We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shannon Truax a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shannon, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
There is a difference between feeling like your soul is on fire and feeling like your soul has been turned to charcoal. When your soul is on fire you feel alive and happy to spread your light on others. When you feel your soul has been turned to charcoal you feel overwhelmed, on edge, and emotionally drained. This is what the modern world is calling burnout.
Burnout has become a popular term in recent years and like the burn from a wildfire- the effects are spreading far and wide over many industries and environments. Workers, parents, single people, couples, and even the youth are experiencing the burn that comes from chronic and prolonged stress. No one is immune, but why is that? The constant demands and ridiculous amount of information thrown at us regularly have our brains rapid firing all the time. No wonder we have burnout.
Most of our burnout is self sabotaging habits and lifestyles we have created. I experienced this when I decided that there wasn’t enough stress coming from working in the ICU at the hospital, so I should add another career on top of my nursing. That adrenaline and drive can become addictive I suppose. However, when you are already feeling the beginning parts of burnout, taking on a whole other arena of work is probably not a good idea. Eventually, you get addicted to the rush of doing it all. When you sit still, your mind races with ideas and to-do lists. When you take a day off, you feel guilty that you are not working. It’s a cycle and a ring of fire that isn’t sustainable.
Most people hit a wall when in this mode and I was no different. There becomes a moment when you think, “ I don’t want to do this anymore.” Not only do you not want to, you can’t. You are exhausted and overwhelmed and your nervous system has been in fight or flight mode for so long that it can not keep up with the demand and your cortisol, the stress hormone, is all over the place. Resolving this burnout takes time. You did not get burned out in a day and therefore you won’t be healed in a day.
It started with a wake up call- that wall we talked about. Realizing the cycle isn’t working was the first step to stopping the fire’s burn. Making changes feels overwhelming as does most things when you are in burnout. Realizing an overhaul of everything that was currently in motion wasn’t realistic. Small steps were put in place that started to add up. Setting healthy boundaries with clients, coworkers, friends, and partners creates more emotional space to deal. Remembering the things you enjoy doing and doing more of those things. Returning to health habits you “never have time for” and making the time to move and eat better. The shift starts happening! Seeking help and delegating where necessary and letting go of the need for control were major players as well. Traveling brought new perspectives and reminders that there is so much more out there. I even came up with a goal of not taking on more than 3 projects at a time and I had to be one of them. Trust me, the project to take care of my emotional, mental, and physical health will always be my biggest project and asset. Without these things, I can not accomplish much. I also started making myself the VIP of my schedule. I first scheduled the things I needed in order to stay well into my calendar and then built the rest around them. Slowly my soul returned to feeling on fire in a good way and not like it was burned out. This is possible for others too!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Nursing has been my world for years. The desire to help people with health is what drove me to pursue a business in health and wellness after having my own health issues mostly stemming from stress. The last thing any nurse wants to do is become a patient themselves. The system is a mess and prevention is not at the forefront of care in the United States. It is up to us to take care of ourselves. Learning about functional medicine and holistic health became a journey towards my own well being and a focus for teaching others the same. From my first health coaching client, to working as a RN/Health Coach at Google, to starting my own coaching business, and expanding it to becoming a health consultant for private practices- I have developed a unique approach to helping others with health. I have the knowledge from modern medicine plus the wisdom of holistic care. I am an integrative nurse and I bridge the gap between the two areas. We need both! After being asked to present to several tech companies in Silicon Valley and working with a large healthcare system in San Diego- I was now on the path for becoming a sought after speaker. I was honored to present at health forums and had opportunities to work with San Diego school districts. Currently, I am working with an amazing doctor to present seminars and events for Customs and Border Patrol. We do full day events on sleep, movement, nutrition, stress, and hormones. It is amazing to help the communities of people who are trying to protect and serve us. We need our communities to be strong and healthy. For fun, I decided to become a flight attendant after many talks with the crew during the pandemic about all the perks and travel benefits. It has been such a fun job and a nice break from medicine (although we do have some medicals on board from time to time). All my jobs and all my roles bring different aspects of health to my life. Critical care keeps my thinking sharp and my adrenaline needs filled. Entrepreneurship and speaker talks help me give back to the community and teach others how to take care of themselves too. Flying is my fun job and lets me practice hospitality and travel frequently. I wear many hats, but each has its purpose.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Keeping an open mind opens more doors and opportunities in the business world and in life in general. This does not mean compromising your morals or character in order to try and understand or please everyone, but it does mean not keeping your mind so closed that new insight can not come in. Opportunities will come and being able to evaluate them with an open mind is very helpful for deciding if it’s a right fit for you. I have had to turn down great opportunities because their business model did not align with what I wanted to accomplish or their goals did not align. I also had opportunities I may have otherwise let go if I had not taken the time to listen open mindedly about what was being presented. Which also brings me to my next quality- being humble. Stay humble or life will humble you! Success is great and so is being recognized for your accomplishments, but being humble is key. When the ego gets out of alignment with your purpose, life will put you in situations to humble yourself. I like to call it moments where you are reminded that you and everyone else puts their pants on one leg at a time and everyone poops ha! We are all human and we make mistakes, it is ok to not always be in presentation mode. With this comes being willing to learn. Even though you may have a lot of experience, talent and expertise on a topic, it does not mean you can not learn more or a different viewpoint. Be willing to learn. Find areas you may not be proficient in and learn how to understand them better. You do not know what you do not know until you learn it. Having an open mind, staying humble, and being willing to learn are three great skill sets to develop to be successful in life and with people.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
There are two types of people I am looking to collaborate with. The first being other like minded health and wellness business partners. Those who understand mainstream medicine as well as functional medicine and holistic care are some of the greatest practitioners around. They understand the system we are in as far as medicine and healthcare go and they understand the brokenness of that system and want to help with health in a more preventative way. We are always looking to add team members to our health events and speaker engagements who can share and teach to groups of people.
The second type of people I am looking to work with are departments in the community that are what make a community run for example the fire, police, law enforcement, military, nurses, teachers, first responders, etc. Anyone who contributes to the basic needs of a society like safety, health, education, etc are my kind of people. We would be happy to do health events or teachings for these departments.
Anyone can reach out and email me at the [email protected] or find me on social media @the.integrative.nurse
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theintegrativenurse.info
- Instagram: the.integrative.nurse
- Facebook: The Integrative Nurse LLC
- Linkedin: Shannon Truax
Image Credits
Mike Lloyd Studios
