Are you feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and overworked? Do you feel like your professional obligations keep piling up – to the point where it threatens your sanity and overall well-being? If so, then it sounds like you need a boundary reset. That’s right; creating healthy boundaries can help you effectively maintain balance while managing a busy workload without burning out. In today’s episode of the Skin Wellness Pro Show, Rachael and Tara share their strategies for aestheticians, bodyworkers, health coaches, and wellness pros to set boundaries to prevent burnout and avoid the pitfalls of taking on too much work or responsibility!
Watch “Setting Boundaries to Prevent Burnout” below:
Listen to the episode here:
Read the edited transcript below:
Rachael Pontillo:
Today’s topic is one that I think many of you will be able to relate to. It’s not a topic that we initially were going to bring up today, but Tara, you had a massage last night, which got you thinking about what we’re going to discuss today. So why don’t you tell our listeners what happened?
Tara Swagger:
So, I went and had my massage last night, and the conversation between my therapist and me was about burnout. So many of us are working hard in our businesses, and we might also be juggling families. We’re wearing all the hats. And my therapist was talking about how she’s been in business long enough to know how important it is to set boundaries and carve out time for leisure or self-care, but sometimes it gets away from you.
And that got me thinking about why that happens. Number one, I think it happens because we’re excited about our businesses. We love what we do, and we’re in the position of pleasing people whether it’s through our coaching businesses or working in the beauty industry and offering facial treatments or massage–we’re passionate about delivering those services. So it sometimes can be hard to reel ourselves back in and take the time we need for ourselves. I think it’s true that no one is hidden from this issue of burnout. I’ve certainly ebbed and flowed through it, and you mentioned right before we started that you’re maybe dealing with that right now.
Rachael Pontillo:
Ultimately I know what balance looks like on paper, but with what’s going on in my life right now, like my personal life, it’s just not happening right now.
Tara Swagger:
Well, isn’t that the thing though? There’s this idea that there IS a balance. And I think that that’s sort of not real because I think balance is more about a seesaw. You know, it can go back and forth, and back and forth. And I think the problem that most people have in our industry is that they keep hearing the advice to find work-life balance. I think that that’s sort of not a real concept, because even if you could put it on paper–let’s face it–that paper doesn’t necessarily translate to reality. You have to create space where there’s nothing going on. Because if you don’t, eventually, as you energetically move through working with clients, that will deplete you and you won’t have much left.
When you’re in the stage where you’re building your business, the energy of that is not necessarily conducive to creating enough space for downtime and relaxation. And then once you’ve got your business into a good flow, more time opens up where you can step back. And then it ebbs and flows again. I think that this conversation is really about giving everybody that space and permission to say it’s okay in this portion of time to maybe not have that space that you’re looking for.
We also have to factor in important things in our personal lives. For instance, my son just started baseball again, so all our weekends will be baseball. All the nights have practices, and that’s a healthy, wonderful thing. So we shouldn’t necessarily just stare down that busy season and say, “Oh my God, I’m not gonna have any balance.” The balance comes when there’s space it. Sometimes we don’t give ourselves permission, or it gets out of hand, and then we can’t even see that we’ve become so defunct from carving out the space that we need to replenish ourselves.
Rachael Pontillo:
For me, it starts with too much multitasking. Right now, I’m coming off of a few–I was gonna say a few weeks, but it’s actually been a few months–of absolutely burning the candle at both ends, with frequent launches in both my businesses. Then in my personal life, both my daughters are dancers. We’ve had competitions, we’ve had performances, they’ve had rehearsals till 8:30, 9 o’clock at night, six days a week. It’s been ridiculous. And then at the same time, my older daughter is a senior, so we are finally winding down the college application, admissions, and financial aid process.
We have a college visit trip tomorrow, and I had to reschedule my calls and a class I would teach. But I figured, this is a decision that will impact my daughter’s life for long term, so it’s kind of important! So we have to get up at like five in the morning to be at this event that starts at 8:00am, so that she can attend classes with students and shadow students for the day, and really get a sense of what that’s like. And of course, in the back of my mind, I’m stressing because I’m missing an office hours call with my Facebook ads coach. I had to make sure that I scheduled an email to go out at a certain time, since I wasn’t going to be there to send it manually. It will be challenging being able to be present at that event while still thinking about the 10 things that I should be doing at the same time, even though, I know I don’t have to do it all at that moment.
But this is what we do. And then, how many times when we’re focused on work do we think, “I wish I could be doing this with my family or with my spouse, or go on this vacation, and not have to work so much.” So I think the multitasking and just reminding ourselves to be present on whatever it is that we’re supposed to be focusing on for that time, that’s something that I’ve really been trying to work on, albeit not too successfully, over the past few months. That’s something that’s come into my consciousness as one thing that I can do to help me avoid that burnout. Because for me, burnout is definitely a mental and emotional thing. It’s not about the physical amount of tasks. It’s not about how many things I have to check off my list, because usually when I’m lamenting about something that I’m putting off, when I actually sit down and do it, it only takes me 15 minutes.
Isn’t that how it always goes, with time and energy? You spend time avoiding or worrying about a thing, and then you do the thing and it’s done, and you wonder how much energy did you just expend putting that off? So giving myself permission to just not think about work, and focus on this school and whether or not it’s right for my kid is huge. And then the following day, I’m back to client calls and teaching classes, and I can focus on those, and not worry about what might be going on in the background with my daughter’s college process. Having that ability to separate the compartments, if you will, and be present on the one thing and not feel guilty because you’re not doing the other thing too.
Tara Swagger:
I recently to somebody that I , personally at 43, just started to learn about boundaries about three or four years ago. There has to be boundaries. And I think like for you, compartmentalizing is a way of setting boundaries. It’s saying, “Tomorrow I’m gonna be with my child and that is gonna be my focus. That’s where my energy’s gonna lie. Nothing else needs to happen.” So that’s the boundary.
I create boundaries around my client schedule. I see lots of people in our industry who say that they work four days a week, but then, “So and so really needed to come in on Saturday, so I’m gonna go in on my Saturday off.” That’s not a hard boundary. If you’re in the beginning of your business, you’ve probably got the energy for things like that, right? It’s a very different space and time where you might be doing that because you’re building something, and trying to get your name out there. I think we’ve all done that. But what I’m talking about is this sense where you are allowing everybody else to pull you out of what your focus is, right? We talked about in the last podcast, finding your focus, and this is a little bit part of that too, because the boundaries that you make are saying, “These are my hours, and this is what I can do.” And if that doesn’t fit in there, then there’s an emotional space that people have to find themselves in where they can accept that that client may not be your client because they can’t come during the hours that you work. And that’s OK!
People just don’t give themselves permission. You feel that you have to give yourself permission to enjoy your day tomorrow. I think most of the time people really fall victim when they open up those spaces and allow their boundaries to be crossed. Once you create those boundaries, if you stay within them, that can be one of the biggest ways to cultivate a space where you don’t have burnout, because you know when you’re working, and it’s not impeding on the rest of your life that you want to have outside of that. Cultivating those really clear work hours is a good start, whatever that looks like.
At the end of the day, if the clients can’t understand your boundaries and they’re kind of pushy or aggressive about it, then that might not be the energetic person that you want on your schedule, right? It’s OK to not accommodate everyone. This is the ebb and flow of your career, and your life, and your business.
Another way people allow their boundaries to get crossed is by holding on to services they no longer want to do, or clients they really don’t wanna see because they are draining. And this is where the burnout comes from, right? Because we’re not creating boundaries, determining what our time really is, and how we would like to spend it. We’re not making sure that we have space to rejuvenate.
I just got back from Florida, and, I had so many things leading up to that, that I drooling to get to Florida to re-energize. But during that timeframe before the trip, I was probably overworking myself, but it felt okay because I knew I there was a light at the end of the tunnel, right? I like to get all the things done ahead of time, so when I go, I can really unwind.
I think something people are missing is that it’s OK to be over-busy or overbooked or maybe working too hard for a little while, but we have to have the boundaries of knowing when is the stopping point. When are you going to rejuvenate? When will you make sure that your you-time is carved out, whether it’s on the weekends or a couple of days during the week?
You have to prioritize self-care and schedule around that. I make sure I get my massage every month. This is not a frivolous thing. This is about making sure that my body feels good, that I’m getting good blood flow, that I’m managing my tissue. I don’t miss it.
Rachael Pontillo:
I like what you said about being really realistic with your time and understanding that if there is a timeframe–whether it’s a few weeks or maybe even over a month that things are gonna be busy–whether it’s in the business or in personal life or both together, that you carve out enough time deliberately after that is over with to recuperate from that.
For me, an example is when I created a new program called the Design Your Star Product Workshop last fall. I was working with a new business coach, and we did this whole new launch strategy and funnel. It involved new technology, new everything for me. I don’t think I have ever worked that many hours for that period of time. It was from August to November, that I was just go, go, go every single day.
I remember having conversations with family members, saying things like “Don’t ask me for anything until after Thanksgiving. Don’t ask me for anything until December after that my brain is free.” And Tara, I think I probably said that to you when we were planning this podcast! I was like, “I can’t even think. Wait until my brain is available,” because I knew that come December and even early January, I would have less on my forward-facing plate that I had to actively put in those hours.
And then I was able to just focus more on being in receiving mode, and delivering to my clients and students what I had promised during that launch. Launching is definitely a tiring experience between the momentum that you have to gather and the high energy that you have to produce during whatever the launch event is. But behind the scenes, it’s an exorbitant amount of tasks, technologies, and people helping you, which is great. But,I realize that for every launch, I usually need a good solid week after that, so that I don’t have to use my brain.
Tara Swagger:
So that’s the boundaries, that’s the plan. Right. So while you were going through that, I was opening a second business. When I opened the store and I was working seven days a week, it was the same thing in my mind. I knew I was going to get a break afterward.
When we talked last about finding your focus, I mentioned the importance of having a yearly business plan. You could also do it every quarter. And that’s really something that comes back into this topic of burnout too, because if you look at your year when you know where your busiest times are, then you can mentally prepare for the fact that you don’t want to take on any other mental challenges at that time. For example, you don’t want to take on redesigning your website during your busiest time of the year, the holiday season. I know January to May is my best time to do admin and behind-the-scenes stuff like that. It’s not because I’m not busy at work, it’s because I’m not in the marketing flows of the holiday, or the back-to-school season. Because when summer comes, I still work, but don’t want my extra time inundated with things on my brain because I want to spend it with my kids. So, this is setting boundaries. We make these determinations about what exactly it can look like.
I’ve always been really good about scheduling my monthly massage, and I book that ahead of time, because I’m a hyper-scheduled person. I know you are too.
I was talking to you earlier about the circadian rhythm. So, besides planning months ahead and scheduling your massage way in advance, you also have to ask yourself what are you doing daily too, to create the recharge? Because the small pieces of your daily activity that can help you recharge and rebalance can be just as valuable as those long-term investments. I always recommend them as a coach to my clients because it’s usually the most palatable place to start.
Ask yourself, what does your morning look like? If you can create a space or a ritual every morning that is nourishing to you, that adds up every day. It’s like saving a dollar a day, right? It doesn’t sound like much, but let’s face it, in six months, you know, you’re gonna have a little bit of pocket cash. If you do that little bit every day for your rejuvenation, it does the same thing.
I am very organized in how I keep my circadian rhythm working and primed. For me, that comes with morning sunlight a walk every day. You do have to carve out the time, but once you carve that small bit of time, whatever it looks like, then it’s a daily routine. My husband and I will walk for an hour at sunrise. You don’t have to do an hour, just do 10 minutes. It can be that small. But when you’re focused on those little, small daily habits, what ends up happening is you start to get all of these health benefits that start to align, and then no matter how busy you are, your health is intact enough so that you can sustain those more prolonged stressful timeframes.
That all leads back down to sleep. If your circadian rhythm is intact, that sleep is so much better for you when you’re sleeping at night. When that happens, you have more energy for all of that taxing stuff feels overbearing. So it comes in two forms: long-term planning and daily activity, which is just as important.
Sometimes people will say, “I don’t have time or the extra funds to go do the massage or a treatment like that.” It’s free to take a walk. The sunrise is free. So balancing your circadian rhythm is actually a free thing that you can do. Utilizing nature is free, and I think it’s undervalued, but the science of this is strong. We’re working on a new masterclass to help practitioners integrate practices like this, because it’s hard to be a burnt-out practitioner, and your clients are coming in burnt out too, right? Because they’re counting on you to help them feel less burnt out. And I know that I have clients that I’m the person that they come to, and they’re getting that whole package when they come to see me.
When my clients find some of that success in their daily practices, they are amazed at how easy it is, and how good they feel. This all leads to better health, better skin, healthier aging–all the things people want, without all the cost, or the really big time investments.
Rachael Pontillo:
Absolutely. And to find out when that masterclass and other future events that we have coming up are–free events, paid masterclasses, or our main practitioner training program–sign up for our newsletter by downloading our seasonal integrative guide to healthy skin.
I brought up “seasonal” for a reason, because we’re going to bring seasonality into our discussion about burnout in a moment. Before we started recording today, I was talking about how it’s warm out today here in the Philadelphia area. I carved out a little self-care time, and enjoyed coffee with a friend. In this instance, self-care came in the form of socialization at this lovely little French cafe in Philadelphia. It was like 78 degrees when I got out of there and I was like, “Oh my God, the sun!” It felt so good because this is the first day that it’s been actually warm since October. It just instantly puts you in a better mood, just feeling that sunlight. When I was walking from my car to the cafe, I was breathing in the fresh-cut grass, and I just walked in there with a smile on my face.
Whereas yesterday it was cold and gloomy and gray and I had kind of a down day yesterday. I was not in the greatest place. And it is amazing how just a change of weather and a little sunlight, fresh air, and warmth can shift your emotional state. I realized that burnout seems to be so much worse for me, and I find it so much harder to dig myself out of it when it is wintertime or gray, dank, damp, chilly, cold, cold, unpleasant weather.
Tara Swagger:
Well, this is the most underestimated issue that we have if you’re in the northern latitude. I’m in Connecticut, and it’s not warm here today. But the great thing is that the sun is out, and that can make all the difference, even if it’s cold. But if you’re in the northern latitude, the winter can be long.
The truth is, that this actually has a very dark biological effect on the body. And while some people, you’ll notice, and you’ll notice this in your clients, are gonna be affected by it easier and quicker than other people. But mostly everybody will be affected by it. Some people just aren’t in tune enough with themselves to really notice it, but certainly it is going on and there’s a reason for that.
Your electrons and protons are not in the same excitation as they are when the sunlight is out. And one of the things that happens, depending on your haplotype (which is a longer conversation), but everybody’s nationality can play a part in whether or not you need to be in the sun more than other people. This is a genetic predisposition that most people are completely unaware of.
You don’t have to even dig too deep to know, but essentially, darker skin type people belong more south because their light absorption is very different from lighter skin type people. This is why there are higher rates of chronic illnesses in darker skin types in the northern latitude. Their genetics are meant to be in the sunlight. You know, for thousands of years we lived with no indoor lighting. So our DNA is coded already for a process by which the sun comes up and the sun goes down, the sun comes up and the sun goes down. And we’ve really distorted that in our modern-day conveniences. So this is another part of that. For example, you don’t think as clearly during the wintertime, the longer it goes on, the more your biology is suppressed by the lack of sunlight, and the exposure to unnatural indoor light.
I find that my clients start to get really scratchy at the like end of February or the beginning of March. This is when everyone starts to have a real impairment in how they’re able to handle stuff. Most of it just really has to do with the fact that we’re just in these different latitudes, and I think that Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is probably the most underrated issue that we have in these northern latitudes. And people aren’t paying attention to it.
I often recommend my clients get their vitamin D levels checked because vitamin D levels in our region are so incredibly low, but vitamin D is a hormone and it affects our personalities. It’s not just important for our immune system. It plays a really large role in regulatory processes in the body, which also has to do with how our neurological functioning is happening. So, as that lack goes on and on, and your vitamin D levels are dropping, dropping, dropping, and we’re getting to March–if people aren’t aware of that and they’re not paying attention to that, then that’s making it worse. All of these things are going to contribute to high-stress scenarios during the times when maybe your, your schedule is out of whack, or you are experiencing a little more burnout. There are things you can do with your health, and then there are also things you can physically do with your schedule, and they all encompass a little bit of something having to do with long-term planning, and short-term every day planning.
This is where organizing your quantum health and your circadian rhythms really make the biggest difference in every single way, because you can tackle that in a small portion of your day every single day. You know, once I started studying quantum health, and balancing my circadian rhythm, it’s been incredible. I mean, I’ve worked through these timeframes where I was working seven days a week for a few months when I was opening the new store, and I did not feel burnt out. And that’s remarkable. I should have. It was during the fall and winter, and going into the holiday season is always a crazy time.
Obviously that’s not a long-term situation. You don’t wanna be doing that if you can help it. But I believe that my attention to my health and these practices truly kept my biology functioning well enough to manage through that time. So, you know, as coaches, we really want to learn these aspects of how we can help our clients every day find ways to stay healthy enough with small changes, incrementally, so that their minds are intact to create those long-term goals for the year for their business or household.
Rachael Pontillo:
I just think that this time of year is such a great time to discuss this because we’re just in the midst of this transition from cold into warmth.
Tara Swagger:
Well, the other missing piece is daylight savings. We forget that these things are playing a part because they’re all part of this culture that we’re in. And then we get lost in the mix and we’re like, why are we so messed up? And so I mentally prepare myself for daylight savings because I find that to be like jet lag for me. I’m used to getting up for sunrise when the hour changes, and it takes me a couple of weeks to recalibrate.
Rachael Pontillo:
It’s because we don’t have a choice if we’re on a schedule that we can’t control, like you have to go into work, or your child has to go into school at the same time every day. And that schedule doesn’t care that it’s not natural. I’ve seen so many articles over the past couple of years about how people in different countries are looking at a workday to start at 10:00 AM instead of 8:00 AM or a school day to start at 10:00 AM instead of 8:00 AM because it’s so much better for most people. But it’s just not happening here. ,
Tara Swagger:
Even the 9 to 5 is not normal for most people. The data for health disorders shows that daylight savings really wreaks havoc on people’s health. It’s incredible how strong a role the rise and fall of the sun plays on your day-to-day health; that when daylight savings happens, we see these major increases in heart attacks and other issues. It’s really interesting to me that these changes happen quickly, and are due to changing just one hour. You wouldn’t think that. The more you become aware and you can create pathways to keeping yourself together, the more you can sustain those shifts and changes.
Rachael Pontillo:
Yeah. So other than your morning routine, what are some non-negotiables you have to avoid burnout?
Tara Swagger:
Well, it’s never negotiable for me when it comes to taking care of myself, like I said, with massage. I also do other things that are really important to me. For instance, about 3.5 years ago, I reduced my usage of social media and television. That is a big non-negotiable for me because, when you stream negative things into your daily life, it adds a layer that you don’t realize is happening. And I think that’s going on for so many people. They’re inundated. They’re on their social media. They’ve got the TV on every single day with the news, and all that media. We don’t have the TV on in my house during the week. My kids homeschool, so if they want to watch a little tv, they’ll watch a documentary, but that’s pretty rare nowadays. I don’t put the news on in my house. It’s negative. And I think that people underestimate the frequency of what’s going on when they have all these things on. Even if it’s in the background, the frequency of those messages is still playing a part in your cellular wellbeing. And I think that that’s something that people aren’t realizing. But that’s not negotiable for me because I have things that are of value that I want my energy to be available for. Aside from that, I stay on top of my self-care. I have that scheduled out regularly. So I’m never feel really tired, or scrambling to book my massage. No, it’s in there every month.
Sunlight in the morning is a non-negotiable because what happens in your brain when you are exposed to that morning light is incredible. I’m really big on my morning ritual. I’m big on meditation. I do a little bit of meditation almost every single day. When you take the TV and social media out, it gives you a little bit more time for those things. It does. And that’s going to look different for different people.
When I talk to clients, I always ask them what they’re into and what they like. I always try to get them to go out for some morning sunlight. People who have adopted that practice feel like it’s changed their lives. Pet owners are always the easiest sell on that because their pets have to go out. Right? So I’m like, “Ooh, you have a dog, so why don’t you make the time to go out at sunrise?” They have an easier time implementing that. I think it’s good if you can go out for an hour, but if you’re even getting out for five or 10 minutes to see that sun, and breathe in that fresh air wherever you are, you gain such a vitality from the ions in the air when you’re in nature. And there’s so much science for this! It’s so undervalued in our society.
When people start to reintroduce some of these daily practices, and their stress levels go down, they just can’t believe how simple it was. And that helps you sustain those crazy periods of time when your kids are, doing all their activities, or when your business is crazy. And it’s those basic things that really help you sustain comfortability to get through.
Rachael Pontillo:
It’s important that we find one thing, at the minimum, that is our self-care thing every day. As for me, I love my nighttime skin routine and my shower and all of that. I feel like I can’t go to bed without it. I haven’t put the day away until I’ve done my nighttime routine. And it doesn’t take very long. It’s not very elaborate. I’m not one of these people who uses like seven skincare products. I use literally three products, except for on days that I’m doing a mask or something like that. I have this visualization that I do while I’m in the shower, and it helps me to wash the day away. And then I do my skincare, and I put my Frownies® on, and I have my sleep mask, because my husband insists on having his phone in the room, and, even that tiny bit of light from the phone distracts me.
If I don’t do that routine, then I don’t feel right. My mind is racing. I keep repeating conversations that I had during the day, or thinking about how I might have done something differently. My brain just won’t shut off. But when I do that routine, it really helps me just put the day away. And then when I wake up, I don’t wake up thinking of stuff I hadn’t finished processing the day before. So that’s one thing that I do.
Another thing that I wanted to share that I do to help with establishing those boundaries–and I know we touched on this a little earlier with scheduling and planning and knowing your hours–is that when you have your own business, and it’s not a physical practice that has specific hours; if you work from home it’s very easy for the entire day, night, and weekend to become available work hours.
We have to actually carve out what our daily work hours are, and that can look different from day to day. So there might be days that you have an obligation during the day that is non-negotiable. I used to have this morning dance fitness class that I would schedule around because I got so much from going to that class. On other days you might have more time in the evening because maybe your kids are occupied, so it doesn’t have to look the same every day. But I do think it’s really helpful to plot out on a week weekly planner, whether it’s a Google calendar or a paper planner or calendar if you’re a pen and paper person.
On a Sunday afternoon, just look at the next week and start by scheduling your non-negotiables either for work, for your family, or for yourself. Every day you X out those non-negotiables, and nothing else gets scheduled in that time slot. If your Google calendar is linked to your online scheduling system, mark those as unavailable so that nobody can book that space at the last minute. And then, once you’re closed for the day, that’s it. You put the work away; you’re done. You don’t think about it. And then, other than just knowing what your daily work hours are for that week, I recommend deliberately scheduling in flex time or wild card time, because who has had a perfect week where everything goes exactly as you planned? It doesn’t usually happen. There’s always something that changes.
Maybe one day you get backed up with a client who came in late, or maybe you had a doctor’s appointment come up, or just something where one activity or appointment cut into something else. And then you freak out, and you’re like, “Oh crap. Now I’m not going to get that done this week!” Well, if you have scheduled flex time–I usually recommend to my students and clients like one or two hours a week–then that is your dedicated overflow time. So if you didn’t get to something on Monday or Tuesday, you would plan to do it during that hour on Wednesday. And then if you don’t finish something the rest of the day on Wednesday and Thursday, you may have some flex time built in to catch up on Friday. And I always say that if there is nothing that needs to go into the flex time because the week went well, well then you get to take that as an extra hour of downtime or self-care time. But the rule is that you don’t fill flex time with scheduled work. It’s supposed to be either overflow or self-care.
Tara Swagger:
That’s great advice. We do that with our kids because we homeschool, and so every week we do the paper and pen schedule. We do our schedules every week, and we do the same thing. You know, we always keep our overflow; we try to accomplish all of the work Monday through Thursday, and then whatever doesn’t get finished, we do it on Friday morning. So we do the same thing. And it’s great advice because I think it’s easy to overbook. I mean, my book is always full!
My book is always full, but I always reserve those pockets for if something does come up or something has to move. I think that’s another thing that people, some people are not doing, and I think it’s causing them a lot of disarray in their personal life. They might have their schedule for their clients, but then everything else isn’t organized enough. I always say, whatever you want to do on the regular, book it out. If you don’t have it scheduled, and it’s not in your mind’s eye, then what happens is, you forget all about it, and six months go by, and you haven’t done the yoga class, or date night, or whatever it might look like in terms of the downtime that you need. Because if it’s not on the schedule, then it’s not going to happen. It’s like goals. If you want to achieve goals, you write them down.
Rachael Pontillo:
I think the first time I heard it specifically like this was from Marie Forleo years ago, when she said something like, “If it isn’t scheduled, then it isn’t real.” How true is that? We have so many things on our minds. How many times do you think, “Oh, I’m going to remember that. I’m not gonna write it down.” And then you can’t even remember what you said you would remember.
When I’m talking to my skincare formulation students, I tell them, “Anytime you’re just messing around in the kitchen, mixing ingredients, write everything down, because so many times you will come up with this brilliant formula that you think you’ll remember and then you don’t, because you didn’t note it.”
Tara Swagger:
There are way too many things going on in the world and in our minds. You know, our ancestors were not inundated with all of this stuff. This is why our ancestors spent a lot of time in rituals, in community–taking care of the members of their community, very differently than we do today. It’s because they didn’t have to have a schedule. They lived different lives, whereas this modern society is so hyper. If you’re a person that doesn’t subscribe to all that and you’ve, you’re leading a much simpler life then that is amazing. I applaud that because that’s amazing. I think that’s a wonderful thing. I’d like to think of myself as someone who craves that.
I think I do to a certain extent, but I’m also very type A–I like to get my hands into stuff. I like to work on projects. So, there’s a lot of fuel in that for me. So having that schedule will keep that balance enough so that you’re not burning out, and that you’re still tracking along with the things that are needed in your home, or needed for you, or for your business.
When you create a plan, and you want it to actually execute, you need to write all the pieces down. What do you want to be in this world? What do you want to be in your life? What do you want your future? Write it down. Whatever it is, write it down. That’s the power of the frequency. You think it, then you say it, and then you write it.
Rachael Pontillo:
And you’re assigning it a value. Like, that’s your reward for a job well done. My accountant does this really well. Right now, accountants and bookkeepers, they’re all at the end of tax season. And at the end of tax season, my accountant emails all her clients, and says something to the effect of “I’m going to be deeply unavailable for the next two weeks.”
Tara Swagger:
Yeah. Well, I mean, that’s the thing, right? So, you know, we just got back from Florida, and we don’t have something else booked, but I said to my husband,”We’ve got about 24 hours until we get something on the schedule and something booked,” because it’s fuel. For this many weeks, I’m going to drive a little bit hard to get things accomplished, and then I’m going to have my reward. And it doesn’t have to be a vacation. If it’s a day off and it’s a day that you’re going to drive to the beach or you’re going to go to the mountains–whatever it is, all of those things refuel you enough that you can continue to have that busy life. But again, you have to put it on the schedule. That makes such a difference in actually accomplishing that goal.
Rachael Pontillo:
And for me, especially when it’s the cold, dark months, I feel like I have to schedule those little stopping points even more frequently. You can think “I just have to get through day by day, and then I get to go to the theater,” or something like that. When it’s warm out, it’s not that I don’t still schedule fun things as rewards for my hard work, but I feel like I don’t have to do so as much. Because just being able to go outside and soak in the warmth is sometimes enough reward for buckling down and focusing for a few solid hours every workday.
Tara Swagger:
Yeah. If you’re in the northern latitude, everybody is so different during the spring and summer. It’s unbelievable. I know a lot of people will say New Englanders are harsh, and I think that might be true. I was just in Florida, and found that people are so nice–like cashiers and grocery store attendants–everyone. And my husband just keeps saying it’s because they’re in the sunshine all the time. And then you come up here and people are really scratchy and cranky. They get cranky because they’re not feeling that excitation, that fulfillment, that balance, or that comfort. They’re feeling the darkness. They’re feeling that low mood and low energy, and then that frequency imparts itself onto everybody else in the room.
If you are in a northern latitude and you’re able to create a pathway to balance yourself a little bit better, your frequency will impart itself on your family and the people around you in a more positive way. As you start to dive into some of these things with quantum health and arranging your circadian rhythm a little bit better, and your frequency starts to shift, then you’ll sustain those winters a little bit better–because I know I do. I mean, that doesn’t mean I couldn’t wait to get to Florida, I was so excited to get into the sunlight! But I definitely think that patterning in my biology has made it a lot different. And I know this for sure with my clients that have created that pathway too.
Rachael Pontillo:
Yeah. Well, I, for one, am very excited about your next masterclass about this because just listening to you now, I’m like, yeah, I don’t do that, and maybe it would help me if I did.
Tara Swagger:
Well, the thing is, it’s never going to be perfect all the time.
Rachael Pontillo:
I think that there are so many things that people could be doing that they just don’t think of.
Tara Swagger:
It’s true. When I explain this and teach people about this topic, I’m attaching the science so that they can understand what is actually biologically happening, and why it’s a thing. It’s not just that people just feel good in the sun. You feel good in the sun because there is a chemical component to what’s biologically shifting in your brain. And that makes a big difference. The way that I’ll be teaching this masterclass isn’t so much about how you impart this to your clients. It’s a little bit of both, but most of it is just teaching the basics of what you want to know. Because as a practitioner or a wellness coach, you want to learn it and incorporate it for yourself. And when that starts to happen, you’ll start to see how it benefits you in such a deep way.
And then you’re going to wanna teach it to your clients because a lot of them are struggling. They may or may not be on a lot of different medications. They may or may not have their diet aligned. Some of that might be really tough for them to do. These are the kinds of things that you can help them do that cost no money, but also have a great impact on their overall health. So it’ll be a great class. I’m getting excited about sharing it with everybody.
Rachael Pontillo:
Very cool. Well, hopefully, what we shared today about burnout and some of how we each deal with that was helpful. Hopefully, those of you who are watching and listening are able to find one little tidbit that you’re able to implement that hopefully can help you either avoid burnout in the first place or snap out of it if you’re already there. So we would love to hear what you think about this topic. If you have any strategies of your own that have worked for you to avoid burnout or to prevent it from happening in the first place, please tell us in the comments below.
When it comes to our professional journey, having healthy boundaries can be the difference between success and burnout.
It’s essential to take care of ourselves in this demanding world of work and taking some time to reset those boundaries is a crucial part of the process. When done correctly, setting boundaries to prevent burnout can lead to improved mental health, clarity, and peace of mind, which would then give you much more room for success professionally and personally. Let’s leave today with the knowledge that it’s okay to put yourself first sometimes. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Skin Wellness Pro Show!
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