Recently, I experienced burnout.
And it changed the way I think about wellbeing, creativity and the kind of business I want Boho Workshops to be.
Nature, creativity, meditation and breathwork had already been a big part of my life, but during that period they became something more.
They became the things that helped me slow down, regulate my nervous system and gradually start feeling like myself again.
I didn’t set out to become passionate about nervous system regulation.
If I’m completely truthful, I would probably have preferred to learn about it from a nice book, with a cup of tea, while feeling wonderfully calm and balanced.
Instead, I learnt about it because my own nervous system eventually seemed to say:
“Nope. We’re not doing this anymore.”
And I don’t think I fully understood what burnout actually was until I was in it.
It wasn’t simply being tired.
It was feeling like I had been running on adrenaline for so long that eventually there was nothing left in the tank.
My confidence took a knock. Things that normally felt manageable suddenly felt huge. My brain was constantly busy, while at the same time I didn’t feel capable of doing very much at all.
Which is an interesting combination.
0/10. Would not recommend.
But something else happened during that time too.
I started paying much closer attention to what genuinely made me feel better.
Not what made me more productive.
Not what helped me squeeze another task into my day.
What actually made me feel like me again.
And, perhaps unsurprisingly considering the business I had already created, I kept coming back to the same things.
Nature.
Creativity.
Energy.
Breathing properly.
Meditation.
Plants.
Walking.
Making something with my hands.
Sitting somewhere peaceful without feeling as though I needed to achieve anything.
Little pockets of time where my shoulders dropped, my breathing slowed and my brain finally became a little quieter.
I realised there was a reason I had always been drawn to these things.
Creativity gave my brain somewhere else to go
There’s something incredibly grounding about working with your hands.
When you’re layering sand into a terrarium, arranging plants, making a wreath or creating something purely because you enjoy it, your attention shifts.
For a while, you’re not mentally running through tomorrow’s list.
You’re choosing where that little plant should go.
And occasionally taking said plant back out because apparently it was absolutely not happy there.
It’s simple.
But that’s almost the point.
Creativity gave my brain somewhere else to be.
Somewhere quieter.
Somewhere present.
Nature reminded me that I didn’t have to rush
I’ve always felt better around plants, trees, woodland and the sea.
During burnout, I started to understand that connection on a deeper level.
Nature doesn’t operate with 47 browser tabs open.
Nothing in a woodland is panicking because it hasn’t answered an email quickly enough.
Things grow.
Rest.
Change.
Begin again.
There is something incredibly reassuring about that.
Spending time outside became one of the simplest ways for me to slow everything down.
No big plan.
Just walking, breathing and paying attention to what was around me.
Meditation and breathwork helped me find stillness again
I’ll also admit that telling someone with a wildly busy mind to “just relax” is possibly one of the least useful pieces of advice available.
But learning to work with my breath and allowing myself a few minutes of guided meditation was different.
I wasn’t trying to force myself to feel better.
I was giving my mind and body permission to slow down.
And gradually, those little pauses became incredibly important to me.
They helped me reconnect with myself.
And somewhere amongst all of this, something clicked.
This is what I want Boho Workshops to be about
Boho Workshops began with creativity and plants.
But over the past few years — and particularly through my own recent experience — I’ve realised that the real magic was never simply the thing we were making.
It was how people felt while they were making it.
The conversations.
The laughter.
The cup of tea.
The moment someone became completely absorbed in their creation.
The person who arrived carrying the weight of their week and left saying:
“I really needed that.”
That’s the bit I care about.
So I’m developing Boho Workshops around something that feels incredibly personal to me now:
creating intentional pauses in busy lives through nature and creativity.
Sometimes that might be a woodland terrarium.
Sometimes a seasonal wreath.
Sometimes a little breathwork, meditation or grounding before we create.
But underneath it all is the same idea.
You don’t have to wait until you’re completely depleted before you allow yourself to stop.
Rest doesn’t always mean doing nothing
Sometimes rest looks like putting your phone down.
Making something beautiful.
Getting your hands into nature.
Having a cuppa.
Chatting.
Breathing a little more deeply.
And remembering that you are a human being rather than one enormous to-do list.
That’s why I feel so passionate about where Boho Workshops is heading.
I’m now bringing these experiences into workplaces, community settings and my little Bo-Home Studio in Doncaster, creating spaces where people can step away from the noise for a while and reset.
I don’t pretend that making a terrarium fixes burnout.
It doesn’t.
But I do believe we need more opportunities in everyday life where we’re encouraged to slow down, connect, create and breathe before we reach the point where our bodies force us to.
What burnout taught me about my business
My experience with burnout changed quite a lot for me.
But perhaps one of the best things to come from it is that I understand my business more clearly than I ever have before.
Boho Workshops isn’t really about plants.
It isn’t really about crafts either.
It’s about that feeling when you realise you’ve been completely present for the last hour.
When your shoulders have dropped.
When you’ve laughed.
When you’ve made something you’re proud of.
When you leave feeling just a little lighter than when you arrived.
That’s the feeling I want to create more of.
Freedom through nature and creativity.
And I’m only just getting started. 🌿
If you feel like you could do with a little reset of your own, you can explore my upcoming nature-led creative wellbeing workshops, workplace sessions and Bo-Home Studio experiences at bohoworkshops.com.
Love, Beth x