Listen at globe.com/saymore or wherever you find your podcasts.
Key takeaways from the conversation included:
Burnout is a mental issue.
Burnout is a mental issue, says Tippett, a best-selling author who focuses on contemporary spirituality. Our nervous systems are exhausted, she says, and you’re not alone in your deep feelings of stress and despair.
COVID-19 has turned our society upside down. We face a future of global warming and endless political turmoil. The future has never felt more unpredictable.
“Our bodies internalize uncertainty itself as a threat,” says Tippett, who suffered from burnout during the pandemic. “I think we’re only just beginning to fully digest what we’ve been through.”
For Tippett, this time of uncertainty has been both a call to action and a time for introspection.
“I wanted to be at peace with what was going on inside of me,” says Tippett, who defines spiritual life as “becoming at peace with reality in all its glory and messiness.”
We live in a noisy world.
We live in such a noisy, distracting world that finding inner peace can sometimes be as simple as finding quiet—and that’s not always easy, Tippett says.
“Quieting your mind is work,” she says. “It’s not something that comes naturally.”
Tippett directs listeners to On Being, an interview with audiologist Gordon Hempton, who says, “Silence is the jukebox of the soul.”
In a world of constant smartphone notifications, earbuds, podcasts, reels, and more, we have to go out of our way to find quiet moments.
“Silence is something we need,” Tippett said, “just like we need food. We need silence. It’s something basic that we’re lacking.”
Cultivating silence takes effort.
Tippett offers some tips for achieving serenity:
- Have a morning practice. Even just sitting quietly for two minutes in the morning can help you start your day in a better frame of mind.
- Ask for help. There are apps that offer short guided meditations, such as Headspace and Plum Village from Thich Nhat Hanh’s community in France.
- Read meditatively. Find a poem you like to read or a book that makes you think. Pick a poem, a page, or a paragraph and spend five to ten minutes reading it. You could even grab a piece of paper and jot down the lines that you find beautiful. “Have a conversation with yourself,” Tippett says.
“It is not a ministry of preaching, but a ministry of listening.”
Tippett doesn’t consider herself a spiritual leader (though her audience might not think so), but if her job is a mission, she said, “it’s not a ministry of preaching, it’s a ministry of listening.”
Just because society is less religious than it once was doesn’t mean the deep questions that religions seek to answer go away, Tippett said. Our sense of mystery and death is no longer as urgent or definitive as it once was.
We live in uncertain times, but there are also incredible opportunities for social creativity.
“We have to focus on what’s beautiful, what’s resilient, what’s hopeful,” Tippett said. “We’re wired to instinctively focus on what’s threatening, but we also need to understand the seriousness of what’s beautiful, redeeming and hopeful.”
Tippett believes the cure for burnout lies, in part, in love: Once we know what we love in the world, we can fight for it.
“We must summon the capacity to discern and honor what we love,” Tippett said, “and part of us is not just fighting against what we want to disappear, but also fighting for the world we want to pass on to new generations.”
“Love is real and serious,” she added. “It’s the hardest thing we do.”
Anna Kusmer is the Globe’s audio producer. Email her at anna.kusmer@globe.com. Listen to the Say More podcast here: apple, Spotifyand Click here for details.
Anna Kusmer can be contacted at anna.kusmer@globe.com.
