taking back your power

17 - finding ways to turn your pain into art

I’m writing you today, on the one year anniversary of bye bye burnout, can you believe it?! I feel like so much has happened in the last year. However, as I look back and reflect on what that means to me personally, I have to say, I’m beyond proud. I’m proud of myself for making a change, I’m proud of myself for listening to my intuition and I’m proud of how far I’ve come.

The newsletter was created from a space of wanting to connect with others in a way where honesty brought clarity. We’ve all experienced burnout in one way or another, and my only hope is that some of the words exchanged here over the last year or so, have helped others feel less alone.

I found a way to take my experience, and turn it into something. I shared it with radical honesty, and people (thankfully), responded to it.

Finding a way to turn my pain into art, whether that be through song, or through this newsletter, allowed me to gain my voice back.. My power. It not only allowed me to legitimize my experience, but it felt extremely cathartic at the same time.

I believe that is how beautiful art is born. You don’t have to be an amazing painter, singer, filmmaker or crafts person in order to do that either. You can create just for the sake of creating, even if others may never see it. But anytime we do create something, it frees us and taps into our artistic expression. It’s basically another form of therapy.. And hey, it doesn’t always need to be creating either - you could head to a Rage Room and break stuff if that feels more like your form of expression. Either way, doing something to release the pain, mental fog, overwhelming sensations - allows us to take back control of the narrative: our narrative. For me, this newsletter was part of that.

And in honour of bye bye burnout being out for an entire year, I would like to share a podcast I recently did with my friends over at Folk Music Ontario. They’re a beautiful Canadian organization helping artists and musicians with access to industry events, showcases & more, and they invited me to speak to them about burnout. They recently started a podcast series titled ‘ReFolkUs’, where they meet & discuss with industry professionals, about how to healthily navigate the music industry. You can check it out wherever you listen to podcasts:

I am grateful I have had the opportunity to discuss this newsletter in other facets. I’m also excited to also share the next phase of my artistic expression.. :)

Thanks for continuing to be here.

-d.