Book Burnout and Reset: How Dark Romance & Fall Reads Help Reset the Soul
A lot of us know what burn out is. It could be in the day to day job life or on social media, it can be a mixture of both. Either way the burn out sucks and it feels like you are in a continuous funk that you don’t know what will fix it. Maybe a new read? Maybe the change of seasons? Maybe a weekend in bed? Maybe even turning off your phone and ignoring everything for the weekend while you decompress.
I have experienced some pretty harsh burn outs in my time, and there is no quick fix. In fact - I'm currently in a burn out right now. Some things just seem like a chore I can't be bothered with. A lot of the time I just push through, but this time, I am trying something else. I’m re-reading the books that got me back into reading. Some of my first reads from three years ago when I first joined the bookish community. I have also reorganized my bookshelves and am approaching a new way of posting content for my Bookstagram.
With fall right around the corner, my favorite time of year is upon us. Fall aka Spooky season. This is the time I feel refreshes my soul the most, as well as gives me some of the best reads too. And there are a ton of great new books slated to release in the upcoming weeks that have all been added to my TBR.
Fall reminds us that everything comes to an end but can begin again - I know a lot of people who have been struggling with if they even want to stay in the book community, maybe take a season off? No one will fault you for it. Again - burn out is real, but we luckily live in a world that has Fall. Sometimes the burn out can only be fixed by taking that step back, and watching the cycle of nature take place.
Also, side note, speaking of TBRs… mine keeps growing and that can seem daunting on its own. I also realized I haven't tracked any books I have read this year. It’s crazy to think that while not using Goodreads gives me stress, not using it also has brought the competitive aspect of “how many books can you read” down to zero. I am reading to enjoy it again.
I think that also attributed to my burn outs this year. I know I can read 400+ books a year, but logging them all? That took the fun out of it. I still review, yes, in fact I got a whole notepad of reviews I need to post - but I have also tried just reviewing on booksta, which sometimes falls short and doesn’t get the traction it should.
What I'm trying to get at is that burn out is real. It happens to everyone. Yes, even your favorite bookstagrammer that has a ton of followers and the perfect aesthetic. I think sometimes we forget we are all human and we wanna keep going and going and pushing when sometimes all we should do is just stop for a minute, feel the sun on our faces and blast our favorite song (or whatever you don’t help you relax — we don’t judge).
Your mental health matters and burning the candle at both ends… it takes a toll til finally your mind and sometimes even your body makes the choice for you and makes you stop.
We gotta take care of ourselves.
We gotta be grateful for every moment.
And we gotta remember we are human.
Take a note from the trees. Let the dead leaves fall and get ready for a new start come spring.
( that’s a total metaphor by the way - I’m just saying, change and doing what’s best for you never hurts anything).