Breaking the Burnout Cycle: Strategies for Professional Moms to Find Peace Inspired by Children's Resilience

You're listening to the empowering working moms podcast, episode number 80. Well, hello there, I hope you are doing so well. And I'm so glad to have you here listening with me today. I actually have a special episode planned. Happy holidays. And this is the last episode before the New Year.

And today I want to talk about the magic of Christmas time and the holiday time. So if you're a professional mom who is exhausted every day, you might be stuck in the daily grind dread trap. And if you're stuck here, you likely have a successful career that you're proud of. But almost daily, you're filled with guilt, because you cannot show up for your family in the way that you want.

You're bogged down by the daily grind, going from day to day feeling like life is just passing you by. And you don't even remember the last time that you felt joy or being present in the moment. You're probably exhausted from wrapping gifts for your kids.

And the reason this is happening is whether you're working at home or in your career, you're always working hard putting the needs of others in front of your own. And all the hard work you're doing is more based on other people's needs than your own. And I have been there because I am a physician. I'm an internal medicine physician and mom of two.

So I know. I used to be a workaholic. And you want to make a change in your life. But sometimes just any change feels like more work and you just don't even want to start. And to fix this, you've probably tried therapy or counseling and it helped for a little while but overall you still don't feel better. Or you're listening to self help books by Brene Brown or Glennon Doyle trying to find a better way but there's no change in your life.

If this is you, do not worry. I have helped countless professional moms just like you because I've been in your shoes. And I still practice medicine. And so I do know about managing so many things but still finding my peace of mind and joy. Book a call with me PriancaNaikMDcoaching.as.me.

Or even check out my free masterclass on demand four steps to overcome burnout and overwhelm for good to finally get your peace of mind back. Links for both are in the show notes.

Now I'm actually recording this on Christmas Day. And it has been such a wonderful holiday season because I went to my mother's house for Thanksgiving, she threw Thanksgiving for my entire family. And it was just really great to be around all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. And I hadn't really seen some of them since before COVID hit. So that was lovely.

And then since then, my cousins and I have hung out a couple of times. So it's like a lot of hanging out with family in a concentrated time. And also connecting with dear friends for dinners around the holidays. It's just been wonderful. And yesterday, I actually hosted a bunch of my cousins at my home. And this was my first time hosting. And it was just great to have everyone there and be together. It was a nice time and it felt really good.

And then today, I actually got to see another dear friend of mine from residency. The morning of course, was opening up gifts with my children. And that was absolutely fantastic and inspired the material for this episode actually. I had some other topics in mind, but I'll save that for next week.

This kind of came to me when I've just really been enjoying and been so happy during the holidays. And I will say this is probably my best holiday so far in the past four years. The last three years were not as easy and great. But I'm just happy to be here. So that's why I wanted to talk about it.

And one thing that really struck me which is the topic of today's episode is the magic of the holiday season. The magic of Christmas and the Christmas tree and the idea of Santa. And what I want you to take away from this episode is really what we can learn from our children and how we can adapt the lens that they have on life.

And so many of those things, the way we saw things when we were kids, we lose them as we grow up. And I know that we all have way more responsibilities than when we were children. But I do think there's a way to be an adult, be responsible, but at the same time really embody the magic and wonder of being a child. And it's how kids see Christmas.

So what I really noticed in my kids, especially my older one who's five and a half, is that he just had so much wonder and appreciation. I got this very real, very large Christmas tree and when he saw it in my home for the first time, he just gasped and he went oh, and it was literally one of the best things he'd ever seen.

And we just take so many things for granted because they're not first for us. But there is so much beauty in a Christmas tree. And so that just got me thinking that we need to do more of that. We need to have magic and wonder and really appreciate the regular things. And the next thing that children do, which we lose as adults is they have so much sense of possibility and belief.

And the fact that they just believe in the magic of Christmas, and they believe in Santa Claus, but they also believe that they can do anything. They have big hopes and dreams. And things happen to us along the way in our journeys that harden us, or make us lose belief in ourselves.

And then we have limiting beliefs, which is really a belief that's not serving you, but you believe it is fact. And it limits you in what you can do. And these limiting beliefs hold us back so much, and they are thieves of joy.

And because of them, we hold ourselves back, and we stop making our dreams come true. And we stop believing. And that is something that children automatically, naturally embody. And we need to take a cue and do more of that.

The next thing that children do that we need to do more of is they have inherent intuition, and they believe it. And so many of us, we're all intuitive, and we quiet down our intuition, we ignore it. And often as we become adults, we just don't even realize we have it.

And if we can actually quiet down the noise in our brains and tap into our intuition, the intuition that we had as children, even, then we can really make decisions in alignment and save ourselves a lot of trouble. And I say this because I myself was always really intuitive as a child, and even teenager. And then I went through a phase where I just didn't believe in it, I lost it.

And I realized that not listening to the voice inside of me really caused me pain in certain areas of my life. And so now at 40, I no longer ignore that voice. And I really just follow my intuition and life goes so much more smoothly. And so that is really something to tap into.

So think about and really just sitting in silence for a few minutes at a time or every day, you can just be quiet and see what comes to you. Because most of the time we're addicted to our phones, we're over scrolling on social media, scrolling on our phones, online shopping, online grocery shopping, or even Netflixing too much. So just think about doing some of that. Kids do that. And we need to also embrace that intuition.

The next thing kids do that we also need to do more of is telling the truth, kids are so honest, and it is so adorable, and sometimes funny. And I know we don't want to hurt other people's feelings.

But I think just being really honest with people is one of the best ways just to be straightforward and not play games. And we don't have to hurt people. But we can definitely honor our own truth and speak up, especially when it's appropriate. So telling the truth.

Another thing we can do is embrace creativity. Kids are so creative and imaginative. And we just do not do this enough. As adults, we get so cerebral, and we just lose that sense of fun.

So this could be anything. It could be writing or coloring or creating art, just a way to channel some creativity. Because kids are doing this all the time. My own kids will literally sit at my kitchen table and they will do coloring or arts and crafts for hours and hours.

Another major concept that I've spoken about in the past is self love. And this really is a key pillar and component of inner peace, the good life. And children love themselves so so much and they value themselves.

And whatever happens along the way that maybe starts to crush that and then they doubt themselves. But self love, loving ourselves and giving ourselves compassion and being proud of ourselves. That is something that we should mimic that children do.

The other topic that I want to mention when it comes to how kids see things is time and deadlines. They literally have no concept of deadlines, no concept of time. And we're busy yelling at our kids to brush their teeth, get out the door on time, again, brushing their teeth, get to bed on time, right and we have our agenda.

We have our deadlines, and they don't know and they don't care. Meanwhile, we're driving ourselves crazy to get places on time. And time of course is a false construct. So I just wonder if we just adapted this attitude, I'm not saying we have to do it 100%. But let go a little bit on our time stuff.

Imagine how liberating that might be, and how that would reduce our stress and our anxiety. So the next time that you're rushing either your kids or yourself, take a deep breath and think about how it really doesn't matter in the scheme of things.

We can also embrace curiosity, just like children. Because they just are naturally curious, always asking questions, soaking up things like sponges. And we can also do the same thing by asking more questions. Maybe doing things differently than how we were raised. That's a big one. But even on a smaller level, we could explore a new hobby or interest outside of work and really get our brains going in a different way.

Playfulness is another concept that we should adapt from children, because children, they engage in play as a way to learn and have fun. And if we're able to incorporate a playful attitude into daily life, then this can truly help us combat burnout and exhaustion.

And the easiest way to do this is really finding humor in everyday life and situations. Another thing that kids do is they're really present, and they're living in the present moment immersed in whatever they're doing. And really being mindful. And they're not worrying so much about the future. Because they don't have the responsibility of that.

And so for us, really being present in the most important moments, the present moment, engaging in what we're doing is one of the greatest ways to really combat burnout and exhaustion as well. But that is one of the number one things that we should adapt from children.

And to learn more about this, definitely tune in to one of my podcast episodes on mindfulness. And the last thing that we can be doing that is similar to what kids do is really celebrating the small achievements. And they learn to celebrate so many small things. And that's amazing and that really contributes to positivity and feeling fulfilled.

So that is something that we can do more of and help ourselves truly find joy every single day. So take one of these and make an intention to practice one of the things I talked about today in the new year and see how much happier you will be.

And if you are sick of burnout and exhaustion and you really want to do the deep work to heal the next generation of healing for the new year. Book a call with me, PriancaNaikMDcoaching.as.me. And actually this week, I will have more spots to talk because I'm off work and I'm hanging at my parents house and I will have some free time.

And I would love to talk to you to really dive into what is going on with you and make a plan to get you out of burnout once and for all in 90 days or less. Thank you so so much for tuning in. And I will talk to you next week which is in the new year.