FIRE meets AIR: BURNOUT 3
How I get inspired and motivated again after burnout, despair and MEH.
If you missed PART 1 and PART 2, not all of this might make sense. In my 5 Elements System, Fire is the Domain of the Heart. It is the Realm of Emotion. Each element has a pair of emotions we work with.
The primary emotions of Elemental Air are Apathy and Inspiration.
Today we’re covering the tools I use to get things moving again when my reserves are exhausted and I’m unmotivated, despondent and apathetic. We’ve previously covered the tools of Earth, Fire, Air, and Metal.
**This is what I do for garden-variety burnout and hopelessness. Obviously if I’m in the REALLY, REALLY bad place, I call my therapist and schedule an emergency appointment if I can’t wait until my next one.
If you are in the REALLY, REALLY bad place and don’t have somebody like I have my therapist, or if they’re unavailable when you’re to the crisis point, these people can help you find someone now. Please, please. Always reach out:
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Of if you don’t like that one, here’s 13 more.
Continuing on…
WATER
One of my primary goals while in the state of MEH is to get myself to the point where I can have a good cry. Because if I am so despondent that my arts don’t inspire me, I don’t take diabolical pleasure from working out, my nature walks don’t cheer me up, or I’m just too depressed and fatigued to even take myself on a walk? When I glare at my back patio and don’t go out there?
Okay, fine. As I’m writing this, it’s below freezing, so screw that.
But on a gorgeous day if I am caught so far out in the Doldrums of MEH that I don’t even want to take my coffee out onto the patio? Then, Houston, we have a problem.
This means I have lost hope.
When I’ve stopped being able to see my way through to some next steps, my usual knee-jerk reaction is fear and anger. But when I see plenty of next steps, yet have lost faith that they will do any good…this is when Apathy takes me out at the knees.
Get Moving Again Through the River of Tears
If I can touch the heart of my losses and my sorrow, the relief of that purge can sometimes be so cleansing that it gets me unstuck.
I write down blurts of the first thing that comes to mind with prompts like, “I feel sad that…I am heartbroken over…I am grieving…”
I listen to my Dance of Sorrow playlist, or music that reminds me of whatever I’m grieving.
I watch a show or read a poem that brings up this emotion.
Doing these things also helps clear muck from my emotional pipes, if Grief is part of what thrust me into Apathy in the first place.
Alas. Sometimes I can’t cry. Or I can, but it doesn’t do any good to get me motivated again, so I turn to Joy instead.
Hunting For Joy
Joy is like a little bribe. A lure. A dangling carrot.
Jig-jig…pssst! C’mon. Come play. You know you want to…
And really, I do, or I wouldn’t be trying to so hard to get out of Apathy.
So I reach for things that make me laugh like my Humorous Video Playlist.
Or things that invigorate me like the music playlists I’ve made to invoke certain mindsets and moods.
If that doesn’t work, I seek out a story. A favorite TV show or movie that delights me. A book I can lose myself in and maybe gain some other perspectives or find some inspiration.
Mind Over What’s the Matter
If that doesn’t work I try meditation.
Alas, in the morass of MEH, focus becomes problematic, so I use a whole slew of external sources.
The meditation altars around my house.
Nature.
Music.
Videos.
My most recent obsession comes from my little miracle of a birthday present—my Virtual Reality machine. I have recently discovered Liminal and I am on that thing, trying to calm down and re-inspire my mind like it holds my oxygen tank.
Because it does.
Random Generators of Motivation
If I’m spinning my wheels in indecision (the sneaky, whiny little cousin of Don’tWanna™), I flip a coin. If I am disappointed about the outcome, I guess I know what I really wanted, didn’t I? If I’m happy, same deal. If I’m truly neutral, then the decision gets made in a simple, fast, efficient way. The end.
If the situation is more complicated, I read tarot.
During this round of Apathy, I’ve been so screwed up, uninspired, and exhausted that I haven’t even had it in me to read my own cards, so I’ve been letting someone else read for me. This is my absolute Faevorite tarot reader. On the days when I am called to watch a reading, and when I pick the pile(s) I am drawn to…she is scary-accurate. Like…spooky specific details—whaaaat?!
Tarot isn’t telling me anything I don’t already know. This external perspective just says it in words I wouldn’t have come up with on my own, and gives suggestions I might not have thought of myself. It reiterates the things I know I need to do and just Don’tWanna™. Or I’m scared to. Or I don’t quite know how to take the first step.
It provides vivid imagery and metaphors for my stuck mind to latch onto and focus on, drawing me back into color, character, story, and the Elements — my natural homes.
Time Travel
I go back through photos, videos, my old writing, my journals, my keepsakes, searching for the times when I was super inspired. When I loved the things I was doing.
Example: I just watched one of my oldest YouTube videos from when I was absolutely on fire with the momentum of Phoenixing after my big car wreck. Seeing those dances again, remembering who I was, what inspired me back then, what I was striving for and what I was trying to say…
It didn’t make me want to dance in that moment. It didn’t inspire me to get up off my butt and do some PT. It actually made me kind of sad that I feel so far away from her right now.
But that’s not a bad thing. Not at all.
Because I am the only one who can do something about that. If I want those pieces of my story to repeat, I am the only one who can bring them forward into who I am now.
At first it seemed herculean — the notion of getting anywhere near to where I was back then from where I am right now.
Yeah! Because I’m friggin’ burnt out. That’s where that whole first post comes into play — the compassion piece. Just letting myself be burnt out if I’m burnt out. Letting myself be MEH and uninspired if that’s what I feel.
So I had to let this dance-seed germinate. It wasn’t time for it yet. I had to keep it planted cozy in the dark, warm ground. Well? It’s still winter. It’s currently snowing and freezing the slush on my car, so I’m not going anywhere.
YET.
But I just caught sight of a glimmer on the horizon. And Spring is coming…
ALCHEMY
It’s still quite dark and cold out, so all I want to do is snuggle up in my woobie with comfort food and something hot to drink. Therefore, I do. This entices me into the more nurturing, enjoyable aspects of the Earth Element’s bodily care.
And I can feel it now. Scratching at the back of my head. Hey. Poking my shoulder. Hey. Stretching out a finger toward my nose to boop me. Not touching youuuuuu…hahahaha! YET. Because it wants to play.
My Muse.
My inspiration.
My passion projects.
My motivational impulses.
My determination to sweat and grow.
My desires to connect and create and explore.
Simply feeling my interest slide one eye in its direction and lift one eyebrow in curiosity — that’s more than enough right now. It doesn’t mean I have to act on any of it unless I am moved to.
Like yesterday…
After several days with those old dances swirling in my head, I laid down on the floor with the Water Playlist on to stretch and flow.
I suddenly found myself motivated to work through all the scar tissue in my messed up shoulder and neck, which led me to some flow movements, which is actually what gave me the energy to call AT&T and Heating Assistance.
Did I cut off my PT and my first spark of motivation to dance that I’ve felt in two weeks? Yes. Because The Crappy Tasks have a deadline, and my finances and utilities will impact my ability to even keep a home studio space in which to dance along with everything else, so the priority is clear.
I left myself wanting more dance — a little spark of Desire is a really good sign amidst Apathy. Instead, I used my limited energy to blow on that ember of motivation so I could do what I HAD to do.
That clears muck out of my life.
Once I’m not so burdened by situations that are eating up all my time and energy but getting me nowhere except infuriated, frustrated, and burnt out, I finally regain the time, space, and energy to do what I WANT to do.
And that kind of energy is even more self-perpetuating than the inertia of MEH.
One of the mind-over-what-matters songs I reach for time and again when I need inspiration, from the movie version of a story that brought me so much hope and joy when I was a kid—and still does today.
© 2025 Hartebeast
UP NEXT: Speaking of Water, for Equinox weekend we’re finally moving into our next Element!
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