Your Lit-Up Life is Waiting For You!

Dear Readers,

Burned Out to Lit Up: Ditch the Grind and Reclaim Your Life will be published in just a few days—Tuesday, October 24!

If you’re a kindle reader, you can pre-order now , and if you’re a printed book reader, you can order the paperback on launch day.

Thank you for being a part of this journey! I’m so grateful for you.

Here’s my invitation to readers which appears at the beginning of the book.

* * * * *

Welcome! I’m so glad you’re here. I can’t wait to spend some time with you and help you recover from one of modern life’s most prevalent and crushing maladies—burnout.

Like many women, especially full-time working parents and care‐ givers, I slid down the long slippery slope of being everything to everyone—except myself. Prioritizing sending gifts to distant relatives across the country? Check. Signing up to volunteer for one more school or sports thing for the kids? Check. Ditching kickboxing class again to help meet an “emergency deadline” (which resulted from someone else’s poor planning) that just popped up at work? Check. Engaging in hours of unpaid cultural or domestic labor for the good of society and community? Check. You get the picture.

One choice at a time, I betrayed myself and my own needs in favor of trying to do multiple full-time jobs in the time (and for the price) of one. Until one day I realized I had become a dried-up raisin of the robust, energetic, creative, fun, kickass person I once was. I had become so fried that I had no idea how to even begin to claw my way out and not an ounce of energy to figure it out.

Even looking for the resources to help myself out of this hole seemed impossible. I ended up in such a bad place that I needed to take a leave from work for the sake of my physical and mental health, embarking on what would become a nearly two-year hiatus (later known as my sabbatical).

My journey out of burnout and into rich, joy-filled, full-bodied living required me to get really clear on the fact that even amid life’s responsibilities of work and family, remaining true to myself is an essential ingredient for a thriving life. I also learned that I need the basic building blocks of mental and physical well-being, just like all humans do. I need a certain amount of sleep, outdoor exercise, balanced nutrition, and time to explore and enjoy life in order to function.

Having requirements for well-being does not make me soft or weak, and these are not fun “extras” that get slotted in if there’s a bit of time at the end of my endless to-do list or if someone else gives me a hall pass. As most of us know, there’s never time at the end of the to-do list, and it’s often filled with expectations and demands from the outside world. No one is going to give us permission to live our own lives; it’s not even their job to do so.

While recovering from my own burnout, I test-drove resources, books, classes, and practices, and I’ve distilled the greatest hits so you can get down to the restorative business of your recovery from burnout. With specific and tested guidance, compelling stories, and applied, practical wisdom, I will guide you from soul-crushing burnout, through self-care, all the way to the magic of self-possession.

I learned the more I nourished myself inside and out, the more I had to give to my family, my work, and the world—and the opposite is also true. I learned how to ditch the weight of external expectations and build a healthy foundation based on openness to possibility, restoring my core self, and doing more of what lights me up with the people and things that matter most. I reclaimed my life, and you can too.

I can’t promise this journey will be free of pain and tears, but I’ve done my very best to include only the most useful resources, strategies, and practices to make it as accessible, nurturing, and even fun as possible. I can assure you this journey of restoration and reconnection with yourself will be one of the most worthwhile of your life. At the end, you’ll find yourself bursting with ideas and energy and reveling in the bold technicolor life you were born to live.

You got this.

Cara Estelle Houser

Order now.