Burnout as a Phoenix

October 2, 2017 Burnout - Depression No Comments

A phoenix is a mythical bird that rises from the ashes completely renewed and stronger than ever before. This is a nice metaphor for human burnout, which can also be a stage in an altogether positive evolution.

It mainly depends on how deep the process of recovery is sought. This should not sound easy of course. It is not. Yet it is difficult in a way that we are not used to see any difficulty. This is the way of deeper layers of human mind. We are conditioned to believe that we can consciously choose pretty well who we are, what are our motivations, etc. After all, it is ‘us’, isn’t it? Yet daily we may also notice that our true motivations do not readily coincide with our strictly conscious ones. You can feel this when you choose to do things that do not really satisfy you. You may even know that you will be rather dissatisfied after these actions. Take any addiction. Take eating too much. Take workaholism. Or watching TV many hours a day. Or the reverse: not working out, then feeling bad for not working out… Nevertheless, one should take good care of one’s deep motivations. They are more important than is generally thought.

Human energy is deep motivation.

Feeling truly energetic is a question of being into contact with your deep source of energy: your deep, true motivations.

Superficial motivations make you act, but not with energy coming from your own source. You may for instance have the idea that things should be done in this or that way ‘for the good of others’, but is it also for your own good? If not, then you are not in contact with your own source of energy.

This way, following superficial – this is: not according to who you really are deep inside – motivations deplete your energy without renewing it.

You slowly burn your own attainable energy. Until you run out of it.

In order to reverse the process, it is not enough to just rest. The goal should be radically different. What is really at stake is the contact with your energy source. The energy is there all right. The burnout too. The search is on. It is as in the tale of King Arthur. The knights depart in search of the Holy Grail in order to cure the king’s mysterious illness. In the end, the Grail turns out to be the king himself.

If you are in a burnout, your intended quest is a search of your own inner self. Who are you? What are your deepest motivations? What truly makes you happy? What gives you deep joy?

It may sound contradictory, but the solution to this very serious condition lies in the end not in any hard struggle but in precisely not struggling anymore. Not by giving up, but by giving in to what comes from deeply inside yourself. As spontaneously as possible. Deep inside, you can find the energy that kindles a very new fire. You may arise from this like a phoenix, renewed and ready for a new life, new adventures, a very new happiness.