The Westcountry Witch

23/07/2025

Hello everyone! I am back — ish. My Etsy store is back open — though as I type this, I have just put it on holiday for a few days. So what’s been happening? Well, let’s start with what is happening going forward.

I will never have periods where my shop is open 24/7. What you’re likely going to see is regular periods where I close down my Etsy shop for new readings to allow me time to recharge. I am no longer chasing being available 24/7, or driven by anxiety around my personal finances.

Since 2017, I had my Etsy store open 98% of the time — every day, every week, 52 weeks of the year. My only downtime would be when orders were slow. That was not physically sustainable for me or my health.

Since closing my shop in early spring to recover from burnout, I’ve made the decision to continue putting my shop on regular holiday breaks to allow me time to recharge.

This has become even more important due to changes in my health. Last week, my GP referred me to the CFS clinic. For many years, I believed it was normal to be unable to do anything — to be unable to read, watch a film, eat, or drink after doing the grocery shop, meeting a friend for coffee, or doing the housework. It is not normal — nor is feeling like I’m wading through mud, with weights on my head.

I need to start practising pacing, and that’s going to be hard. But the first step is limiting my availability for readings. I am slowing down. As an ethical reader, I can’t be someone who churns out readings daily — I am not that person. My clients deserve my focus, my attention, and my care — and that means I have to limit how many readings I do.

Thank you everyone who has been checking in and those who have booked readings with me since my return. It means a lot to have so many walking this journey with me.

22/07/2025

What's this? A new reading?

I am back! I am slowly open for readings again, but you are going to find The Westcountry Witch is run a little different. I wont be open all the time. I am taking a slow, my slow down has been greatly appreciated and am getting back in touch with simple living.

If you happen to click on my store and its closed, hit the button that says to alert you when I open again.

Looking forward to working with your all again.

Li

https://thewestcountrywitch.etsy.com/uk/listing/4339684918/grounded-growth-and-personal-path

20/07/2025

I am being brave and after years of crocheting am designing my own blanket pattern.

30/06/2025

How’s everyone coping with the heat? Coco loves it. We’re hiding inside with our air conditioner which we bought to help us—damn pesky meds means we don’t do heat.

15/04/2025

I spoke earlier this year about how I have been burned out. During that time I put my etsy store on holiday mode and was no longer accepting orders or performing readings. I ventured onto Patreon and began my cosy friend tier.

Sadly, I have to be firm with myself and take a full break away, even with Patreon I was finding it wasn't allowing me to fully disconnect and recharge.

I have been working through sickness, surgeries, caring for my disabled daughter and being a single parent non stop since 2017. But my burn out started long before that.

Recovering from chronic stress and burnout is not linear and there is not set time frame, but having spoken to healthcare professionals, it's very likely I need longer than a couple of months. I need many months, and that means, fully disconnecting from clients, readings and my business.

I have given myself the potential return date of Autumn 2025. I have only just found myself gently walking through the anxiety of not having my store open, which tells me I am only in the first phase of recovery.

I want to thank all my clients for checking in, being wonderful and know, I am not quitting, I am just finally giving myself the time to disconnect from the internet and gently recover.

My Patreon and my shop will hopefully be back toward the end of the year.

Remember, take care of yourself, don't push and push, because if you do, you'll find burnout finds you any way.

Blessings as always

Li

18/03/2025

What do you do with all the blankets you crochet?

They get assessed and tested by expert blanket tester, Toby the chihuahua

❤️

05/03/2025

Burnout.

When I fled domestic abuse in 2017, I had no money and no safety net. I started my Etsy shop as a reader, working 70+ hour weeks, every single day, even on Christmas. No stopping. stopping meant risk.

But it goes back so much further.

Extreme poverty. Single parenthood. My brain decided that work = survival. That stopping = failure.

So I never stopped. I worked through illness, exhaustion, through pain.
I worked through two years of gallbladder infections that left me in agony for days at a time. I worked less than 24 hours after having my gallbladder removed.
I took a second job when things got tough. I worked through COVID, flu, burnout, chronic stress—because I didn’t know how not to.

My body and brain are done.

For the past four months, I’ve been noticing a growing inability to function.

I can’t type properly. My hands aren’t keeping up.
My sentences aren’t flowing. I’m making constant typos. Which in turn means, what used to take me an hour to write now takes me sometimes 3 hours.
At first, I pushed through—because that’s all I’ve ever known.
But then I realised: this is burnout. This is cognitive exhaustion.

This isn’t just “needing a break.”
This is years of chronic overwork catching up with me.

So I’ve finally done what I should have done a long time ago.
I have closed my Etsy shop. For how long? I don’t know yet. But what I do know is I can’t keep working through this. In the past I have closed my shop for a couple of days. But I need longer. This doesn't mean I am stopping being a reader, but I need time off.

I’m shifting my focus to Patreon—a cosy little space where I can create at a slower, more intentional pace. No pressure, no overwork—just sharing what I love, in a way that feels sustainable. If you want to be part of that, you’re welcome to join me there.

This is my reality right now. Burnout isn’t just feeling “a bit tired.” It’s your body and brain shutting down on you because they’ve had enough.

03/03/2025

Enjoying the canal boat cal by who by far is my favourite blanket designer. I am detoxing from my smart phone and social media so not as active as i once was. My smart phone had eaten away my attention span to the point I couldn’t watch a movie in full or even read a book. Am getting back to a more simple way of living

15/02/2025

Finished the fireside blanket by and Coco has claimed it 😂

13/02/2025

This!

10/02/2025

new post over on my Patreon for my cosy friend member group. I am tackling smart phone addiction"

Get more from The Westcountry witch on Patreon

31/01/2025

I am greatly enjoying my slow down. I was chatting to the besty earlier this week, and I realised that since I was 13 years old, I had never really been able to put myself first. Caring for my mother, a child thrust into financial awareness as a result. I have always had, from this age into my adult years as a single mother, an unhealthy relationship with money. In the sense I absolutely have anxiety about it. I always put it down to the ups and downs of being self-employed in recent years, but it clearly goes further than that.

But putting myself first has always been a struggle because of this financial anxiety. The past week, my body has shown me just how exhausted it was.

I have been sleeping, a lot.

I look back at periods in which my mental illness was bad, where I would take a few days off work when meds changed. But really, I should have taken months off. But that money anxiety came back again.

I think since 2017, and maybe even before, I have been physically and mentally burning fumes. I am like that adventurer in a game whose health stats are very low but are topped up maybe 10% by a potion of healing.

It's not sustainable.

I used to feel guilty if I slept in, if I was not up at 6 am.

No more. I am listening to my body.