If you have been following along with my story and the podcast/blog for a few years, then you have likely heard me talk about my experience with burnout and chronic stress, and how it led me to leave the field, I thought permanently, for nearly 5 years. 

If not, you can hear more about it here.

What you might not have heard me talk about is how burnout and/or chronic stress started to creep back in a year after I came back to the field, even though I thought I was past it.

I took 5 years off from being an SLP, due to the amount of stress I was feeling each day, and how it was growing and affecting my life outside of work. In those 5 years, I worked in my “dream job” as a yoga teacher, mind-body fitness instructor, and assistant studio manager. It allowed me to let go of some of the stress from the demands of the SLP job, but also to learn about stress and the things that can help reduce it from the mind-body perspective. 

When I came back, I worked in teletherapy part-time. My first year, I worked 4 hours to start and eventually went up to 10. I loved every moment of it – the students, the families, the new way to provide therapy, and being able to be at home, with my daughter next door while I worked. It was really nice and had a lot of balance for me. 

The next year changed, though. I still worked for the same schools and company, but two major shifts happened. First, we moved to a new state, to a house that would be our dream home but needed a lot of updates, with a one year old. Second, I picked up twice as many hours, partly because I loved the work the year before and partly because it was more expensive to live where we moved to. I loved the work, but I didn’t realize the pressure that would be there from the move, adjusting to a new place, preschool/daycare, and the amount of hours that I had signed in for.

My schedule was really full that year. I was working hours, but then also had make up hours, paperwork, meetings, etc. Even with my daughter at preschool, I was feeling like I had no time.

I enjoyed being at home, but started to feel trapped by the schedule. There was not much downtime between sessions. And for someone who loves being outside and moving, I was inside, seated a lot. 

I was also trying to find time to work on the SLP Stress Management blog and reach out to other SLPs.

And my self-care practices – I was squeezing them in, without a plan, whenever I could. If i had a no show or a 10 minute break or if I had time before work started or a few minutes after – I was trying to meditate, practice yoga, go on a hike, whatever it might be. 

I was doing things that were good for me, but I felt the stress growing and knew I was headed to burnout. The reason? I wasn’t being mindful.

It’s true – I was pushing so much, and so focused on doing the practices to manage stress, that I was cutting out the mindfulness part and stopping them from actually working. 

Instead, it made them feel like one more thing on my to-do list that I had to squeeze in.

Mindfulness is defined as paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgment. I was somewhat on purpose, not very present (always thinking about “”what’s next?”, and had a lot of judging what I was doing – was it enough, too short, too easy, actually working, etc.

But it was this same mindfulness that made me realize my lack of mindfulness around my practices, and kept me from heading further down the road to burnout. I was doing all the right things – self-care, moving, meditating, time for myself when I could – but feeling worse and worse. My stress was only growing.

Once I took pause to really get mindful – to observe what was happening and how I was experiencing the moment, to be in the moment, and to purposefully pay attention to it – I quickly realized why it wasn’t working. I was constantly trying and pushing to do more for myself, with no plan or mindfulness about it, and it made it much harder, and much less mindful of an experience.

Taking the pause to become mindful allowed me to adjust, to see what I really needed (more small breaks in the day, consistent time for self-care, and a different schedule), and this helped to manage the stress, reduce it, and turn it around before it became burnout. 

By having a mindfulness practice, and being familiar with it, mindfulness helped me stop burnout from starting, and becoming a burned out SLP, again.

If you are practicing some self-care or stress management tools, but seem like the stress is growing here are a few things you can to do help:

• Take a pause to check in with yourself and see how you are doing, feeling in that moment
• Bring mindfulness back to yourself – on purpose, present moment, observing
• Look at your current tools you’re using – are they being approached with mindfulness?
• Try something new if needed – new schedule, new tool, new approach

(You can also sign up for the “What is Mindfulness” workshop, on February 24th and available as a recording after, to learn more about mindfulness and ask any questions, live. You can join just this workshop, or as part of The Resilient SLP membership, with a 30-day free trial).

It’s not always easy, but taking a moment to be truly mindful, and look at what you are currently working tiwh, can make all the difference.

How has mindfulness helped you to prevent or reduce the chronic stress and burnout you face? Share below!

With Love and Light, 

Jessi

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