Pressing pause: I was burnt out until spirit stepped in
Danielle Marchant, 42, from Falmouth, Cornwall
I’m standing in a field with my singing bowl in one hand. I can feel the cool breeze on my skin and the earth beneath me. In this moment, I’m aware that this is what I call the ‘Pause,’ where spirit guides us and nature holds us. I wasn’t always in balance. After years of pushing myself to the limit, one day in 2012 I woke up and found that I couldn’t get out of bed.
My body wouldn’t function. I had burnt out,
quite literally.
I was in my mid 30s and the managing director of a consultancy firm in Singapore - we ran training courses for multinational companies. I loved my job and I was living in a fantastic apartment but I wasn’t looking after myself.
Hectic lifestyle
I’d send emails at 3am, then be up again at 6am. I was on a treadmill that was having a negative effect on my mind, body and spirit. Looking back, there were signs I chose to ignore. I was three stone heavier than I am today, my joints ached constantly and I had trouble sleeping.
On the fateful day that my body refused to wake up, I was halfway through running a five-day training programme. It took a week before I’d recovered enough to get out of bed, but only when my boss said, ‘'o you think you need a holiday?’ did it seep in that I wasn’t well.
I headed off to Cornwall for a relaxing break. A week off turned into three months. I had no contact with the outside world. Once a week, I travelled to London to see a therapist and I slept more than I could ever imagine.
Common disease
My experience of burn-out isn’t unusual. The World Health Organisation predicts that work-related stress, burnout and depression will top the list of the world’s most prevalent diseases by 2020.
I was one of the lucky ones. I realised that an extreme lifestyle change was needed in order for me to make an extreme recovery! I resigned from my job, moved back to the UK and set up my own coaching business. I did this while undergoing a deep journey of healing where I explored my past lives, dreams, my childhood and how to work with energy.
In March 2013, I ran my first Pause retreat as a way to help people to recognise the signs of burnout. These signs are the same whether you’re a mother facing an impossible to-do list or an executive negotiating a highpowered business deal.
jy own experience has taught me that sometimes you just need to pause in order to move forward with your life.
Now I’m using that experience to help others.
Burnout will be a leading disease by 2020
* Pause: How to press pause before life does it for you by Danielle Marchant (Aster, £12.99) is out now.