The Real Reason You Feel Tired All the Time (It’s Not Burnout)

Kathleen Flanagan (00:01)
Hello everyone and welcome to the journey of an awakening spirit. This is Kathleen Flanagan and I'm your host. And today I wanted to talk about burnout. It's not always what we think it is. And what I've been noticing, especially since the first of the year, and I think this is really important, is that burnout isn't always just about exhaustion. We like to think it is, but a lot of times it comes down to our nervous system.

And the reason that I'm talking about this is because I've been really thinking about a lot of things since my father's death that a lot of things have changed in my life and how I'm responding, how I'm doing things. I got my community up and it was, think the day after Thanksgiving is when I just started really moving gun holes. Like all of a sudden, instead of looking over my shoulder or feeling like I needed to stay invisible,

I felt safe to come out. And I think a lot had to do with that whole nervous system because with my father and being the perpetrator that he was and always, you know, looking over the shoulder and wondering who's going to get me, so to speak, without even knowing I was doing it, was, my body was in survival mode. And I don't think I understood what that actually meant until he passed and I'm in the place that I'm in today.

The one thing that I've noticed and part of it I think is might be because it's the first of the year, we're in a new energy frequency because we are in a 2026, which is 8 to 11. So it's an 11 year. So anyways, what I'm trying to talk about is.

I think it was over the weekend. Like I discovered something about myself that I didn't realize that was there. And one of the main things was that I've got my community up. I've got it moving. I've got a lot of stuff in there. I'm growing it slowly. And then I have this money.

meditation that I think is really awesome. And the people that have tested it out for me are just having incredible results with it. So the main thing that I'm looking at with this is, okay, well, let's get this thing finished and get this out there and get it up on the community. So Friday, I started spiraling out and didn't know I was going to, I was spiraling. was aware something was happening, but I wasn't sure what it was. But the main thing was, is that I got all the dots together.

I mean, like everything's there, all the dots are put together. And then it's like, how do you do a frigging funnel? How do I do this? I don't think I've ever done this. I'm not sure how to do it. And I kind of went spiraling and of course you pull out chat GPT and it was like, okay, this is what I've done. What order do I do that in? And what was interesting about that is depending on the question, depending on what all components you have, chat will answer based on.

whatever it has for information. And then I finally reached out to somebody else and they go to their chat and it's like, this isn't about a chat prompt. This is about somebody who actually did this and could tell me what the order of operation was. That didn't happen. So then I'm still spiraling. And I mean, I am the Tasmanian devil at its finest. I really was. And

And I had talked to this friend of mine and just got it out and got out of the spiral. And then what I did is the next morning it was like, I just asked Baird for help. What's going on? I'm not sure what happened here. And I realized that this was something really shocking to me is that there's this element that I feel like I'm really close to where I want to be with just coming out with what I want to present to the world, that type of thing.

It's the new year and I ended up crashing and burning at the same time. So I realized that all this work that I had been doing since November is now that I'm in like exhaustion, I'm in burnout, but it's not quite burnout. But it was like, there was so much mind stuff that I was doing. And I stopped over the weekend. I just stopped. It was like, I can't do anything. I know I'm like right there at the verge of everything to happen. And it's like, I can't do it.

I have to get a handle on where I am at the moment. And where I was at the moment was I was realizing that I wasn't burned out. I mean, there was a mental fatigue to a certain point, but that wasn't it. It was.

I was almost having a whole new set of paradigms come up because there was success. Because when you're grinding and you're like, this is what I want, and you're moving in that direction, when the success starts to hit, there's a whole new set of stuff that comes up. There's a whole new dynamic going on, and you don't even know it. And that's what I discovered on Friday was that I was right there, and all of a sudden, and it wasn't about failure,

And it wasn't about anything other than observing because now my nervous system is now on a whole new high alert place because it's like there's an excitement going on. I'm thrilled to death. And yet I didn't even know how to respond to that because it was such a different energy field for me. So I had to stop moving. And so I did. And I decided

to clean my computer because I have it over a Trigabyte and I'm on the other side of half and I decided not to do it. It ended up that I just had like 10,000 emails I had to delete, so to speak, to really get it back down, which felt good because now it's like there's space. There's like space to take this energy in. The other thing that I noticed with that too is

Like I just have to put some posts together and I couldn't even do that because I was mentally fatigued. I have everything there. I just have to put everything together to finish it. And it's like, I can't, I just can't. And I've been sleeping like a baby. I mean, I've sleeping like a baby. And today I decided that part of it's the new energy that we're in because we are in a new year. There's a lot of things that are coming and the energy isn't settled by

any stretch of the imagination are we settled into this energy yet? And I know it's the 13th of January. It's already moving fast, but I can't connect to this energy 100 % because this is so different. There's an electrical charge, in my opinion, with this energy. There's something behind this energy. Now, yes, I had Hope on last week and we talked about this wave of energy that's coming in.

about the world turning over and shifting type of thing. And I believe all of that wholeheartedly, but there's still, we're not ready for this. And I think about what Dr. Ryan said is that our nervous systems, we are still in a fight or flight and we need to stop that. And we also need to bring our nervous system back down. So when I decided to stop,

that's what I'm doing is I'm allowing my nervous system to guide me at this moment because it is our nervous system. Our nervous system is tied with our brain, is tied with what we do. And I don't think that I'm a slacker or doing anything along those lines for slacking because I'm not slacking. I'm doing anything but slacking. And if I have moments of

where I'm just kind of in my stuff, so to speak. It doesn't matter if I'm in it because I know I'm still moving forward. I know that there's things coming up and I've been having some of the most bizarre dreams at the same time. Like people that should not be in my life are in these dreams. I mean, we're talking like Prince William and Kate Middleton. And I'm like, what? Where's this coming from?

Or I'm having people from my past. Like I'm saying goodbye to these people or I'm welcoming people in. I don't understand it. All I know is I'm just paying attention and observing. Excuse me, things like that.

And to me, when you're getting dreams like this, mean, what do the question is in the dreams is what do these people represent? You know, if they're people I know, that's one thing. You know, Prince William, Kate Middleton. I mean, these are possibly the future king and queen of England and what they're doing and what's the world going to look like when they take over? mean, how bad is Prince Charles? How? We don't know. Because they're not telling us.

But you know, maybe they're coming to me because there's a moment that things are going to shift and maybe this is a precognitive dream of something coming in that I'm unaware of yet. I take all of this stuff and I just keep asking, well, what is this representing to me? Because I have no anything with William or Kate. I mean, I just know that William was Princess Diana's son and

But as far as really following them, what they're doing, no, not really doing any of that. So that's what's so bizarre. So I'm like, OK, it could be precognitive of something that's coming that I'm unaware of. And that's not saying I'm going to meet them. I might. I might not. Don't know. Don't care. But the whole point is, is that when things seem to be coming out of sorts that seem unlikely, look at your nervous system. I look at that I'm resting and

I'm doing what I need to do to take care of my nervous system. I'm watching a lot of people right now that are trying to do a lot of things, trying to get out there and they're just gung-ho and all of that. And that's fine. I don't care. That's them. That's not me. And what I'm realizing in this time of I need to stop. I need to slow down. I don't need to rush. I'm not in a panic mode. And I'm not. I'm really not.

I know what I want and it feels like it's taking forever to get there, but I also know that I'm where I'm supposed to be and I trust in that. And I think when we stop long enough and realize that we're right where we're supposed to be, I mean, this came up for a reason and maybe this is something that I'm going to help people understand when things are looking like they're ready to shift and change and you're not trying to sabotage, you're not trying to stop yourself.

and you stop moving, maybe there's a reason, maybe it's about just absorbing like where you've come, like you've done a lot so far in your life. Where are you? What is it? This is what it feels like. And maybe you never stopped long enough of like, you can see the overall view of what you want and how that feels. Cause I've done that kind of visualization. And when it happens, it's like, my God, it's a million times better than what I could ever visualize.

But maybe as we're going in this stepping up process, as we're evolving, as we're ascending into that next level of energy that we're in, maybe part of that's why we're slowing down. Because sometimes I feel like I'm in really slow motion.

And yet I also feel like I'm speeding up at the same time. I mean, it's the weirdest feeling that I've been feeling since the beginning of the year of fast, you know, in super high speed and slow motion at the same time. And so I'm sitting with it because I can feel the energy in my body shifting and changing. And I know that I need to just stay calm, whatever that looks like.

So if that means I'm going to meditate or I'm going to sit and be, or I'm not going to do work for the day, even though I'm working on getting things where I want to, if all I can do is say, maybe all I can do is one post, fine, you did something. Because again, what I have been saying for a very long time, it's baby steps. Sometimes stopping the ebb and the flow. Get into your circadian rhythms. What are they?

And right now, everything about me has changed. I mean, sometimes I don't even recognize who I am. I mean, I'm like number one in these communities on school because I've joined a lot of other communities just to understand school and learn it and get to know people and so on and so forth. And I'm like number one in the leaderboards and it's blowing me away because this is is Miss Invisible Girl. I don't show up.

And then I was thinking about it some more because I have a friend who's like, I mean, she's going gangbusters and she makes, she's almost making me crazy cause it's like too much. It's like, Whoa, I can't handle this. You know, like she's on hyper speed in my mind and it makes me tired watching her do that. Now this is her and this is fine for her and I don't have an issue with it. I'm just recognizing where I am with my patterns. And I realized that

Where she's at is perfect for her and where I'm at is perfect for me because I gave myself, I told somebody I'm like the tortoise in the hair that I'm the tortoise coming up so the hair can run and run and run and I'm just, you know, methodically keep moving forward. My head is down. I'm doing what I need to do one step at a time. Because when I do land. I will know every step I got how I got there. I will understand how I got there.

and I won't be in, my God, and then blow all the money or whatever it is I'm going after. You know what I mean? A lot of people do that. Like, you you get your lottery winners and they win the millions and within what, five, 10 years they're in bankruptcy because they spent all the money because they don't have any money skills behind them. And that's where I've been as I've been working on money issues my whole life. That's why I have this quantum thread meditation.

And this is an amazing meditation. It takes you back to when you created your money thread. And when you can understand what's actually driving you and move through that, then you can start changing your patterns of operation. You can start doing it because the one thing that in all these places, every place I've gone, things I've courses I've taken, the one thing people are always is they want money, but they don't move towards money or they don't follow their money.

or they sign up and do and don't finish it. Now, commitment's a big deal. Okay, that's the first thing my business partner and I used to talk about we're going to have. We're going to put together a seminar on commitment and those that, and give us your money. And those who show up for the seminar will refund their money and say the seminar's over because it's all about people not following through.

And I look at that, I see that a lot. And I know that people are overwhelmed and they're exhausted and they're trying to stay ahead. But a lot of times it's your nervous system. A lot of times it's the things that happen to you as children that you haven't faced or you haven't looked at or you're traumatized and you don't even recognize it. I didn't recognize it because those words weren't out there yet. I didn't recognize a lot of things until my father died.

but I'm here to tell you that you have to face it. I've spent my whole life trying to go back to that time. Now I saw that time, I understood that time, and then somebody told me, and I'm gonna throw something at you guys today like you are gonna go, hmm. And I was talking to a friend of mine, she's coming on next week, Catherine Giovanni, she's coming on next week. And we were talking and she said, and we were talking about walk-ins.

And I said, my mother claims she was a walk-in and I said she wasn't. And she said, your mother is. And I'm like, okay, well, she's been, always been a witch the whole time I've known her. So my mother must've walked in at a very young age. That's the first thing. Second thing, she said, you are a walk-in. I said, what? No, I'm not. She said, yes, you are. So I sat with this one for a while and I remember

My father died the day before the anthology book went to press and I had to do a final read. And in that final read, I felt something rip apart inside of me. And then what I know now is that's when I walked in because I don't remember. I remember bits and pieces and Catherine and I are working through this walk-in thing. And she said, we will remember bits and pieces.

of the other person's life because that's what we're doing. And so I'm remembering bits and pieces of this thing. And this poor girl, little girl, was very traumatized. And in I think it's the second or third book, I think it's the third book in Awakened, I had a reading that was done that a friend of mine gave to me. And she talked about some things about guns. And I'm like, but I don't

I've never seen guns. My father had an aversion to guns. ⁓ Except it might have been there. There were things that this little girl that she told me that it just was like I knew but I didn't know. And I think it had to do with this little girl. Well, about a month ago, I forgave her. And it wasn't like I forgave her for doing anything wrong. I just forgave her to release her because she was ready to leave now too.

But in this, that was what I was trying to remember. It wasn't what my father did. It wasn't about the bathtub scene. It wasn't about any of that. It was that I came in at that point in time because I really don't have a lot of recollection about lots of areas of my life. And I was also very suicidal because I picked up where she left off.

She just couldn't take it anymore. And it was so bad in my family's house that I had to, I didn't want to live. And I didn't remember that I was a walk-in. I didn't know any of that. And it makes sense to me now. But I was strong enough and I knew that I would follow through on whatever this is. And so...

It explained a lot of things about the Brotherhood of the White Light. It explained the Council of Nine. It explained a lot of things that happened that would not normally happen. Because when I look back now, it's like, how did I have access to all of this information? Well, I did. Now I know why I did. Because nobody else had access to this information. Most of this information is lost. And I'm here to bring this information back. That's what I'm here to do.

But I had to have my father, I had to go through all of this every step of the way and it was not fun.

but I survived it and now I'm thriving through it. But I had to face all of it. I had to face the little girl who was always hoping and wishing that her dad would come back. And then I had to face that I would never see that man again, that that wish that the little girl had is gone forever. I had to miss the fact, own the fact that I always wanted a father that never had one.

I didn't want to feel any of those. I didn't want to even acknowledge any of that, but I had to because there was that human side of us. There was the bigger picture of that. And with all of that healing, my nervous system started to heal. I started to breathe and drop my shoulders and I started to realize that I wasn't burned out. I wasn't tired. It was I have been on an adrenaline rush my whole life trying to save myself, trying to protect myself.

So when I, and now when I encounter people that have had trauma and they're still letting their trauma run their life, it's because they haven't healed yet. They haven't gone to the core of it. They haven't gone to the root of what it is because once they do, their nervous system comes down. They change the way they react. They change the way they respond. Their thinking changes, how they respond to the world, how they show up in the world. Everything changes. And I think

since April.

I've been moving through that. And when the book launched in September, it's been in this timeframe that I've been seeing a whole new element of me showing up in ways that I don't even recognize. And the fact that I actually have this community and I'm actually having fun and I'm meeting people and it's mind blowing to me because that is not how I ever showed up in the world. But see, I feel safe. I feel secure. I feel like

I have nothing to worry about anymore.

So when I talk about that it's not exhaustion, mean, yes, there could be a lot of reasons. I I read a thing that it could be MECFS. That is something that you're completely drained and it's a known syndrome that's out there for extreme fatigue. But people don't look at it that way. I mean, we're fatigued because we have vitamin deficiencies. We could have toxicity in our body with invisible vampires.

and

We could just not know what else is going on, but who knows? I mean, yes, I put out there something and somebody said it was Hashimoto's. Yeah, believe me, I've had thyroid issues. I understand that too. There's a lot of things that could be causing it, but a lot of times it's our past. And what's happening in the world today is our past is coming to the surface. We have to face it. You don't have to do this alone.

You never have to do this alone. I mean, how many high achieving women are out there that are burned out, that are still wondering why do I feel like I'm not getting ahead? Why do I always feel like no matter what I do, it's never enough? It's because they haven't resolved and healed that little girl and whatever happened in their life. And it doesn't have to take a death of a parent for anything like this to happen. It doesn't. It's just, it's about stopping.

It's about stopping and going inside and starting meditations. And I actually created three meditations that I'm going to be putting up in my school link. And it'll be in the show notes. I am the light sanctuary in school. And it's going to be three meditations that I put together about coming out on the other side of survival and how to get your nervous system back in. And they're just like little 10 minute videos, but they're going to be free to give.

that I'm giving away that's gonna be inside this community. So if you're interested in joining the community and getting these, then that's just what you do. It's just school.com forward slash I am the light sanctuary and then forward slash about. And then that way you can look into the community, get an idea if this is something you want because there's a lot of free stuff that I'm giving there to help people understand what's going on. Plus I do have courses and classes and everything else.

But the whole point is that I want to help people to have something more than always feeling like they're behind the eight ball. You're never behind the eight ball. You just think you're behind the eight ball because you're comparing yourself to the world. You're comparing yourself to your friends, your family, whatever. And I've observed in some ways, like I look at my community versus other people's communities and it's not a comparison. It's just.

being comfortable with where I am. And I feel like what my community is is what I want it to be. And your community can be anything you want it to be if you join or want to participate. But I think the coolest part is just when you don't feel so exhausted, when you own and get to the core of what's bothering you or you face your trauma and you don't have to do it alone and you don't have to give tens of thousands of dollars.

to a psychologist, sometimes I had to do this all by myself because I never had enough money to do any of it. So I learned how to do it by myself. And most of mine all came from meditation and then trusting and then finding somebody who could help me get to that next level. But the only way I could get to that next level was if I reached out because I was too invisible, just like you are. You're too invisible for people to see. So if you want help, you have to reach out. My community is there for you.

but you have to reach out. I'm there for you. I've been there. Don't walk this path alone. We are in a time that we need to start coming back together with AI being the way that it is. I just watched a show last night about a 15 year old kid who's so into chat named her and she's telling them to do all these things. And in the show, the doctor said, just read this book, dopamine.

Just read this book for 30 days and see if this is what you want. Because the kid didn't even know what to do, but he was getting addicted to AI. There's a place for AI, and it's not connection. AI is designed to be programmed to give you what you want the way you want it. So it's all about how you frame the questions. How are you using AI? It's a great tool, but it doesn't replace human connection.

That's why I'm here every week. That's why I bring on the people that I'm bringing on every week is because we're here. We want to help you to be better person. Let's change this world together as we stand united to help each other move to that next direction. I appreciate your time for being here. Again, feel free to join my community. Go check it out. It's I Am The Light Sanctuary, forward slash about on the school platform.

If you like the show, if somebody needs this, please give them the link to the show. And next week I have Catherine Giovanni coming on and we are going to talk about forgiveness because that is so huge. That is, I mean, that was a big game changer for me to the depth and level that we took this forgiveness. So I'm really looking forward to her and I think you're gonna really love the show.

And I will see all of you next Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And from my heart to yours, I hope you have a fabulous week.