I’m Back After 2.5 Years! Burnout, Healing & Rising Again in Nursing

In this powerful solo episode, I flip the mic and interview myself, sharing the raw, unfiltered story of leaving my business and going back into nursing, burning out, and finding my way back. 

Now, as a Nursing Services Manager, I reflect on the crash that changed everything, the rise that followed, and the unshakable support of my family that anchored me along the way. 

This episode sets the tone for what's to come, and let me tell you, the guest interviews already recorded are nothing short of inspiring.

If you’ve ever questioned your path or felt like you were starting over, this one’s for you.

Transcript

UNKNOWN: 0:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome to Raise the Anchor, the podcast that explores what happens when we stop drifting and start choosing. I'm your host, Melissa Burbridge, and each week we dive into real, raw stories of transformation, moments when people dared to raise the anchor and change course. Whether you're navigating chronic illness, burnout, fake life pivots, or healing from the inside out, you'll find inspiration and truth here on Raise the Anchor. This is your space for honesty, hope, and the courage to begin again. Let's raise the anchor and set your course. Hey, Anchor Crew. I'm so excited to be back for another season of Raising Anchor. It's been a little over two and a half years since we have been here, and I am so excited that we are back. How cute is it that we have a little name for you guys? My listeners are the Anchor Crew, and I'm so excited that you guys voted that. I am also excited that you guys are embracing this relaunch and rebrand with everything and voting on absolutely every aspect of this new and improved podcast. I have been up to a lot since we last spoke, so I thought I would kind of interview myself like I do my guests and talk. go from there. So part of what I've been up to is I left my business slowly but surely. It took probably about a year to finally fully give it up. I was in the digital media space. I was also trying to coach women. I was trying to launch like a whole, you know, the evolution blueprint, which was going to be truly amazing. The women I did help with the evolution blueprint I love watching them. I see them thrive and flourish every day, which is amazing. And I can't wait to get back to that. But I needed to conserve my energy because I was going through burnout from the business. I was no longer passionate about the social media aspect of the business. And that was my... bread and butter at that point while I was trying to regrow and start a whole new business from scratch. So I went back into floor nursing. I know I said I probably wouldn't do that so much. I would always like to do it a little bit, but I went full 75 plus hours every two weeks. It was pretty hard on the body. After about two years in, I was going back to you know, realizing that something needed to change in me because my body was beyond exhausted. Again, I was burnt out even further than I had been before. And I was not living my life. I was not spending time with my family. And that's the whole reason I was supposed to be down in my business is to spend time with my family. I was looking for a change again. I was exhausted. I would sleep on my days off. I was no longer finding the joy I needed in my life because my life was literally working. I was casual at two different places to try and have a little more flexibility in my hours, but it didn't work. So I had been actively applying to travel nurse for a few weeks at a time. I was looking for like management jobs elsewhere. And then one of my, directors of care actually nudged me and she said, I think you'd be an amazing nursing services manager. There's an opening here. I think you should apply. I applied. It was with the same company and I got the job. And that is what I've been doing for the last nine months. And it is so much nicer on my body. I'm finally recovering from my burnout. I'm no longer incredibly exhausted. We'll touch base on that on other episodes, but it's been a long journey and I am so excited to be back here and to slowly be working up to where I was before I left everything and walked away from my business. I will say that that was probably the hardest decision I've ever done because I'm so passionate about helping others and leaving them was super hard. So I'm interviewing myself so if you see me looking down I'm looking at the questions that I would ask my guests. What did raising the anchor look like for you in your journey? Well, instantly leaving the floor nursing was so much nicer on my body. It is harder on the head, I won't lie. I get to use my brain. a lot, and that can be exhausting, but it's a different type of exhausting. My body is now healing. I no longer sore my joints. I can actually have energy to do some things after work, which is refreshing. I get to see my kids a little bit more. I get to see my doggy, who you're probably going to hear through this episode because I'm at home. That's life. But As soon as I lifted that anchor, I went into nursing services manager. That was probably the most nervous I've ever been because I felt Like I wasn't good enough for that position. So I was super nervous. But once I was there, I'm like, oh my God, this is like where I should have been for years now. Yes, I still want to coach and help women. And this is like really what I want to do. But somewhere along the line in my business with the burnout, I lost the confidence that I could actually help people. I lost the confidence that I am strong. I lost the confidence that I am good at everything. picking apart problems and helping. So I just kind of lost that spark in me and it's taken a little while to get it back. Luckily, a retreat got the spark back just in time for this launch. So I'm so excited for this season as we go. So it was... life-changing, lifting that anchor and getting rid of the floor in nursing and seeing the difference that I can make and doing my job a little different than other nurse managers would. Was there a specific fear or belief that held you back before this turning point? Yes, I thought I was going to be stuck in nursing forever. Yes, I left it before to do the entrepreneur world. But my family didn't want me in that entrepreneur world. They're now very supportive. And that I think is because they can see how I was working myself into burnout and that that spark was why I was cranky, why I was stressed all the time. So that has been great. a big change. And why did I feel like I wouldn't be good at nursing services manager is because you have to know a lot. But you also have to be willing to fail. You have to be willing to not know all of the answers. Just because you're a nursing services manager doesn't mean you have to have all of the answers. There's a director of care, there's an administrator, and they're there for those reasons. So that was a big turning point in thinking that I wasn't good enough for a position that I feel I am okay at. My coworkers may not feel the same, but I feel like I make a little bit of a difference. So how did my support system or lack thereof shape my current transformation? Well, my husband has always been supportive. When I say that he didn't want me in the entrepreneur business. He just didn't want that while our kids are still home. So my son is graduating this year. My daughter graduates in two years from now. And he just wanted me to be home for that season because he knows how much that I want to be with them, how much they mean to me. So it's not that he doesn't support me running a business. He's all for Ray Zanker. He's actually one of the ones that encouraged me to go back into this. So I'm looking forward to this season. So they've always been supportive. They've been supportive of everything I do, but it sometimes doesn't look the same as what I need at that time. So I do have a sisterhood that I am a part of. I have a strong sense of other entrepreneur friends. I'm supported in my nursing role as well. So it's like a warm hug all around Ah, this one's, if you could go back and speak to yourself before this life changing moment, what would you say? Well, the fact that I was able to give up a business and the fact that I was able to take off the failure hat and go back into nursing full time and just like suck up those feelings that I had just kind of like, took a lot from me so I would tell myself that give yourself grace you're doing amazing you're not a failure everybody has to go through these ebbs and flows of life and just take it and kind of look at the lessons that you need to be learning there's lessons behind all of this take time to heal healing is going to make you stronger which is going to make you be able to do what you really want to be doing in life and so that is what I would tell myself take time to heal listen to your body, listen to your mind. You're not giving up. You're re-energizing for the next phase. What habits or mindsets have you let go of since your transformation? So in the entrepreneur world, I would always be on my phone. I went to bed at random times. I got up at random times. I was like a scatterbrain. I was not that organized. And now my habits are making my day. So in the morning I will wake up. I will watch the news with my husband and have eggs and coffee. Although I'm told that I should have my happy juice. Not alcohol. It's an amazing antioxidant drink. Just amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. I should be having it in the morning first. But then I get myself ready and go to work. I work my day. I come home. I decide and listen to my body as to what my body needs. So if my body needs rest, I rest. I am not ashamed to say I will watch Mindless TV as part of my rest, and then I will go to bed. If I have energy to move, I will work out. If I have energy to move, I will go for a walk with my dog or spend time with my family. So I kind of let my habits shape my day now. Right now in this current season where I'm launching Raise the Anchor, I am working a little bit more on Raise the Anchor, but I'm also listening to my body in that sense because before I would just work myself like crazy, and then be exhausted for days on end. Now I kind of, as soon as I start to feel those symptoms of being tired and exhausted, I take a step back. I'm like, no, girl. That can wait until tomorrow. Unless it's an absolute need, I am taking that time for myself to rest because if you're unaware, burnout can take up to 18 months to fully recover. I still have a long road and I'm working towards that. I'm probably technically about seven months into my actual burnout recovery. What unexpected lessons came from your experience, good or bad? I learned that I'm a perfectionist. I kind of always knew that, but I didn't really realize how much that was actually driving a lot of my life. So going to the nursing services manager position, there were many, many weeks where I would be working from home, always on my phone, always making sure that I was doing the job above and beyond. And I had to learn to chill. Not everything needs to be done now. prioritize, like you would as a nurse, the things that need to get done now and give yourself that space, give yourself that life outside of. It doesn't have to be all done all the time because then you're just going to set that expectation that you can do these gajillion and one tasks. That has been a huge lesson for me, which I think is helping in my recovery. I didn't realize how much I overworked myself. That That's a huge lesson. You don't have to be doing it all, all the time. Even as I launch this podcast, I could be working ragged to have my website. So I have a Buzzsprout website for Raise the Anchor, but my own personal website is called healingmywayforward.com. And that's going to be part of like my lifestyle blog and the podcast. I could be working ragged, but I said no. If I do that, I'm gonna be waiting to launch the podcast. And I don't wanna wait. I wanna do it now. I want this podcast out there. So I have YouTube, I have Instagram, I have my Buzzsprout that sends it out to all of those major platforms. I don't need the website today. I do have a newsletter. You guys can sign up for it. It's on all of my socials. So I can still get in touch with you guys And I don't need the website right away. So that has been a huge lesson. So how do I stay anchored now, even as I keep moving forward? The ocean. My family. My family is a good anchor. They're very open when I want to come and just kind of vent. Just kind of decompress with them. Going for a walk bare feet at the ocean is very anchoring to me. Just kind of sitting with myself. I've learned to meditate a little bit because that helps reduce the stress. So just kind of listening to myself and making sure that I'm on solid feet. I'm on solid ground. I'm not looking to a thousand things down the road. So that's what anchors me. What advice would I give to someone who knows they need to change but feel stuck or afraid? Just take one step You don't have to go fully in. Just take one little step. Just even making the decision that you need that change is a huge step. Even though it's a tiny step, it's a massive step forward because you're already shifting your mind towards that new change. So just take it one day at a time. You don't have to do all of the things. You just even have to make that small decision that I need a change. There's your one step. And then the next step, what kind of change do you need? That's where you can start looking elsewhere to see what you're wanting to do. Don't expect that change to happen tomorrow. So all I'm saying is just be patient with yourself, make the decision you need to change, and slowly work towards making that change. I always leap in. Some people need to leap in. So if you need to leap in, make sure you have a safety net there to catch you. And don't be afraid to fail. What does a brighter future look like for me today? And how is it different from what I imagined? Well, I imagined my business would be flourishing, making six figures by now. I imagined that I'd be working towards living in Huntsville, Alabama. I'm always told they're crazy for wanting that. And now we're working towards maybe moving to Nova Scotia or to Ontario. We live in Nova Scotia. And that's a different season for us. And then traveling to where we like to see. So that's even a change in we wanted to live somewhere and just like locally travel. Now we kind of want to travel a little bit more. I want to grow this business more. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said I'm going to be in nursing forever because that's how I felt at the time. And now I realize that with energy, I can do what I want. So I think it looks brighter because I feel like what I'm doing, like even this podcast, normally new things are scary and that's good. But this felt exactly like I needed it to. I was in the recording studio yesterday all day. I didn't want to record the first episode like this episode before I recorded those ones because I wanted to feel the energy of what the season is going to be like. And it is going to be crazy. So magical and so amazing. The stories that have already been created are just, oh, I can feel it in my bones. It's going to be amazing, but I wasn't stressing. I, this is the first time ever going into that studio. I was not stressing. Um, and usually it was because I wanted everything to be perfect. I didn't feel like I needed to make everything perfect. The perfection just kind of happened as we ebbed and flowed through each episode. Um, nothing felt awful. Nothing felt weird. Nothing felt icky. It felt like I was meant to be in that place at that time doing that thing all day. I was not exhausted I was re-energized by the end of the day and anybody who records podcasts knows that it can be draining interview after interview but when it's something that lights you up it energizes you and for the first time in I don't know how long I cried at the end of the day because I was so exhausted excited it just felt right and so i am so energized for this season of what brazy anchor is going to bring i look forward to meeting and exceeding expectations as we move forward i can say that we are going to have an episode every week 52 weeks a year it's not a season um i may not freshly record every week i am going to multi-record because that is probably the best way to energize so that is what I'm looking forward to and What inspires, what or who inspires me? It's you guys. It's the anchor crew. It's my family. My family is like my strongest motivator. My son's going off to university and that is terrifying to me, but it's also exciting because he's going to be living a life and I was able to help him cultivate and go towards his dreams. He didn't ever give up. And I think that energizes me, that motivates me, that inspires me to go forward and go out. after what I want and I hope to inspire you to go after what you want I look forward to the season I look forward to all of the changes and yeah I look forward to being in your inbox weekly if you want um you can follow along on raise the anchor on Instagram raise the anchor on TikTok raise the anchor on YouTube uh I do have a raise the anchor on Facebook but I'm not as proactive if y'all want it I will give it to ya um sometime we will have a healing your way forward um website but for now if you want in the inbox go to lean tree slash raise the anchor and sign up for weekly treats in your inbox i want to say ciao for now i hope you smooth sailing through your week i hope you are raising those anchors you're lifting that burden and going forward Thanks for tuning in to Raise the Anchor. If today's episode spoke to you, share it with a friend or leave a review. It helps more people find their way to healing and hope. Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube for behind the scenes, extra content, and real life moments. And be sure to join the email list at linktree slash raise the anchor so you never miss an episode. Until next time, here's to calm waters, steady winds, and the courage to chart your own course.