The Divine Feminine (Part One): A Pathway to Preventing and Recovering From Burnout

“I am currently recovering from moving at a pace that was not aligned for me.”

I paused. My whole body completely lit up. Finally, language for what I had been feeling.

Completely burned out and exhausted, again, I set out to rest. I had been moving at a pace that was completely outside of my natural rhythm and flow for months. 

Then, while attending a group session with other women, I recognized that I was not alone. They, too, were tired and looking for more ease — no longer interested in operating in spaces where competition, constant striving, metrics and numbers were seen as the only was pathway to success. They, too, were allowing themselves to reconnect to what I came to understand as a more feminine approach.

While we honor gender identity, we are also all made of both masculine and feminine. When both masculine and feminine are aligned, we become present to harmony.

The Divine Masculine.

The world tends to accept and lean more into the masculine aspects of our being - the parts of us that are linear, analytical, reasoning, initiating, assertive, active, protective, and giving.

When we are operating from the healthy aspects of our masculine, we are grounded, courageous, supportive, logical, focused, strategic, and protective.

When we are operating from the unhealthy aspects of our masculine, we can be narcissistic, reactive, aggressive, irritable, withdrawn, detached, and distant.

Recently, more and more awareness has been brought to what can happen when we lean too heavily on our masculine - burnout.

According to Psychology today, burnout is defined as, “a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress”.

According to McKinsey Health Institute, “Burnout can have a major impact on a person’s well-being. It is typified by four core symptoms: exhaustion, mental distancing, cognitive impairment, and emotional impairment”.

When experiment with tapping into our feminine, we may find a more harmonious, balanced way of being.

The Divine Feminine.

The feminine approach represents the nurturing, intuitive, creative, flowing, magnetic, soft, gentle, and receptive aspects of our being.

When we are operating from the healthy aspects of our feminine, we are authentic, intuitive, creative, connected, nurturing, and in flow.

When are operating from our unhealthy feminine, we can be irrational, insecure, needy, manipulative, anxious, lack boundaries, and in constant need of validation.

Integrating Both the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine.

When there is harmony between the masculine and feminine and we do the work to integrate both within ourselves, we have the opportunity to experience growth, ease, alignment, and overall well-being.

Some practices to help integrate and align the masculine and feminine are:

• Education. Become familiar with both masculine and feminine

• Self-Inquiry. Explore which you currently operate in - primarily masculine, primarily feminine, both equally (there’s a great assessment in Sovereign Love by Dene Logan). Do you tend to lean toward doing or being a posture of receiving?

• Listening. Identify what feels natural for you

We’d love to stay connected. Please share your experiences with the practices, whether new or revisiting and join our growing community.