Episode 37: [GUEST] Mitigating Burnout As a Mother and Author with Alyssa Brade

Episode 37: [GUEST] Mitigating Burnout As a Mother and Author with Alyssa Brade
This week’s podcast episode with guest, Alyssa Brade, is packed full of insights into mitigating burnout as a Mother and Author. You’ll come away with insights and strategies for your writing. You’ll hear stories of intense overwhelm and exhaustion that are so relatable if you’ve ever raised children. You’ll find yourself connecting right away with Alyssa’s stories of motherhood that led her to write her book, Mommy Needs a Minute: From Burnout to Empowerment (amzn.to/4dDB0aX - this is an affiliate link, so if you click here and purchase you’ll be supporting the Inspired Writer Collective).
It’s always inspiring to listen to the stories of authors, like Alyssa, as we all navigate our own writing journeys. The writing process is unique from one author to the next, but there are common threads that connect all of us, and Alyssa touches upon many of those in this podcast episode.
Alyssa talks about the exhaustion that comes with being a new mom and trying to do everything for everyone, and ultimately losing herself in the process that led to burnout. She was trying to navigate childcare while: working, going to school, maintaining a relationship with her husband, and managing her home.
A traumatic experience involving one of her sons, and becoming very sick herself, led Alyssa to evaluate her priorities and where she needed to put her energy. She was exhausted from pushing so hard, a feeling so many moms can relate to, and it led her to write her book in which she shares her insights about how to mitigate burnout and hold onto your identity with the hope of helping other moms not feel so alone.
Alyssa wrote her book in 12 months and is a self-published author. Here are a few of her tips she shares about how she was able to get writing done:
Making sure she met a daily word count goal
Writing even when she wasn’t feeling inspired
Choosing a time of day to write for an hour
The words Alyssa wrote were far from perfect every day. This is a reality of the writing process. It’s not going to be your best writing every time you sit down. For many of us, that’s not easy to get used to, but the more you show up to the page the easier it gets. It’s a continuous practice and you’ll find your rhythm and style.
Alyssa emphasizes the importance of making the time to write. Even when you don’t feel like it. Even if you’re not inspired. The key is to show up and write.
The process of writing a nonfiction book was a more streamlined process for Alyssa compared to her current fiction project. Since she was writing her stories for this book about mitigating burnout, there were a lot of similarities between the first draft and the final draft. The only difference was the addition of extensive research grounding her ideas in sociology and anthropology to support her conclusions.
Alyssa shares her experience with publishing and marketing her book. She encourages you to get started even if you’re not sure what you’re doing. You’ll learn a lot in the process and what works for someone else may not work for your book. So much is dependent upon the audience and what types of books readers are searching for at the moment.
Alyssa goes on to talk about her struggles with entering motherhood and taking on that identity. It wasn’t what she had planned for, but she has since embraced the joy of the journey. She continues to work on not losing her own sense of self as an Author. She shares words of encouragement to other moms and women about holding onto what you enjoy and not letting motherhood consume you. Also, that it’s okay to grieve the loss of an aspect of your identity, and this should be normalized because not everyone moves into the role of being a mother in the same way. The pressures of society often make many women feel guilty for how they feel about becoming a mom.
You’ll appreciate hearing the honesty and down to earth perspective shared by Alyssa in this podcast episode. It’s real and relatable. You’ll find wonderful nuggets of wisdom and inspiration to encourage you to take your next step, even if you’re scared.
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If you’re interested in listening to additional podcasts that touch upon this topic of figuring out how to get writing done, you can find more discussions in the following episodes:
Episode 34: Adapting writing practices to the changing seasons of life
Episode 20: Regaining perspective on your writing when life throws curve balls
Episode 13: Finding time to write
Episode 7: Why you get more writing done in community
The Inspired Writer Collective offers a podcast, book coaching and courses dedicated to the healing power of writing from the draft phase to publication in any genre