When I hear the word “burnout,” I think about helicopters laying down napalm and hand lighting roads to stop a raging flame front in a California subdivision. As above, so below. As my fire brothers/sisters burned out around homes all year long. We worked 112 hours a week combating worst forest fires every summer. As we fought fires from California, Texas, Wyoming, even Alaska, the hours and agency began to burn the firefighters’ mental health.
My grit developed in the depth of raging fires out west, where I learned to master mentally and emotionally burning out. The forest firefighter works from April to November, with a core fire season from June to October. Near the end of my career, I would burn out by June, when fire season out west started. Unfortunately, I am not the only one that felt burnt out before we even got started.
Have you ever felt that way… Burnout from work, parenting, entrepreneurship, maybe a relationship or career before you even get started for the day? I was swimming in toxic masculinity, so any complaint was an automatic drop in status inside the group. Suppose your body hurts from hiking ten miles a day with fifty pounds of gear. Just rub some diesel on it and put in a chew. That’s the mentality on the fireline.
Related Post: The PLW Burnout Assessment
Everything changed when my best friend and supervisor dropped dead from a heart attack at age 40. The doctors and coroner said the cause of death was “stress-related.” Between the long hours, low pay, excessive smoke exposure, the bullying, the government agencies that hate their employees, if you get hurt, you’re fired, if you’re in an accident, you are guilty until proven innocent.
For what? When the public hears wildland firefighter, they automatically think of long ladders and red trucks. We have never been acknowledged for our service, and no one cares about the wildland firefighter. When we are mistaken for the “city guys,” it’s like a knife to the heart because it reinforces that no one knows how much we suffer. The federal agencies that employ us don’t even care. They prove it when OWCP makes injured wildland firefighters pay thousands of dollars in medical bills when they get burned or almost die in a helicopter crash. Some wildland firefighters have committed suicide to get out of the debt their injuries have created.
We don’t exist. Until something like Granite Mountain Hotshots happens. And for a year, we get some acknowledgement. The news only shows the clean yellow guy on the pavement a few miles away from the real story. They are men and women on the side of a mountain putting in line with chainsaws and Pulaski’s. The stress of being in a constant fight with nature, missing every summer, seeing your family twice a month for four to six months, and being bullied until you want to kill someone is the day-to-day life of wildland firefighters. Thankfully, we have an organization now called Grassroots Wildland Firefighters that are gaining political momentum to help bring to light the absurd unacknowledged suffering. It took my best friend dying to open my eyes to the actual stress and cost I was enduring.
After Mike’s death, I soon developed severe anxiety and PTSD symptoms. I had chronic pain in my whole body, nightmares, a phobia of being late, neurological issues, leaky gut, long-term, low-grade relapsing fevers, and slight psychosis. After his death, I kept fighting fires for another six years, knowing that my tragic loss was a wake-up call. As I burned the mountains with my drip torch (a fire hand firing device), I symbolically burned my body, and my burnout went even deeper. I kept symbolically burning everything around me until my life was forced to change with a developing mental illness.
Then I turned to journaling, meditation, acupuncture, Mental-Emotional Release®, and healing through writing to undo all the trauma that a 14 year wildland firefighting career creates. I now watch the fire season from the sidelines. I help my wildland fire brothers and sisters with their mental health so that they can get back to peak performance. All we want to do is serve, and every aspect of this type of service beats you down. Physically, emotionally, mentally, even spiritually. After working with wildland firefighters and my own experiences. The trauma gets lodged in the body and festers. The mental and emotional thoughts and beliefs create a tightness that blocks the flow of blood, spinal fluid, digestion, and Qi. These blockages show up as pain in the body, and soon the pain develops into an illness. I have burnout so hard; my life was on the line, physically and metaphorically. The mind-body-energy connection is real and the burnout cure is releasing the beliefs that created the blockage.
When Jennifer Robinson came on my podcast to talk about “burnout,” I got excited to hear her perspective. What is so interesting is the entrepreneur doesn’t literally burn everything around them as I did. But metaphorically, they burn their relationships, health, finances, and their time on Earth with less than desirable results, right? Jennifer said the constant “worry and hurry” is the driving force for burnout. The American way of “if I work harder, I will get it.” Burning out from what we love can be even more detrimental because you risk burning your purpose. Having a purpose is a significant factor in longevity and health.
What if the secret to success and living a life of purpose was less work focused on stress reduction? What if you had a morning routine that created less stress automatically? What if you only worked a concentrated four hours a day? Ate the right foods for your body and deal with every negative thought and feeling immediately? Coming back to simple holistic medicine and focusing on the real cause of burnout, the mental and emotional buildup of the “worry and hurry” lifestyle. It’s hard work to undo burnout but it’s possible because I have done it. Check out Episode six of the Shamanic Author Podcast as me and Jennifer Robinson go deeper into burnout.
Podcast: https://mountainmindtricks.podbean.com/e/peaceful-living-wellness/
Shamanic Author Blog: https://www.mountainmindtricks.com/shamanic-author-blog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mountain_mind_tricks/
Books: https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-M.-Wurm/e/B07Z8JJ6ZH
If you want to connect with Thomas Wurm and learn more about how he helps first time authors heal through writing and publish their first books go to: BreakthroughWritersblock.com
If you are a wildland firefighter suffering in silence, go to: www.mountainmindtricks.com
THOMAS WURM
Thomas went from wildland firefighter to alternative mental health professional after losing a best friend suddenly. The grief turned into anxiety and progressed into mystery symptoms. So he turned to meditation, acupuncture, journaling, writing books, and Mental-Emotional Release to find healing. He founded Mountain Mind Tricks Publishing where he helps First-Time Authors heal deep emotional trauma by blending Mental-Emotional Release, Energy Healing, and the Shamanic Writing Process. Thomas takes his clients from book idea to published with his small publishing house. “I want the first-time author to go through a transformational experience while writing their book and then I can help them with the publishing, advertising, and thriving portion too. I believe that when the book heals the author the book will heal the reader and this is the foundation of Mountain Mind Tricks Publishing.”
If you want to connect with Thomas Wurm and learn more about how he helps first-time authors heal through writing and publish their first books go to: BreakthroughWritersblock.com
