How to recover from summer burnout

I girlbossed too hard this summer and my shoulder got hurt!!!!!!

Oct 13, 2024

Hey baby, I am back!

I took the last weeks of the summer to recover from a shoulder injury + burnout related to my full-time job. There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t think of writing this newsletter but I had to make a pause to allow my body to heal.

The injury resulted from years of bad posture (not surprising) and working on my computer for very long hours. It was also a result of me maximizing the long days of summer, with little to no rest and feeling FOMO if I didn't make the best out of a sunny day (also not surprising). Trying to justify myself a little bit I did a quick Google search and it turns out that the Pacific Northwest only gets an average of 144 sunny days which means close to 50% of the year is cloudy around here.

I had also been working too much at my new full-time job and one day my body couldn’t keep up. The recovery process has been slow, and the last few weeks essentially have been about understanding that there are periods of creative abundance and production and periods for rest and contemplation. Both are equally important for our development.

Snapshots of my diaries from this computer-free period when I was only able to write in my journals….. hellish but also wholesome.

But I am not going to lie, I missed this corner of the internet a lot. Since deleting the Big App from my phone ( for me the Big App was TikTok and I barely touch Instagram anymore except to see my close friend’s stories), this newsletter has become a place where I can share ideas in a way that feels good for me. It also became one of my fav ways of connecting with new and old friends.

During the past couple of months, I had to re-learn many facts about our human body. First of all, turns out that the rotator cuff is key to our upper body mechanics, especially our neck, shoulders, arms, and wrists. It is composed of four different tendons (all of them with fun dinosaur-like names). The subscapularis, the teres minor, the supraspinatus, and the infraspinatus —which is the main tendon I fucked up. I also learned that this particular area of the body gets injured very easily. The sports doctor who analyzed my ultrasound results really wanted to make sure that I understood that this injury was ‘nothing special’ and that ‘a big part of the world’s population has rotator cuff injuries and they are not even aware of it’. Ok, doctor!

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The past weeks essentially have been about re-training my body to perform even little things that before this didn’t give me any trouble like typing on my laptop, opening a tall cabinet in the kitchen, or doing a workout. The hardest part of it all though, has been teaching my brain to be still and do nothing, giving my body, and my mind too I think, a chance to heal.

Today I am excited to share with you all some tools that helped me move forward and not get stuck in the misery of the moment. A humble mix including my favorite books that I read this summer, articles, long-format videos that I watched while rubbing my shoulder with Tiger Balm, movies I watched lying down in bed, etc, etc

BOOKS

I really enjoyed these readings, although The Guest by Emma Cline was very hard for me to finish. My top 3 from the above list:

On Wiring by Stephen King
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

NEWSLETTERS

Thanks It's From eBay - Everything is cyclical
Ad Hoc - Am I writing like a white woman?
No One Asked - all my favorite people are offline
Big Undies - When The Collective Taste Doesn't Include You
I will do whatever I want - notes from august: I'M THE BIGGEST VICTIM IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LONG-FORM VIDEO

I have to say this, and I might be late to the game but…. Dualipa’s writer interviews for her book club Service95 are so good. She is a great interviewer. You can tell how much time she takes to prepare for these conversations and her genuine interest in learning about the creative process and background of all the writers she brings to her show. My favorite so far:

The episode with Michelle Zauner, Author Of Crying In H Mart (one my favorite books and I love Michelle’s art in general) and
The chat with Patti Smith, Author of Just Kids.

Lastly, below is a presentation of André 3000’s latest album which blew my brain away. This album is so refreshing a literal massage for the brain. The presentation is over an hour long, ideal for playing in the background while you cook dinner on a chill fall afternoon.

THIS PODCAST EPISODE

ALBUMS I COULDN’T STOP LISTENING

❤️ Final notes ❤️

I feel grateful that the love of my community moved me forward. I will always remember this period as the time when I learned that receiving is as important as giving. Accepting help and care doesn’t make you a weak person, it can make you stronger, connected, and whole.

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I leave you with my favorite photos that I took during these weeks that I spent offline, mainly healing my shoulder, sometimes frustrated at my body, but overall grateful for all the abundance that surrounds the life I’ve built.