Fire Within: Flower Essence + Herbal Support for Burnout Recovery
Before the fire in Nederland, I was beginning to reckon with the reality of a frayed and overtaxed nervous system, considering my options and implementing small changes to try to bring myself to a place of greater equilibrium. Then, when a major structure fire across the street from my office claimed 18 businesses and changed our small mountain town forever, I could no longer ignore the truth. I was set over the edge and brought to my knees to bear witness to an undeniable reality of total and complete burnout.
Coined by Herbert J. Freudenberger in the early 1970s, burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion brought about by prolonged or repeated stress.
“If you have ever seen a building that has been burned out, you know it’s a devastating sight . . . some bricks or concrete may be left; some outline of windows. Indeed, the outer shell may seem almost intact. Only if you venture inside will you be struck by the full force of the desolation.”
Burnout can function undetected, for a time. To the outside world, those of us navigating burnout might seem to be functioning relatively well. The internal reality, however, reveals a circumstance of running on fumes and a state of chronic sympathetic nervous system activation. The inner rubble of burnout carves away at the soul of the person experiencing it until the truth of the situation can no longer be denied.
While Freudenberger focused on burnout primarily in regards to one's career and professional life, more recent theorists have broadened this term to include other aspects of life on both personal and broader ecological levels. Through the ecopsychological lens, it could be argued that post-industrial society—by its very nature—is one that harbors burnout as a primary feature of the extractive, unsustainable manner by which it seeks to position itself against the Earth and against Life as a whole. This systemic burnout contributes to the totality of our human experience and—no matter our circumstances—constellates the totality of our shared human burden to bear.
The Elemental Composition Of Burnout
I often think about the connection between the elements of Fire and Metal through the Ke Cycle in the Classical Chinese Five Element system of health and healing. My teacher, Marlow Brooks, teaches that an imbalanced Fire Element can lead to an imbalanced Metal Element through this cycle, with Fire being the elemental grandmother to Metal. Through this framework, it is not surprising that—during this season of autumn, governed by the Metal Element—my attention was immediately brought to the element of Fire when considering the root of my exhaustion and depletion. The term burnout speaks to the inherent connection to the Fire Element, and the Ke Cycle makes it evident why this state could become particularly untenable during the season of autumn.
Autumn provides the necessary reflective landscape to examine the distortions of Fire that make themselves known within our bodies, our communities, and the broader ecologies of which we are an integral part. Our cultural narratives uphold misaligned beliefs related to work, resource, and value, positioning overexertion as some holy endeavor and the process of striving as a means by which we are sanctified. When we culturally sacralize self-sacrifice in this way, we devalue the life of human beings through an extractive lens and do dishonor to the reality that human beings are inherently cyclical, elemental creatures. At our core, we are governed by an awake and alive intelligence—one that is also mirrored in the seasons, rhythms, and cycles of the Earth.
When our inner fire burns unhindered, it behaves much like the wildfires that tear through drought-stricken ecosystems. When we lose touch with our personal relationship to inner fire tending, we mirror the loss of sustainable burning practices that have hastened fire’s capacity for destruction and devastation in our modern era. Set against the backdrop of a culture obsessed with mass production, exploitation of resources, and in denial of the natural mechanisms that govern the principles of limit and capacity, burnout is not only a likely consequence of the larger paradigm but an intrinsic and unavoidable part of it.
Re-Establishing Honor Within A Broken System
Burnout is not merely an expression of fatigue or personal failing. Rather, it is our soul’s response to a transposed mindset of ignorance and extraction—one that characterizes both our relationship to the Earth and our relationship to our own bodies. We are forced through cultural misunderstanding and existential misalignment to extract and capitalize on our gifts, reducing them to “natural resources” that we learn to dishonor. We are often seemingly rewarded for this process of dishonoring, heralded for our stoicism, achievement, and capacity to push beyond the natural limits of our cyclical nature. To come back into alignment, we must return to the innate governing principle of honor.
Honor is a primary theme associated with the element of Metal and is key to our interruption and healing of the toxic cycles inherent to burnout. Honor is a function of right relationship. When we re-establish honor with our own bodies and with the Earth’s body, we invite the relational quality of our precious existence back into the field of our awareness. By invoking the medicine of honor, we begin to disentangle ourselves from the strain of burnout and slowly begin to reorient to the intelligence of our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. This inner intelligence is a reflection of the Earth’s vital intelligence—that which serves to teach us through elemental clarity how we can become better stewards of both soil and self.
Earth Medicine For Burnout Recovery
Both herbal medicine and flower essences both offer a potent path out of the grip of burnout, through the doorway of honor, and into the heart of right relationship . . .
Herbal Allies for Navigating Burnout
Reishi — Reishi is known as the mushroom of immortality and is a guardian of right relationship between humans and the Earth. Adaptogenic in nature, Reishi helps to repair our scorched inner world by calling our bodies into the process of radical, participatory self-healing. Reishi supports the regulation of our nervous system, rebuilds weakened immunity, and replenishes our inner vitality by helping us rebuild from the inside out.
Motherwort — Motherwort’s name in latin, Leonurus cardiaca, reveals to us the lionhearted courage that this herbal ally imbues. This herb works as a nervine, supports our hearts, and helps us to ground scattered energy. Particularly useful in cases where burnout is co-present with grief, Motherwort invites us to re-inhabit our hearts through rest, recovery, and self-compassion.
Skullcap — Skullcap is a yin tonic and nervine that offers calm in cases of acute anxiety. This herb works directly on the myelin sheath and functions like a warm and sturdy blanket for our nerves. Skullcap supports burnout recovery by decreasing overstimulation in both our bodies and our minds.
Kava — Kava is a relatively new ally to me, one that previously held little resonance for me personally until this season of my life. Kava’s analgesic, euphoric, and sedative properties support the process of burnout recovery by reorienting us towards a softer, gentler way of being. Kava is an herb with which to exercise particular caution, yet for those for whom it is appropriate can be a brilliant friend in healing burnout.
Flower Essence Support for Burnout
Fireweed — Fireweed is one of the first flowers to grow after a wildfire, stabilizing soil and bringing back essential polinators. Fireweed flower essence is strongly indicated in cases of burnout, emotional shock, and trauma. It strengthens our connection to the Earth’s seasons and cycles and empowers us to release patterns of overexertion in order to inhabit rest so that we can heal and repair.
Lupine — Lupine is among the first of the flowers to recolonize burn areas, fixing nitrogen into depleted soil. Lupine flower essence helps us move out of the functional freeze state characteristic of prolonged burnout towards a new season of rest, regeneration, and inspired action.
Morning Glory — Morning Glory is a flower governed by right timing that blooms forth like a flame and closes with intelligence. Morning glory flower essence supports rebalancing disrupted circadian rhythms and frayed energetic bodies. This essence can make a world of difference for the re-establishment of healthy patterns following a season of burnout and fatigue.
Yarrow — Yarrow re-emerges quickly after wildfires, its deep roots helping to prevent erosion while its aromatic oils deter pests in the recovering ecosystem. Yarrow flower essence strengthens our boundaries with self and others, a vital practice during times where finding our “No” becomes an essential building block towards burnout recovery that helps us revitalize our overtaxed bodies, minds, and spirits.
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I hope you found some benefit in reading this. More than anything, I hope you know you are not alone if you are feeling the impact of burnout in your life. As always, feel free to reflect on whatever this inspired in your heart in the comments section below, and know that I am rooting for you.
May all beings know true vitality.
May we honor the intelligence of rest.
May we mycelially support the flourishing of repair that blooms from the heart of repose throughout our broader communities.
♡
