[SPEAKER_00]: you deserve more than feeling constantly fried to a crisp.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Fried, the burnout podcast, where you get the understanding, the community, and the information you need to end burnout for good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host Kate Dunovan, and all of my work focuses on hashtag ending burnout culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: Outside the pod, you'll find me on stages at conferences, giving keynotes, in offices, providing corporate trainings, doing virtual VIP one-on-one work, or supporting our group program on Friday that is run by my right-hand woman Sarah Vosin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both Sarah and I have been through burnout and came out stronger, happier, and more fulfilled.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we want that post burnout growth for you too.

[SPEAKER_01]: I fried fam, it's Sarah, and I'm back with a question for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have you been feeling more sad or we'd be for the past couple of months?

[SPEAKER_01]: If not sad, have you been feeling more guilt weighing you down?

[SPEAKER_01]: Has your inner critic been trying to blame you for burning out?

[SPEAKER_01]: Or even worse, telling you that you're a bad person for burning out?

[SPEAKER_01]: Ouch, as you know, this is super common in burnout.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what you might not know is that it can get really flared up these feelings of grief and guilt and sadness during this time of year, during fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen it in myself, I've felt it in myself, I've seen it in my patients recently.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I wanted to bring it here to finish out what I talked about earlier this year, which is that spring is anger season.

[SPEAKER_01]: And anxiety hits an 11 out of 10 at the peak of summer season.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the next one installment in this series about emotions and how they relate to the season, today's about fall, [SPEAKER_01]: being the time of year when unprocessed, grief and guilt can make us feel so heavy that we nearly implode.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or at least, just want to curl up under the covers and not come out for anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Chinese medicine, each season has a pair of organs that are especially useful during that time of year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in the fall, it's the dynamic duo of the lungs and the large intestine that are having their time to shine.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what happens in fall, if your organs are not working as well as they could be, there's all sorts of grief and guilt that you haven't been processing either from the past or from the present that you're just sort of trying to kind of sweep under the rug and not deal with and that can get in the way of these organs functioning at their best.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I know we've mentioned here before that in American culture, we are not good with processing grief or even honoring it, or feeling it at all grief or guilt or any of the negative, quote unquote, negative emotions.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're not really taught to feel them, and we're certainly not taught to let them go.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they often end up staying in our body and wreaking havoc.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that letting go of emotions, [SPEAKER_01]: Isn't the easiest thing, especially if you're not used to it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I was not used to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a backlog of emotions as I've shared prior to even knowing what burnout was.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a lot to manage.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a lot of feelings.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know how to feel him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was also judging them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you are in a similar boat, know that you are not alone in that, but I have some things for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, we often, you know our unofficial hashtag around here is P when you got a P.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've got some additional foundational self-care items for you that are specific to fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they will help you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Facilitate release, facilitate letting go, because when your lungs and large intestine are healthy and functioning well, it's much easier to let go emotionally and physically.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's talk about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The number one, well, and these are in no particular order really, but the first self-care practice that I want to talk about today is breathing when you need to breathe.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all know we need to breathe, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But what I mean by breathe when you need to breathe is breathe deeper when you catch yourself breathing really shallowly.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the fall season is ruled by the lungs, as I've said, which function best when you can take in full deep breaths and especially when you can exhale fully, which helps you feel relaxed and present.

[SPEAKER_01]: And fall season, [SPEAKER_01]: is what kind of in the cycle of the year, it's the harvest season.

[SPEAKER_01]: So think about how good it must feel, maybe you are a farmer, or you can think about your ancestors farming, how good would it feel to harvest your bounty?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do all the hard work of the whole growing season, you harvest your bounty, and then you finally get to exhale and relax and enjoy your bounty.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when you are wound tight and feeling stuck, [SPEAKER_01]: It's helpful to consciously facilitate more excels, longer excels, to help you feel relaxed.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you may have heard about a variety of breath work techniques.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna keep it simple.

[SPEAKER_01]: One thing that you can do is just try to lengthen your excels, meaning if you inhale for account of four, if that's your natural inhale, [SPEAKER_01]: Then you would consciously try to extend your exhale to about seven counts.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you breathe in for four.

[SPEAKER_01]: Exhale for seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Usually by then, you feel kinda empty.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're at the bottom of your breath and you feel empty.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when you do this a few times, probably 10 times, you'll start to feel more relaxed, more unwound, [SPEAKER_01]: So go ahead and try that for yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe hit pause and run yourself through approximately 10 rounds or as many rounds as it takes for your shoulders to drop away from your ears and for you to start to feel a bit more settled.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, this too, because I know when you're burnt out, sometimes you're in that pile of ashes phase where you're so exhausted that you can use your breath to energize you too.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you would just focus on your inhale more than your exhale and fill your lungs all the way up to the top, taking in slower and longer, inhales than exhales.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a little side note, but in fall, we want to let go, we want to release with longer exhales.

[SPEAKER_01]: when we're wound up in stuck.

[SPEAKER_01]: The second foundational self-care for fall item is cry when you need to cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you are someone who's put on the verge of tears for a while, but haven't really let yourself actually cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Please do that, crying along with breathing is a fabulous way to complete your stress cycle because sadness and grief are stored in the lungs and can get in the way of letting go and feeling your best.

[SPEAKER_01]: So next time you get choked up, let the tears flow, the relief and the open feeling in your chest, [SPEAKER_01]: are so much better than trying to avoid it and keep things shoved in and stuff down and creating that heaviness in your chest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is anybody feeling that heaviness in your chest?

[SPEAKER_01]: That might be a side that you need to cry and breathe.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number three on my list is poop.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you got a poop, are you surprised?

[SPEAKER_01]: We've already talked about peeing when you got a pee, but also please poop when you got a poop.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you aren't pooping regularly, [SPEAKER_01]: This will facilitate and coping regularly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Equates to an emotional letting go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, it's a physical letting go, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You need to let go of the waste products from all the food you eat throughout the day to make room for more food, optimally.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're not pooping regularly, facilitating that can be helpful, how can you do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: You can try drinking more water if you think you're dehydrated.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I have noticed that all my patients are dehydrated right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Minnesota, we had a really humid summer.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when the weather's humid, we often don't think about drinking, but we almost don't need it, because every breath we take, we're taking in moisture.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in the fall, so I don't know if y'all are experiences where you are, but it gets drier.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the more dry it is, the more dehydrating it is, even just to breathe.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you can increase your water, which might make your stool easier to pass.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can try to get some more fiber in and I would say especially in cooked foods and Easy to digest foods like soups and stews with lots of veggies and hearty whole grains and That'll bulk up your stool and be like the broom that your colon needs to sweep it out and Clean out your garbage shoot, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So poop when you got a poop and number four [SPEAKER_01]: for foundational fall, self-care.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you're cold, warm yourself up.

[SPEAKER_01]: This seems simple, but it doesn't always happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I used to resist this a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what I mean by this is, if you're outside in that cool wind, you know, that crisp fall air blows on you and you get that chill and your shoulders creep up around your ears and you're like, ooh, if you catch this chill warm yourself up even if you go in and you feel warm again.

[SPEAKER_01]: try to warm yourself up to the point of sweating a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: So take a hot shower, have a hot beverage with warming spices like chai or take a bath, bundle up with a blanket, eat some hot food until you're sweating just a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: This helps [SPEAKER_01]: Increase your body temperature and release your exterior we call it in Chinese medicine which kicks out any which helps your immune system really fight any bugs that you might have encountered that really take advantage of you being cold so if you're cold warm yourself up do these things and wear scarf where scarf when you go outside especially if there's cool air and wind.

[SPEAKER_01]: go see your acupunctureist and get some herbs so that you can stop this cold before it turns into something an actual cold with full blown symptoms.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're very helpful.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're in Minneapolis, come see me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And last but not least, on my list of foundational fall self care is when you're not sure discern.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I didn't know about this word discernment until Chinese medicine, but I really love it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to share it with you because when you practice discernment, [SPEAKER_01]: You're practicing honing your ability to make good judgments for yourself and for your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we often talk about practicing interception, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Increasing your interception, tuning in to recognize your needs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, do I have to poop?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do I need to pee?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do I need to cry?

[SPEAKER_01]: When you aren't sure about something and you're questioning it, you may want to tune inward [SPEAKER_01]: discern what's best for you in that moment, especially if you're choosing between things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And discernment is a quality that we get really good at and is supported by our lungs and large intestine being in good shape.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it seems like a strange thing to put here, but it goes, [SPEAKER_01]: So here are my five additional foundational self care practices that you can try on this fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, they're helpful, whether or not you've been feeling a lot of kind of stuck or underlying grief guilt and sadness, but if they're especially helpful, if you've been feeling those things because they help get your body moving.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when you're flowing, everything is better.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've talked about this before this statement about [SPEAKER_01]: When there's free flow, there is health.

[SPEAKER_01]: When there is stagnation, there is pain and kind of dis-ease, dis-harmony.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we always want to get things moving if at all possible, especially when we feel stuck.

[SPEAKER_01]: So try these things on, and you'll know if they worked.

[SPEAKER_01]: If things moved, right, if you cried, if you pooped, if you were able to exhale, and especially if you feel relieved after.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you feel some relief, some relaxation, some calm, if your state changes, you know that it worked for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you can celebrate your successful processing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yay, go you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like I said, we want everything to be flowing naturally.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so just a little reminder, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Generally in the spring, we plant the seeds that become the full grown plants in summer that bloom and bear us fruit.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we feel joy about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then in the fall, we harvest our bounty.

[SPEAKER_01]: and we surrender to the natural energy turning inward and then like the trees letting go of their leaves.

[SPEAKER_01]: We also let go of all the hard work of the year and in preparation rather for the quiet introspective hibernation and rejuvenation of winter.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that sound nice?

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously the world is a bit [SPEAKER_01]: We can still tune in to kind of remind ourselves that we are a part of nature and we also need the same kind of things that the trees outside need.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we can learn that or be reminded of that as we watch the trees do their thing all year round.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you resonated with those things I said at the beginning, if you've been hiding under the covers or trying not to cry or even if you've just been resisting that slow down, I talked about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or actually, maybe you're just your chest has been heavy lately, you're just kind of feeling slumped and heavy and like, kind of down.

[SPEAKER_01]: Give, see if you can give yourself some time and some space to try even just one of these five things that I talked about today and see if that can get things moving for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to save this episode so you can go back and try another practice after practicing one of them for a day or two right because this just like everything else we want you to do one thing at a time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Please share this with a friend if you know someone who has said they've also been feeling this way as fall has been carrying on and you don't have to be burnt out to be feeling these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: It can happen to anyone in fall because this is the kind of natural flow of things though when you're burnt out it might be more intense right because a lot of times when we're burnt out we haven't been receiving [SPEAKER_01]: enough self-care or and haven't been doing much emotional processing for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that tends to exacerbate things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, fried fam, let us know how these feel for you when you try them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Feel free to send us an email or leave a message in the Facebook group or leave a review for the episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you want help with any of these, or any other aspect of your burnout recovery, know that I am here to help go to bitliford slash call Sarah V to book yourself on one-on-one session with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or like I mentioned, if you're near Minneapolis, Minnesota, come see me for an acupuncture session for an in-person fall tune up to help you let go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, fried fam, take care of yourself.