnout inventory, sleep is one of the most. Disrupted areas, and it's the probably the last place to come back online in restoration. So we have to look at how are we defining rest? So I teach seven other forms of rest and recharging other than sleep. Because if sleep's disrupted, how the heck can we bring in some energy and some restoration?

Chelsea Turgeon: 15:16

How do you know where to start when it comes to rest? Like, cause you can be feeling tired, feeling exhausted, but it's not always sleep, that's the answer. Cause I know I would wake up after 8 hours sometimes. and still be exhausted. So then how do you begin to just rest and restore yourself?

Carole Jean Whittington: 15:37

You have to begin with observation. We have to reflect, we have to observe. So when people come into the unveiling method and we get to phase three, which is the restoration, the deep dive into sleep and all of these different areas of rest. The first thing we do is We do a reflection. We look at, well, what's actually happening right now? How are you spending your energy and your time and your thought? Throughout the day, you have to start by charting, being the scientist, put the lab coat on and get curious. And I say, get compassionately curious. So what I normally say, the best place to start before you can even target where to begin resting. It's to know where you're expending, where are you feeling the most depletion? Start with like from the first hour that you wake up in the morning, and just be the observer. what actions am I doing? What am I thinking? What are the phrases that I think, because those suckers are thinking traps are very energetically draining. What am I doing and who am I doing it with? Do they energize me? Do they dream me? Are they my vampire folks? Are they my sandpaper people? Because we can't begin to make any adjustments with clarity. And with intention, if we are not first looking at what we're doing and how we are being impacted in our day.

Chelsea Turgeon: 17:06

Yeah. This makes so much sense. Thank you for breaking it down like this. And because I think that a lot of the people who are coming to this podcast are really new on this sort of personal, growth, reflection, somatic, like all of that is pretty new to them. Like you're, paying attention in this hour, you're looking at kind of the inputs in the sense that you're looking at who am I with, what am I doing? What are my thoughts? Then how do you observe kind of what your energy is? What are you supposed to notice? And I know this might sound so obvious, but like, can you just give us examples of like, What is high energy versus what is low energy? Or how do you tune into those subtleties?

Carole Jean Whittington: 17:42

Chelsea, is the best question you could ask. Like that is genius level question. And we want to dive into really looking at not me telling you. What a different energy feels like, what high energy feels like, where maybe do you feel low? That's going to be a different feeling and experience for you. So I say we have to first do a micro recharge session and we've got to get to your experience of energy. So if I say Chelsea, you want to do one real quick, we can do one right now. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. All right. So Chelsea on a scale of one to 10 right now. Where is your energy falling? So one being really low and slow. This can also fall into like almost feeling depressed or really heavy. feel like your brain, you might be in wet sand kind of feeling right. Five is sort of that. I'm just here in the middle. I'm, I'm meh, or I'm okay. I'm just hanging out. Nothing in particular. I'm not feeling one way or another in particular. 10 is, just happy, joyful, I'm energized. I'm excited about my day. I can't wait to tackle the next thing coming. I got the juice to do it. So then let's talk about within that scale. We can have some anxious energy, so we can have like a low anxious energy where it's like, my thoughts are just reeling in and my body and everything is not feeling great and feeling uncomfortable we can have anxious energy where we have activated anxious energy. Like my brain is going to 900 miles an hour. I got 200 hamster wheels. They are all running. There are flames and smoke shooting off the back of those suckers. I got 20 tabs open and four different browsers and 10 tracks of music. And I am on, I am up here up by my eyeballs and higher. Okay. Now that's just giving you a starting point because that's means you're now are going to tell me. how you are experiencing your energy right now. So where is that on a one to 10?

Chelsea Turgeon: 19:44

I'm gonna say six.

Carole Jean Whittington: 19:46

Okay. Now describe that six to me, Chelsea. What does that six feel like for you right now? Where do you feel it in your body? Maybe what are the words you would use to describe it?

Chelsea Turgeon: 19:55

Yes. So I feel in my head, there's a little bit of just, it feels like a sluggishness or like a heaviness, in my head. It doesn't feel like my body is like slumping or heavy. So it feels like my body itself is light, but like in the brain, it feels like there's just more of a heaviness kind of coming mentally.

Carole Jean Whittington: 20:15

Okay. Chelsea, how do you want to feel, or how do you need to feel for the rest of your day or the next thing on your task? What do you want to experience?

Chelsea Turgeon: 20:24

Going to like a seven or eight would be good. I'm recovering from like a intense travel and GI stuff. And so I feel like, okay. With where I am, but it's always nice to have more energy. So yeah, maybe seven or eight would be good.

Carole Jean Whittington: 20:36

Okay. So you're at a six right now and you want to move up to a seven or an eight with just a little more activity, a little boost. Is that what I'm hearing? Okay. Let's do a little boost. So the fastest way to get to our energy. It's through something so simple, it's free, it's automatic. It's also controlled and is our breath. So we can do something called fire breath. And this is an activating breath. Have you done this before? Are you comfortable with breath work?

Chelsea Turgeon: 21:05

Yeah, I'm comfortable with breath work. And I think I've done breath, like breath of fire, but I always feel like I'm doing it wrong.

Carole Jean Whittington: 21:11

Ah, okay. You can't do this wrong. So if you're listening or following along, don't do this while you're driving a car or just standing in a place, have a nice seat where you're comfortable and planted, or even lay down. And we're going to do 30 powerful breaths. And the way that I learned this in my meditation teacher training was step into the tiger's mouth. And I love the visual and just thinking of that because this is like a power breath. This is a powerful exhale and a powerful inhale. We're going to do it 30 times. So what we're doing is we're actually hyper oxygenating. So we're changing our chemistry because most people, And this is a big thing in burnout in particular, and especially for all my ADHD squirrel brains out there, all of us who are really fast, we tend to hold our breath more than we realize, so we don't get enough oxygen. So we're going to really transform our chemistry. We're going to release some feel good endorphins, all those good tingly things. You may feel like temperature change. You make it hot. and warm. You may get cool towards the end, may hit you a little differently. Your arms may feel a little tingly. All right. You just follow along. You don't have to count. You can choose your nose or you can choose your mouth, whichever is easiest for you. We're going to do 30 of these in succession. Now it's going to be a workout. It's going to be a work, right? You're going to have to really think and exercise this breath at the bottom. When we get to that 30th breath, I'm going to prompt you to exhale all the way. And then you're just going to hold it as long as you can. And I'm going to talk you through relaxing into that hold because we tend to tense up. So I want you to think, soften my body, drop my shoulders. We're going to smile, open your jaw and close that. So we're going to do a little body check before we start. So you can compare and after we've done that exhale and you held it as long as you can. We're then going to do a full inhale and you're going to hold it as long as you can again. So it's 30 breaths, a full exhale and hold as long as you can. And then a full inhale, hold as long as you can. All right, you ready to breathe? All right, here we go. It's breathing don't take this part out probably getting a little dry. Keep going. Here comes the waterworks. You may feel a little light, a little tingly. Keep going. Big exhale. Smile. Keep holding. Soften your body. Relax. Hold this exhale just as long as you can. May feel some warm tingly in your face. When you're ready, we're going to take a big inhale. Drop your shoulders. Smile. Soften your body. Just liquid. Just kind of relax into this hold. Open your jaw. Close it. When you're ready, Exhale. You just return to your normal breath. Chelsea, what are you feeling? What do you notice?

Chelsea Turgeon: 25:07

I'm noticing definitely an activation of energy. So during it, I was feeling a little lightheaded and a little, yeah, just kind of woozy, I would say. Yeah, it feels like something that's like cleaned out a bit. Like I, you know, I was saying there's more heaviness in my brain and I feel like that has, lightened.

Carole Jean Whittington: 25:27

Okay, so maybe a little more clarity, a little more focus area. Would that be a good way to describe that? So, you said you were at a six. Now, has that six transformed or has that six changed and it's different? How would you now put a number on your energy?

Chelsea Turgeon: 25:47

Yeah, I would say at least a 7.

Carole Jean Whittington: 25:50

Okay.

Chelsea Turgeon: 25:50

There's like a focus more where there was heaviness before. I'm just kind of like calibrating to it right now.

Carole Jean Whittington: 25:57

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It takes a sec. And when you haven't done it this way before, it also takes a minute to sort of process. So you've just moved your number with one breath. We didn't even do a full round, one breath to a seven from a six to a seven. And what's really fun is when we do a full round, there's three of those. Your number will be different. So I can't wait for you to play with that.

Chelsea Turgeon: 26:21

Yeah. I love that as such a practical tool. And for people who were just listening, really what we were doing with the breathing and you can chime into, cause I know my clients get really like into the particulars and what's the science getting it wrong or not even the science, just like the mechanics of in the moment anything special. It's just like, it was strictly the way we did both did it was in the mouth and it was just doing. Really powerful inhales and exhales and the inhales and exhales were very kind of like equidistant Essentially like they were pretty similarly. I was

Carole Jean Whittington: 26:54

creating a rhythm, right? Okay, so stress point learning everything that we do in our physical body when we create a rhythm, right?

Chelsea Turgeon: 27:02

So

Carole Jean Whittington: 27:02

I'm moving my hand in a rhythmic way when we create a rhythm. We're then making changes in our neurological wiring

Chelsea Turgeon: 27:11

Yeah, so they were very like, the inhale, the exhale, like they were the same time, the same length. And so that's the rhythm piece of it.. And so it sounds like this is the beginning, like sort of micro recharging, learning these practices. This is sort of the entry point into becoming an energy master.

Carole Jean Whittington: 27:29

Absolutely. Because when you can start to identify in these micro ways, what does my energy feel like for me? How do I have the mastery and control to change it when I need it to what it needs to be to serve me? Cause right. We're going to look into some of these things. Serve ourselves in the best way possible because when we serve ourselves, we're then able to show up and serve others.

Chelsea Turgeon: 27:49

I love that framework it really gives us a lot of power and ownership and just efficacy around our own energy level. touch points and there's, there's ways that we can move it up and down. And just having that awareness in our own body of like, what our own energy feels like, like that's, you know, one of the things you were saying is you can't tell me. What high energy or low energy feels like only I can tell me what my version of that is. And so what that requires is this true somatic knowledge of my own lived experience, which that's already difficult for some people to have, but it's like having that knowledge calibrating to my own energy. And then being able to know how to manipulate it one way or another. I think when you can do that, that's so like, do you need to sleep or like, you're just always it's a huge superpower.

Carole Jean Whittington: 28:40

Oh, you still need to sleep, but your sleep is so much better. and Chelsea, the most important thing. That I teach and that I want people to remember as you go through this process, getting into burnout has been hard and heavy and stressful and not fun. This, what we do and how we transform out of burnout and into our energy mastery. It's light. It's playful. It's fun.

Chelsea Turgeon: 29:06

So when you're kind of in that place, just feeling burnt out, but just really trying to get through every day, where's just an easy place to start. Cause I feel like once you can reclaim like tiny bits of energy. Then you can finally start to move up, but it's like you need to make that initial opening so that you can get started. So how do people make that first opening?

Carole Jean Whittington: 29:25

Play around with your energy. Start to just notice throughout your day. Use that 1 to 10 scale and just start jotting down. Have an energy journal and just for a couple of days, just start journaling. Writing down and I mean, it doesn't have to be huge. just a quick check in, what's my number right now on a 1 to 10? What does this feel like? And then do a retrospective at the end of the week or the end of the day. Look back, read through how you described how you were feeling. And then put a little context with it if you need to. What was I doing? Who was I with? What was I thinking? Our awareness, reflection brings about awareness. Awareness brings about choices. That is where our personal power comes in because burnout has been a journey of disempowerment for most of us. This is a reclamation of that.

Chelsea Turgeon: 30:19

I love that. one thing I also wanted to ask you, and this might be a whole different topic. But because you're so specialized in working with neurodivergent adults, and you know, I personally have ADHD, so I have my own vested interest in it. Does burnout occur more frequently in people with neurodivergence? Is that true?

Carole Jean Whittington: 30:38

In the research that I have done, yes, it's slightly higher and the degree or intensity. It is usually more.

Chelsea Turgeon: 30:47

I'm sure there's so many reasons for it, just coming back to the nourishment keys and like bringing in the neurodivergence, I wonder if that has to do with, I mean, like number three, authenticity. Okay. Well, how much are we masking to try to act and appear like everyone else? And so like masking is this inherent, like everyone does it to some degree in different professional settings It's neurodivergence has this next level of masking that can be required to fit in. There's the authenticity drain. belonging. Anytime you're feeling other or different, that's going to tax that belonging nourishment key. And then emotional safety. Like I know for me in particular, it's like I experience very intense emotions, like Wild fluctuations. And as a young person, I didn't have any clue what to do with that. So I can just see from just like those three nourishment keys and the way that neurodivergence impacts those three areas. I can see like why burnout. Would occur more in groups like that

Carole Jean Whittington: 31:43

and I always said, you know, I was the cutest chameleon you never saw. Right. I didn't mask. I mastered the professional level of camouflaging because if no one saw me, if I blend it in. Then I was safe. Then I could belong. I could just be on the outskirts of the group. And feel like I wasn't completely left out.

Chelsea Turgeon: 32:05

and so now when I look at you, you're just like this radiant being. And I just see the way that you're owning your neurodivergence. I see the way you've really taken these pieces that are like your superpowers and created this beautifully authentic business and life. And obviously I know it's not perfect. no one's life's perfect, but I just see a lot of thriving. and I feel just such good energy and self acceptance. And you just, honestly, being on this call with you, I already just feel permission, like I just get to be who I am too. And so it's like, that's something you're bringing into this container, which also shows you're accepting yourself. So like, there's definitely been so much growth and you're in such a different place now. And so what is the most different in your day to day experience now that you're burnout free?

Carole Jean Whittington: 32:51

Everything. Number one, I did not even know that this place was possible and this place that I am experiencing has compounded in its absolute magic every day. Now, that is not to say that I do not have challenges, that I do not have things. There are stuff happens in my life that I have no control over just like you. But the difference now is that I have tools. I have a framework. I have a new understanding of myself that I now, when those things happen that I don't have control over other people, situations, those things occur. I can look within and go, what is it that I need in this moment? How do I move through this moment? And I moved to the next and I do it with self love and compassion, with curiosity, with playfulness and with gratitude. And that truly has brought me to loving myself for the first time, being comfortable in my own skin. Now I'm not always comfortable. That's a whole new level, new devil. And that's just part of the process, but that's the fun too. And my mission in life is to, I hit the floor every morning and I am bounding out of bed, excited. Who can I teach? Who can I guide today to their energy mastery so that there is hope and people know what is possible? Because what truly is possible, Chelsea, with a thriving population, especially of wonderfully wired humans, what is the impact on humanity? How are we elevating all of us?

Chelsea Turgeon: 34:26

Yeah. I love thinking at it about it from a population level like that of like a population of people who are burnt out zombie ghost pepper level six, versus people who are thriving in their energy masters. Like, how are those people contributing? How are those people showing up in relationships and how are they just. Interacting so differently through the world and then the ripple effects that creates. yeah, it's such a powerful mission. So thank you so much for coming on here and being so generous and doing my little micro recharge, which was incredible.

34:55

So how do we do it? How do we start to become masters of our own energy and beat burnout for good? How can we get out of these chronic cycles of burnout where we're just barely getting by and actually regain the energy to participate in our lives? As Carol Jean talks about in the episode, one of the first keys is awareness. Developing a keen sense of what your energy feels like in your body as you go through your day, keeping an energy journal and starting to track your energy level. And once you're in greater touch and have this deeper somatic understanding of your energetic experience, then you can start to implement some of these smaller micro recharge practices to create an opening in your life. And from there, you can start to assess on a bigger picture, where are some of your nourishment keys not being met? Where are you not practicing authenticity, not feeling like you belong, not experiencing emotional safety when processing your own emotions? And by looking at and working through some of these bigger picture pieces, you can truly master your energy and live in the type of thriving energy that you witnessed our guest, Carol Jean having, because I know that's what we really want. We want to have the energy to be our best selves, the kind of people that we're truly capable of being and desire to become and to live the type of life that we truly deserve. So I hope this episode was so helpful in giving you some practical steps to just get started on your burnout recovery journey if you want a chance to ask our guests, Carol Jean, any of your burning questions about burnout recovery and regaining control of your energy, come join us in the Facebook group to take this conversation deeper. I can't wait to see you in the Facebook group.