Active Work vs Integration: How to Prevent Spiritual Burn Out

As Summer draws near, I think it’s important to talk about how your healing journey or path of transformation will probably look a lot different than it did 3 months ago. It can be easy to fall into the trap of feeling as though you need to constantly be pushing yourself to learn something new, heal, or work on some self-improvement project. That if you don’t keep pushing, you’ll lose momentum or fall off track, or even fail behind some arbitrary finish line. 

I’m here to tell you from years of experience that healing happens in multiple phases, most of which can be broken down into two categories: active work and integration. Active work is when you are in the process of learning, healing, and pushing yourself. This can be internally or externally, oftentimes things are happening in both realms, but the main unifier is that you are pushing beyond your current skillset to grow and improve. Clearly, we are big fans of transformation and personal growth at Sienna Moon, but it is not a state that you can permanently live in. 

When we first opened the store, I had a pretty strong base understanding of crystals and astrology, but every other healing modality and experience was new to me. And within 18 months I’d tried lots of reiki, sound healing, meditation, breathwork, akashic records work, hypnotherapy, crystal healing, and aura cleansing. I was also diving deep into tarot and even deeper into astrology. My crystal knowledge, as well as my knowledge surrounding all of these exciting and interesting topics, was rapidly expanding too. I had also stepped into a vastly different role than I had ever had professionally. Needless to say, I was in an active work state of being. And throughout all of that I still felt like I wasn’t doing enough. So I kept pushing myself farther and farther. (Nearly 5 years in from when we started opening Sienna Moon, I can see that was the imposter syndrome talking and in fact typing all that out is showing me just how wild and intense that was.)

I had slowly begun to ramp down how much of this active work I was constantly doing, but decided to attend a Breathwork Class. At the end of it, I could not get up off the ground. I felt physically exhausted, my emotions felt raw and open, and my body felt like it was fritzing out. Luckily I had Raschel and Ariel there to help calm me down, and we were able to figure out what I had needed to get up and be able to continue moving. I had basically pushed myself too far, constantly trying to expand without letting my mind, body, and emotions catch up to the work I was doing. What I had needed (and honestly what my body finally forced me to do) was rest and integrate. 

Integrating all the expansion work that you’re doing is the other half of the active work. Your body needs to learn how to use all the new tools and wisdom you gave it, your mind needs time to shift and open itself up to incorporate the new knowledge you are learning, and your emotions need to learn how to regulate in new and different ways. Without this active work, you will eventually burn out. (This is a lesson I have unfortunately had to learn multiple times.) This is often when people turn away from whatever new spiritual connections or practices they have learned because it is intense and exhausting to burn out. 

Integration often looks like intentionally grounding, embodying and practicing the lessons that you learn, and adding in time and space to reflect. In an ideal world we might be able to balance both of these things regularly, but it doesn’t always happen. So, if you are feeling a little exhausted by your healing, please don’t just give it all up. Take a breather and spend some time this summer focusing on reconnecting back to your body and the present moment. Ground, exercise, hang out with friends, eat some delicious food, and remember that phases of excitement and interest are completely normal. Pull back on the self-judgement and try allowing yourself to be exactly as you are in the moment. I think back to that younger, eager version of Anna that just wanted to be farther along than she was, and I wish she would have listened to every person who told her to do exactly that. 

And just in case you need to hear it right now, you cannot fall behind in your journey or in life. There is no finish line or check box that marks you as healed. And you will never miss something that is meant for you, it will find its way of coming back around.