One of the lessons I’ve learned most as an editor (especially of my own writing/podcasting) is knee-jerk reactions and creating from a space of anger or extreme emotion is messy.
Not necessarily bad or good.
But messy.
If you’ve ever left a reactive comment on something posted on social media, and then deleted it afterward, you might be familiar with this.
Hello from burnout. I’m about 90% certain I wrote a blog post last year around this time with the exact same opener. It may have even been the title.
I’m currently sitting on my couch completely surrounded by telltale signs of overwhelm. My headphones are on. I’m listening to some binaural beats/nature sounds on full blast to drown out my son’s TV shows that are on in the background. While I’m grateful for the fall weather to come creeping in, my hoodie is less for the cold as it is more because of my need to feel comfort.
I originally started this blog with the idea it would be more focused on Adenomyosis. But as my condition has progressed over the years, I found I don't enjoy my writing when I'm in the throes of dealing with it all. Not only is the pain distracting and makes it difficult to concentrate, but I just come across sounding like a grumpy, self-deprecating, angry little gnome and/or my self-esteem is so in the toilet that everything I make or do never seems good enough or worthy of posting.
But this last period, I started drafting this list of things I was grateful for instead. And upon re-reading it now when my period is on her way out and the feel-good chemicals are hitting my brain again, I was even able to edit out some of that grumpy gnome who takes over my writing voice.
6 things getting me through this terrible period:
Something that surprises most people about me is I don't listen to podcasts much when I'm not working on them. A few years ago when I was going through podcasting burnout, I gave my ears a break and got back into music after years of drowning myself in everything-podcasts-and-podcasting.
Music has been one of the easiest ways for me to boost my dopamine while also giving my ears a break during weeks of heavy editing now.