Thank You, Burnout #author Hayley Hughes

Thank You, Burnout: From depletion to peace
It’s possible the message in the wind, sky or the trees isn’t about fighting for a fairy tale. Maybe it’s about being receptive to finding the fairy tale in the most unexpected places.

This book is about burnout—with a beautiful twist.

Hayley Hughes pushed herself to depletion in the name of accomplishment and success. Her burnout felt eternal, deep, consuming. A full stop.

But amid profound collapse, burnout also became a chance, an unexpected catalyst for becoming.

Thank You, Burnout is an intimate walk through someone else’s woods. It winds the valleys and peaks of human emotion, through courage, self-determination and healing to reveal there’s much to gain from change.

A collection of heartfelt journal entries, Hayley's powerful memoir is honest and personal, detailing an ordinary life that transformed into one of remarkable vibrancy and happiness.

Thank You, Burnout explores darkness and light, offering a portrait of hope that ventures into the aches and joys of helping ourselves.

With grace, Hayley’s story speaks to anyone who has felt the effects of burnout or the strange relief of finally having nothing left to give. An ode to presence and subtraction, Thank You, Burnout is a tale of coming to our own rescue and being the heroes of our own self-care stories. It inspires trust in intuition all the way to peace.

To connect with Hayley ...
https://hayleyhughes.au/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayleyhughesauthor/
https://www.instagram.com/hayleyhughesauthor/ 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

It's good afternoon. Hailey Hughes. Welcome to Yellow Shelf, Hailey. Hi, Joanna. How are you doing? So good. Haley, I have your book. And I know I'm not giving it justice here, but it is a stunning book called Thank You Burnout. Hailey, please share with us what the book's all about.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Thanks, Joe. Really appreciate that. So yeah, Thank You Burnout is a memoir and it's told through a collection of lyrical journal entries. So it chronicles my unexpected and ultimately, I guess, uplifting journey from depletion to peace, hope, and new found life. The book's journal format really honours the rawness and the realness of that experience, making it a really intimate and relatable read. So it's essentially a journal through burnout. And it's an example of finding that genuine happiness and contentment on the other side of change, which can often be really daunting and scary. It's a story of self-discovery, I'd say, reminding us that we're not alone, which I think is really important in some of the things that people are navigating these days. It also reminds us to welcome change and self-care in that pursuit of that sort of personal transformation and happiness that I think people are looking for. So the thank you burnout exports darkness and light and endings and becoming, and in many ways reveals some of those really unexpected joys and also aches of truly and finally helping ourselves when we've sort of reached that breaking point or that limit. I think it's important for the audience to know that I'm a real person. I'm an everyday nobody, I'm a mum of two who found peace on my own terms, weirdly, because of burnout. So I feel that if that's possible, anything is. And I think that that really pays tribute to the power in these real and deeply human stories, which mine is. Other themes of the book include things like nature, subtraction, uh, presence and slower living, and of course that freedom beyond burnout and depletion. So far, readers are really connecting with the writing, and the book's doing as I hoped, which is fabulous. Um, my goal for the book was for it to help others as much as writing it helped me. Um so far, I really sincerely appreciate that that support from readers, um, early readers today. So yeah, that's thank you, burnout, in a in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Yeah, and Hayley, I was just sharing with you, I have read the book. Um, and you know, it was so nice to read the journey story, but then to get a real sense of what opportunities you know grew from you know burnout. You know, I think it's really interesting to point out some people don't refer to it as burnout, some people it's just a lot of stress, it can be lots of you know, juggles. Um, but I think everyone can relate to being incredibly overwhelmed or stressed or burnt out. Um and then like you mentioned, we go through, we think we go through it ourselves and we're alone and no one else and everyone else is functioning or everyone else has got this together. But the truth is, yeah. We're all coping with something. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah, yeah. Everyone's dealing with something, I agree with you. And I think it's not until we put our hand up and maybe ask for help or admit that we're not doing okay that allows others to also um embrace that vulnerability to a to a point, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah. And Hailey, do you want to share with us? You know, you got you decide to write it as a memoir and you go on this writing journey. Do you want to share with us what inspired you to write and that journey?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, sure. Thank you. I'd love to share a little bit more about the background of the book. Um, so burnout prompted me to write the book, um, but I was really inspired just to help even one person by publishing it. So um a book was never part of any plan that I had, and writing was just how I navigated my own burnout experience. Um, I'd never journaled before before writing this book. It was never part of my daily life. Um, but the writing became this therapeutic release in a way, and it evolved into something pretty quickly that was a really beautiful experience, personally. Um, so I'm gonna say that the writing rescued me in a way, and it was the healing essentially for me personally. As the months passed, I had piles and piles of handwritten journals that told this really heartfelt story of recovery, change, and hope. Um, when I transferred them over my computer, it turns out I had about 75 to 80,000 words of journals that um apparently I'd written. And some of them I, you know, sort of, it was this experience, it's quite surreal. So, in time, over the you know, the months that followed that, I decided to turn those words and pages into something meaningful. Um, my my aim was to give back in some way. And from there, once I made that decision, the rest just flowed, um, which gave me proof that sometimes those those the best experiences are sometimes unexpected and unplanned. Um so I guess writing the book by hand is a really big part of my story because it's how I found the right words. Um, so everything in the book was written by hand in the first instance instance, which was probably the most beautiful experience of the whole journey for me. Um, before I knew it was a book, but so doing that before I even knew it was a book helped me to process and move through change in my own way and it also kept me accountable to myself. So it allowed me to really track that progress of you know, the changes I was brave enough to make and how I was sort of feeling through that. It also helped me work out what I needed to do and some of the things that I needed to change. Um, so beyond the riding journey, um, as I said, I'm an everyday person, I'm a mum of two boys. Um, and the story sort of really came about when two years ago burnout um compelled me to walk away from my successful senior management career to essentially pursue a more fulfilling life or a slower life. Um so I worked in primary healthcare management for many, many years, about 15 years in the same medium to large general practice. I loved my role. Um, I also had at the same time other large and simultaneous overlapping projects over the years, and they also contributed obviously to the situation that was um burnout and needing to make a change, um, as did personality traits uh like people pleasing and this unrelenting ambition to achieve and please without pause. Um so, like many women, I think I'd been pushing beyond limits for a really long time across all areas of my life. So I guess while I was building a life, I was also kind of missing a lot of my life in a way. At the time, uh burnout felt like failure. Um and I think a lot of people could relate to that, but somehow it led me to this wonderfully different life and unexpected leader writing, thank you, burnout. So hopefully my story helps readers learn just a little bit more about burnout, sort of in the thick of burnout, what that's like, and encourages them to embrace things like change and self-care, self-preservation early. Um I waited till it was almost too late. Um, so I think for a lot of people, you think you're okay and you don't want to admit or ask for help. So I think that's a really important aspect of telling a story. I wish I'd asked or put my hand up a little bit sooner. Um, ultimately, in the end, burnout and writing the book became an education. Um, and it was something that sort of forced me to stop and be kinder to myself. And it taught me about things like priorities and boundaries and not fearing uncertainty. Um, and I think if I the book can pass some of those realizations on through the writing, that's really great. Um, so today I still work in healthcare, but I work part-time in as a medical secretary, a position I used to be the one hiring for. And I can honestly say that I love it. So it's a very, very different life. Um, I miss aspects of my my past life, of course, but everything comes at a cost, both ways, I think. So it's a decision I've made and loving so far. So it's been two years since I walked away from the life that I knew. So strangely, I think for me, the really lovely part of the journey is that despite being a difficult experience, burnout gave many of the dear parts of my life back, including time with my children. Um, and I'm grateful for that. I had a really closing window with the ages that they were, and I just wasn't prepared to miss any more. Um, so I think the other interesting part is that I almost, like a lot of writers writing memoir, I almost didn't publish the book because it was really hard to be so vulnerable. Um, but I pushed through that. It was hard, but I did it. Um I was inspired by how drastically the life transformed when I finally made the changes I needed to make. And I thought I sort of feel that maybe my story can be that little example of light for someone who might be struggling. Um I know I sought examples when I was sort of at that point of needing to make a decision or a change. I really wanted to know if my depletion and stress could one day be replaced with peace, um, even though I was sort of abandoning my whole professional identity and ego related to that, um, my punishing definition of success and achievement and everything I'd worked so hard for, I guess everything that I'd burnt out for. So I'm pleased to report that it can. Um, and I think everyone's experience is obviously very different and individualized, but I think just those stories of real people going through something and coming out on the other side where it was the outcome I have today is unexpected. Um, and that's the beautiful thing about the whole experience.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yeah, and well done. You get to share your story, you're a published author, you get to share the journey of what it's like to publish a book and the books you know available now. Haley, tell us if we're curious about the book, if we're curious about you to learn more and to read the book, do you want to point us in the direction of your socials? And I'll put that in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Yeah, thank you. That would be amazing. Um, so Instagram is my main sort of social media pool at the moment. So you can find me at HaileyHughes Author. Um, I also have a website, haileyhues.au. Um, so thank you, burnouts available at all major online retailers. So Amazon, Booktopia, Walmart, all the usual um places. It's also on shelf at Better Red Than Dead bookstore in Sydney in Newtown. I have a lovely launch there. They're an amazing team at Better Red Than Dead. Um so please support them if you're in Sydney. Um, thank you, Burnouts also in some local libraries' catalogues as well now. So if you pop into your local library, you should be able to request the book in some locations and they can order it in. Um, the only other thing I would say is that I am offering an ebook promotion for book clubs at the moment until August. So if there's any book clubs out there who would like access to the ebook for um a promotional price, just have a look at my Instagram page and reach out and say hello. Um, and yeah, so just the usual places. That's the best, best way to find the book.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Fabulous. Well, I'll put that in the show notes to make it easy for anyone to connect with you and get curious. Would you write again? Like, I know you are allowed to enjoy this one, but did you enjoy the process? Like, would yeah, potential writing in the future?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yes, I still I still write a lot. Um, writing's always been a really big part of my life professionally. Um, but this creative writing element or the journaling writing element, writing a book never was obviously before, thank you, burnout. Um, so still love to write. I'm enjoying some of the shorter writing pieces at the moment since publishing the book. Um, I don't know, the book is on the cards. Like I said, I never set out to write this book, so it came. So I think I'm maybe unless something else comes to me in the same way. Um, but I will continue to write regardless. So just just for that healing and pleasure and the love of writing and reading and all the things that involve books. So wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Well, it's so wonderful to hear you're doing well and you've published a book, you're sharing it, you're sharing your story. Hailey, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Thank you, Joanna. Thank you for all the wonderful work you do. I really appreciate you having me on. It's been fun. Cheers. Thank you, guys. See you later. Bye.