27/05/2026
THE WISDOM IN YOUR BURNOUT!
We ALL need to become exhausted, burnt out, frazzled and depressed at some point in our lives. We really do.
Some get stuck there, of course. Others push through into a new life. It’s somewhat of a mystery what helps people push through into the glory and into their wildness.
But the false self does need to “burn out”.
It is not real.
Our inauthenticity needs to die, you see:
Saying no when we mean yes
and saying yes when we mean no.
Stuffing down our rage to appear polite. Squashing down our despair to seem “up”.
Repressing our sexuality, our true longings, our authentic desires.
Pretending to know when we don’t, or pretending not to know when we really do.
Suppressing the wisdom, intuition and knowing in our guts.
Pretending to be spiritual, nice, kind, tolerant, strong, when really fear and loathing boil underneath.
Trying to avoid disappointing the ones we love.
It all has to “die”… so that we may live!
Our wildness will save us! Our rage, our terror, our explosive despair will make us whole, IF we can only digest these misunderstood energies. The more we suppress such infinite creativity, the more exhausted we become and the more we want to break apart.
The danger is, we assume there is something “wrong” with us for feeling so “negative”. We see these energies as some kind of failing or weakness, and further shame our shame, de-press our depression, turn away from these infinitely intelligent signals, these CALLS FOR NEW LIFE.
Yes, in our innocence, we push away the very thing trying to save us! We medicate away our feelings, try to numb ourselves even further.
We try to “keep going”. We try to “relax”. Or we wallow and indulge our feelings, creating a new identity of “victim”.
There is a middle way, friends.
Breaking open to the truth of our lives is terrifying. But necessary. Sometimes we need to “burn out” first, be brought to our knees, fall into utter despair and helplessness, travel into the underworld of ourselves, and tell the awful truth of “me”.
We need to speak our raw truth and risk alienating everyone around us.
We need to be willing to confront our deepest loneliness.
We need to take the risk of joy.
Follow our heart’s call.
Take small steps towards the things that scare the living s**t out of us.
We need to let ourselves break down and even psychologically “die”…
…to who we thought we were,
to the awful lies,
to the inauthentic self,
to the old way.
- Jeff Foster
