Reading: #110: From Corporate Burnout To Living Her Around-The-World Dream (Cyndie Burkhardt)

Cyndie Burkhardt was living the corporate dream: handling $100,000 marketing campaigns, meeting incredible people, and traveling the world. But she was also working 60 hours a week, experiencing night sweats, blackouts, and brain fog so bad that she couldn’t read the newspaper. Self-care, she says, “wasn’t on my radar.” One day after leaving work exhausted, she got into bed, and couldn’t get out. “I was paralyzed; I couldn’t move.” With no doctor able to diagnose her, she sought help from alternative practitioners and a nutritionist who called it adrenal fatigue. After recovering, Burkhardt entered nutrition school (“to help others…so they won’t get sick!”), pursued her interest in writing and photography (www.photo-diaries.com), and became a health coach. Last year she wanted to study alternative medicines around the world. She sold all her possessions and booked a trip for 12 months in 12 places but was forced to end her trip at the 3/4 mark when the pandemic pinned her down in Split, Croatia. “A pandemic stopped me dead in my tracks and it’s wonderful,” she says, noting that she walks to the beach every morning at dawn for a swim before settling down for work. ” I’m going to listen for the answer [about what’s next] and figure things out.”