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Jun 17
56m 8s

109: Combating Burnout with Hana Michels

Dr Heidi Kirby
About this episode

In this unique, unfiltered, and completely unedited episode, I chat with my brilliant life coach, Hana Michels, about burnout: what it is, how it shows up differently for different people, and how to fight it when you aren't able to quit your job and rest for a year. 

Hana Michels has been written up in the LA Times, LA Weekly and others.  She received her life coaching certification from the Wainwright Global Coaching Institute. She has also been trained in The Tools methodology & techniques (recently featured in the Netflix documentary Stutz) by Barry Michels, co-author of The Tools and Coming Alive, whom she can’t pretend is not her father because they share a last name. She knows how hard it is to form and keep habits and is here for anyone who needs to do so. She works hard to help clients with whatever they wish to address, including overall discipline and organization, talking through creative ideas and/or help bringing specific projects to fruition, overall mood and emotional regulation, finding your own personal answers to key life decisions, mindfulness techniques, enduring life’s transitions or difficulties, rekindling passion for a creative practice, communication between couples, communication between work partners, adapting personalizing and fitting a tools practice into your life, adapting personalizing and fitting a shadow work practice into your life, combating part x (also part of The Tools methodology,) weird family stuff, normal but still difficult family stuff, accountability and help when trying to establish new habits, accountability and help when trying to replace or eliminate old habits, and more!

Whew, that was a lot! To work with Hana or learn more about her work, visit her linktree: https://linktr.ee/sparkcreativecoaching

Hana's suggestions for dealing with burnout:

  • If you're creatively burnt out and unable to create, try a brand new art form you know you'll be bad at so there's no pressure!
  • If you're plagued by dwelling on the future or the past, try mindfulness and getting in touch with your five senses. 
  • If you have a lot of baggage from childhood, look into the books that exist on this topic (there are so many - just start a Google search)!
  • If productivity guilt is weighing you down, check out Devon Price, PhD's book "Laziness Does Not Exist."
  • If your nervous system feels overloaded, try breathing exercises while having your finger on your pulse so that you can feel the heartbeat slowing or modify the exercise so you're not holding your breath so long. And don't hold your breath too long, or you'll pass out. Splash cold water on yourself. 
  • If grounding helps, carry something in your pocket that has an interesting texture. 
  • If you are overvaluing anyone's opinion of you, create a silly visual to represent that person (instead of picturing people naked -- weird!). 

To learn more and get more great resources:

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