Let’s be brutally honest here. Wellness providers at large? Yoga instructors and the like? I’m going to say something scandalous. Here it is: these people, they are human. They are not death defying. They get burnout. They have panic attacks. They won’t always practice what they preach.
At this point, I have followed Yoga with Adriene for a really long time. Not since the very beginning, but pretty darn close to it. I’ve welcomed Adriene and her specific brand of at-home yoga with open arms, finally curating something that felt like a very-real yoga practice due to the videos she offers on YouTube. Over time, Adriene has become fairly famous, having carved out a niche in the wellness industry.
In the recent edition of Women’s Health magazine, Adriene spoke about her experience with burnout, a largely taboo topic for those in this industry. Whether only put on by others, or by ourselves, the stigma of burnout or, for even a short period of time, not applying what we preach, is very real. We are supposed to be mentally strong, these generally guiding beacons of health as we help steer others into who they were meant to be.
I’m not going to call it an illusion, but if a spade’s a spade…
I remember a woman who was vegan, fit, healthy as can be, got sick from cancer and died from it. I also remember a nasty comment from another woman who was almost downright smug about this woman’s death. She had poo-pooed her attempts at arresting death by living well. She was basically saying, “See? You’re no better than the rest of us. You still died.”
But I don’t believe that people who try to live well do it because they want to cheat death. I think, and maybe those in this industry more so than some others, we recognize that death is a very active part of life, for better or worse. Death cannot be cheated, but improved living can be acquired… with forgiveness, kindness, and perseverance. The right kind of perserveance, that is, that doesn’t lead to burnout.
There will be the charlatans who act elevated above all others with their knowingness. But most of the people in the wellness industry, in the care provider realm, most that I have met are humble and acutely aware of their faults and flaws.
As those in the limelight become more vocal to the masses about their own struggles, then maybe a more generalized forgiveness for being human can become normalized, and accepted. Wellness industry leaders will tell you they’ve had plenty of failures, that they too have lapses in their own ability to walk the walk.
This is the thing, see, and I’m repeating myself to make a point. They’re human. This is how humans are. We struggle, and especially if we have the right support system, we will try to do better. If we fail, we will get up and try again. We will have moments of not walking the walk, not talking the talk. It’s normal. It’s human.
In the Women’s Health article, Adriene is very personal about what led her to have panic attacks. She notes that when she had her first one, she had gone to a hospital because she wasn’t sure what was happening. This happened to Adriene, the Queen of Calm. Since the terms burnout, panic attacks and anxiety aren’t supposed to apply to people like her, she didn’t even recognize that that’s what it was.
I too can personally attest to this as well, having a similar bout of panic attacks in my own past. If we don’t get better at recognizing the need to support our nervous systems, more and more Adrienes will continue to fall off of these pedestals, of, frankly, non-reality.
We all need to recognize when we aren’t taking enough care of ourselves. This means daily check-ins, permission to fail, permission to spend a day in bed, permission to vacation as Adriene says in the article. Did I mention permission to FAIL?
EVEN the caregivers. EVEN the yogis. EVEN the bodyworkers, the meditators. Not just even–especially so.
Adriene’s bravery sharing her story is a great step for all of us. Nobody is above failure, burning out, or having panic attacks, even the so-called-super-healthy who look like they have their sh*t together. Nobody is above death. But we all have the right to live life without the stigma of it being a big deal when we, too, fail. When we too, fall. When we, too, have panic attacks. Just like the Queen of Calm.
Swellness Vibes 