Burnout
(a thing that tells on broken systems that don't support art, tbh)
Today, write about pulling yourself (or someone else) back from utter burnout, the type that makes both the body and brain scream no, I absolutely cannot do it this way anymore, the type that sometimes gets served up in the form of a figurative wake-up call. The type that results from demanding we put our essential life-giving art-doing on the far, far back burner just to fucking survive.
Capitalism would have us believe that the key to working ourselves to the bone and being cheerful about it is our capacity to throw lots of time and resources at self-care, which it would also have us believe is in the form of pricey bubble baths and face masks and unpaid time off and spa days and full access to childcare and being perfectly healthy.
But self-care can be radically asserting boundaries, about speaking truth to ourselves and our loved ones, reclaiming space in new ways, it can be weeping it out in the shower, it can be fighting for time to heal even when you “don’t look sick,” it can be changing jobs to save our mental health, and it can be about throwing every system in our lives overboard and rebuilding from a place of wildness and heart, not expectation and social norm. And sometimes, when there is nothing that can be set aside or set down to make more space in our lives, thoughtfully tackling what isn’t working is the only thing we can do in such dire moments, even when you can’t fix it just yet.
I’m willing to bet you’ve pulled yourself back from this (or near it) before, or helped someone your care about with it. Let’s get into that and write with full and unguarded hearts.
