Awakening burns us out. All the time. 

An early experience of awakening burnout for me was generated by the intersection of Kundalini and Post Traumatic Stress. As a combination, this triggered an unknown health condition. All three of these things generated intense biological anxiety and psychological stress. At the time I medicated this, unknowingly and irresponsibly by drinking lots of Earl Gray tea and eating a lot of Chocolate. This felt good to me. However, I was wearing out my adrenal glands and my pancreatic capacity to produce insulin. About a year into the process, I simply could not get out of bed. I had burned out!

In a way the burnout was good – I was young and needed to learn how to correctly care for my body. Healthy eating while drenched in Earl Gray tea, no matter how yummy,  was not a long-term survival strategy.  Yet this was a burnout that changed my life in positive ways. Many of the things that I learned during that time of that burnout are things that I still practice to this day. 

There is nothing wrong with you if burnout has happened or is happening to you. It is nature. It is a reflection of the limits of our systems when they meet the infinite power of Kundalini, then create a combination with other pre-existing processes in your system.

If you are there, at this moment, I honor you and I stand beside you. 

What does it mean when awakening burns us out?

There are times when the awakening process, the purification, the unearthing of subconscious material or personal history out of our bodies, our psyches and energetic systems, is simply so overwhelming for such an extended period of time, that we get worn down–We feel worn out. 

We can feel like we have nothing left inside us to meet the demand of constant growth, constant understanding, calming ourselves down when we find ourselves in the midst of the unknown, and reminding ourselves – sometimes daily – that we are not going crazy, we are waking up.

It is exhausting, and that exhaustion can become chronic.

Chronic stress – living in high cortisol states which are often activated by stressful responses to Kundalini or Kundalini that are volatile or going too fast – can cause us to burn out. 

Though I am careful to suggest burnout as a method, sometimes it arrives to insist we give ourselves the attention and care that we truly need and might not give ourselves otherwise. Burnout stops us in our tracks. It gives us a place to listen to that quiet voice within us that will lead us into the next phase of our lives. 

Burnout is often a significant transformation point. Who we become after burnout is not who we were before it. Burnout is a metamorphosis and a very sacred one, and at times it happens within the dark night of the soul. 

For example, sometimes by the time someone arrives in my practice, I see that the burnout has extended to every part of their life and every part of their being. A metamorphosis is trying to take place.

Awakening Burnout looks like this:

• A person is deeply fatigued from dealing with intense and extreme symptoms such as burning heat, strange energetic processes, and symptoms of the body that look like medical problems but are in fact simply energetic demands of change. They feel like they cannot keep going. 
• Another kind of fatigue is the long-term generation of trauma material out of the physical, energetic, emotional bodies and psyche. It is demanding and exhausting at the best of times, let alone when you are on board the Kundalini train. Some people get fatigued from the constant processing of the dark times and the losses inside their personal history. More so when you are working with Post Traumatic Stress. 
• Awakening Burnout can also look like intense fragility. The Kundalini might have been going too fast, with too much dissolution of “you” at a systemic level to allow you to be functional and effective in your life. Sometimes the aura is dissolved and not able to protect the person. This level of fragility makes it hard to interact with the world or with other people and many end up frenetic or hermetic. 
• Remembering the cyclical nature of Kundalini that asks us to work deeply through something, finishing it to a certain level with a reprieve before the next layer cycles up for examination and release. These cycles can go on for some time, and some people can feel a sense of collapse around doing one more cycle of a particular thing. They feel burnt out by it.

There are many expressions of burnout, and yours will have your own unique flavour and appearance. I want to assure you that it is possible to recover from burnout, to be able to restore yourself and return to life. The ability to do so depends on the extent of the burnout, how long it has been going on, and the kind of Kundalini awakening you are going through. 

How can we recover and emerge from Awakening Burnout?

When I am supporting people to recover from burnout, my approach is expansive and complex. My approach needs to meet someone where they are at and in the many different places and their associated reasons, where they are burnt out by awakening. Here are some of the many things that I will explore and support a client around which can also be things that you can also unfold for yourself:

• Examine how the Kundalini function is unstable or dysregulated and if it is going too fast for the system to manage. Nothing can heal well unless this is regulated and soothed. A fast-moving Kundalini will continue to burn you up because it is too fast for your system and asks too much of it.
• Explore the person’s relationship is to the Kundalini – how successful they have been in befriending the process, and cultivating the surrender. Being in a reactive state to the Kundalini will burn you out very fast because the process is not going anywhere.
  Bringing healing to this can rely on healing deep-seated fears, trauma reactions, and impulses that react against the mere presence of Kundalini in the system. I support the processing of trauma by providing understanding, guidance, tips, and tools for how to work with the trauma as it exits the system during the awakening. Many people don’t know what to do or do too much because they don’t realize that the vast content of the trauma experience simply needs to be released in as easeful a way as possible. That does not mean it is comfortable but it can be both easy and uncomfortable – and you can do it!
• Sometimes burnout recovery requires the healing of sensitivity and restoration of the aura. I will often guide people to join me in my Sacred Sensitivity training because this program gives you all the tools that you would need to heal.
• Sometimes the most important permission I give people is to rest and rest very deeply. Sometimes people are burnt out by the intensity of their personal lives before Kundalini arrives. As Westerners, we are productivity-driven and it can be hard for our identity to allow ourselves to “do the things we like to do.” Yet deep rest, quiet and the simple time being in nature are often the biggest medicines for Kundalini burnout. We have to give up or surrender things we think we have to do, or want to do, and give ourselves up to go through the depths of transformational change.

I have seen miracles on a constant basis of people recovering from awakening burnout. Because when we come out of burnout we have transformed, attachments have dissolved, perspectives have shifted, and freedom has burst inside us. When we return to life in a restored way we return to life anew, with elevated consciousness, fresh awareness and the joy of being. 

I have seen people emerge from the darkest of the dark of this kind of burnout. The kind of burnout that the medical profession may put someone in the hospital for. People who find they cannot get off the floor, or cannot get out of bed, or when making a cup of tea is a marathon effort. People don’t want to be here because the burnout is so bad.

I have seen all of these people recover and have witnessed them find the most amazing joy and delight in life because when you return to life from such places, everything becomes intensely precious. 

This, too, can be your path.  Life can lovingly go on, and the Kundalini process does resolve.

In the comments let us know:

Have you experienced this kind of burnout?

What was your story and how did you recover or are you still on your journey there?

Do you have tips to share too?