From Burnout to Abundance
In the demanding world of mental health, burnout has become an all too familiar companion for many dedicated mental health professionals. The relentless nature of the work, combined with the impact of sharing emotional burdens, can leave us feeling depleted and helpless. Oftentimes, these feelings are fueled by a scarcity mindset, which limits our growth and keeps us stuck in a negative cycle of discontentment with a bleak outlook.
Whether you’re holding on to a draining job or find yourself convinced that no matter where you work, “this is how it will always be”, I want to be the encouragement that challenges those beliefs.
Understanding the Scarcity Mindset
A scarcity mindset is a deep belief that resources, opportunities, and fulfillment are limited. As therapists, when we struggle with burnout we often find ourselves stuck in this mindset, viewing the world through a lens of lack and scarcity.
So how does this show up in our lives?
You may find yourself settling for an unfulfilling job out of fear that you won’t be able to replace your income or benefits package.
Or maybe you’re tolerating dysfunctional relationships because you believe that they may be as good as it gets.
Most of the time, our fear of lack and belief that there isn’t enough opportunity to go around has been reinforced by past experiences of disappointment, loss, rejection, failure or scarcity.
If these thought patterns sound familiar, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you or broken within you. These thought patterns are not flaws!
Oftentimes, these thoughts are adaptations (responses to painful past learning) that come from a desire for self-preservation. These scarcity thoughts are your nervous system’s attempts to keep you safe.
How can staying in an unpleasant relationship or job be good for your survival? It’s simple, your brain and body already KNOW what it’s like in your present discomfort. It’s already learned how to survive it. Therefore, your body is more concerned and fearful about the situation it doesn’t know than the toxic one it has already learned to live in. As counterintuitive as it may seem, when your nervous system is operating from a scarcity lens, it truly believes the pain you know is better than the pain you don’t know.
Embracing an Abundance Mindset
So how do we begin to shift into a mindset of abundance when we’ve become so comfortable with scarcity?
The first step towards overcoming a scarcity mindset is to become aware of its presence and the limiting beliefs and painful past experiences that are behind it. Recognize that these beliefs are not absolute, but rather patterns of thinking that you can change, heal and challenge.
Once you identify the limiting beliefs, shifting to an abundance mindset requires that you make the choice to consider how your actions would change if you whole-heartedly believed that there is more for you - that there is a better job, there is enough time, there is a healthier relationship dynamic etc.
How would that impact the decisions you make about your life and business?
Challenge yourself to take a step in that direction (even if it’s a tiny one) instead of falling back on the beliefs that are keeping you stuck.
Compassion and Support
If you find that shifting your mindset feels like an insurmountable challenge, it may be because you need the assistance of a trauma informed practitioner that is trained to help you identify and heal the parts of you that are holding the scarcity burden.
Sometimes it may feel that you’re carrying the mental and emotional load for everyone around you but when you struggle with the scarcity burden, you may feel that you don’t really have anyone to help you carry your own.
As therapists, we often stand ready to support our clients when they need us, but we forget to show ourselves the same compassion and reach for support when we run into our own stuckness. I hope more mental health therapists will recognize that they are deserving of fulfillment, healing and abundance just like those that they help in their daily work.
The Hope for Healers program was designed to do just that - provide a community and support network for burned out therapists to collectively heal, grow, and find the fulfillment in their careers that they didn’t think was possible.
If that’s what you’ve been searching for, check out the details below and join the waitlist to be the first to know when enrollment opens!
