How I Recovered From Burnout By Creating A Home Spa

How to recover from burnout, avoid it completely and totally pamper yourself by creating a home spa where you can truly wind down.

Hi, I’m Katherine.  Welcome to At Home Spa Day!

I used to have so much energy and such a busy lifestyle that I never ever stopped.  I was always on the go, walking as I was working and running up flights of stairs.

You’d never catch me reading a book as I just couldn’t ever relax.

You’d find me in the gym or doing sports every evening.

Gradually I started getting weaker and weaker, got more colds, flu and stomach bugs that I just couldn’t get rid of.

I battled on through my first tough pregnancy and pushed through the sleepless nights.

My second pregnancy was even harder and after I gave birth I thought I’d spring back to life again.

But that wasn’t the case.

I suffered from a complete burnout after I had my second baby.

I had a newborn baby and a toddler to look after and I had chronic fatigue syndrome.

Most of the time, I was unable to move, and had to rely on so much help to get through this difficult time.

During this time, I also had a business to run and to this day I have no idea how I got through that time.  It’s all a bit of a blur.

I didn’t find out until years later, that most of my health problems came from undiagnosed food allergies, such as celiac disease which means eating anything with gluten in makes you very sick.

And at that time, I was eating a lot of bread which contains a lot of gluten, so no wonder I was so ill.  I also had many other undiscovered allergies at that time.

My health only recovered when I cut out all gluten, dairy, and all packaged food and focused mainly on an abundance of fruit and veg.

I also discovered I was allergic to store-bought personal care products.  Moisturizer literally burned me and left massive red scar tissue all over my face.   Shampoo made my back uncontrollably itchy all the time to the point where I scratched away the skin.

It was like torture.

My skin was also plagued with dreadful adult acne, a million times worse than any acne I had as a teenager.

I also got these weird black or dark red under eye patches which looked like I’d been punched in both eyes.

So I very quickly learned that I had to make my own DIY beauty products if I was going to survive.  So I poured all my time into mixing different natural ingredients together to make some divine concoctions.

Thankfully, my skin started to calm down and was able to heal. My acne went away and my complexion had never looked better.

My passion for homemade beauty products was born, and I was actually enjoying every minute of it.

I’ve been making my own DIY personal care and beauty products for me and my family for the last 8 years and it’s like second nature to me to whip up a batch of something exciting.

So of course, I have so many recipes that starting a blog was a natural decision for me.

So why did I call my blog, At Home Spa Day?

Making my own beauty products was just part of my new health routine.

Part of my burnout was actually caused by stress due to working so hard looking after my kids and also running my own business.

I literally never stopped and took time out for myself.

I know it is difficult when you have young children to take time out for yourself.  I understand more than anyone how hard fitting in me time is when you’re up to the eyeballs in urgent tasks that need to be complete, people who need to be looked after and a lack of energy to do a single thing that isn’t necessary.

However, I have now learned that having some ‘me’ time is absolutely crucial for my overall health.

How can you look after other people when you don’t look after yourself?

We need to put on our own life masks before we put someone else’s life mask on.

I was so sick, I was useless to anyone.  I couldn’t look after myself, let alone anyone else.

So now I have learned to take some time every single day for myself because it’s so important for my health and wellbeing.

Pampering yourself is not just all about making yourself look pretty.

It’s not superficial.

It is crucial  for your mental and physical health that you take some time out every day for self-care.

A daily pampering routine can be as short as 5 minutes, or as long as an entire day.

But whatever you do, make it an important part of your life, as your life depends on it.

I burned out because my body was too stressed out.  I had stress coming from the food I was eating, from the crazy hectic nature of my life, from the mental stress associated with always thinking about my business, from the harmful chemicals that were in my store-bought beauty products and from the responsibility of having two young kids to look after with no family support around us.

It was just too much for my body, and it said, enough is enough, I need a rest, and I’m going to make you unable to move until I get the rest I need.

If you don’t take the time to relax, time out from the busy day, time out from your phone, from your job, your kids, your family, your work.  If you don’t take the time out, your body will take it’s own time out.

What’s the ultimate way of taking time out?

Going to the spa!

But not everyone can get to the spa.  You might be like me where you have kids to care for and you don’t have a babysitter.  Or perhaps you don’t have the funds to get there.

Even if you did have the time and the money, I doubt you’d be in the spa every single day.

But what if we create our own home spa, and then we can experience the benefits of going to a spa every single day?

Whether you go all out and set up your own home spa room complete with built-in sauna and steam room, or you just create your own home spa experience by having a luxury bath and some pampering spa treatments, this is the resource for you.

I want to help you take time out every day to create a spa in your own home.

There’s nothing better you can do for your own health than use your home spa every day.

Having a home spa every day really helped me to heal in just a few months and I’ve been well and full of energy again for a long time now.

I now take time out every day in my makeshift home spa, which includes a portable sauna, electric back massager, foot spa, essential oil diffusers, salt lamps, detox baths, and homemade spa treatments amongst others.

I don’t do all these things each day.

The main thing I do each day is to use my sauna as I’ve seen the biggest health benefits from this than anything else I’ve tried yet.

I can’t tell you how much difference this has made to my life. I’m still just as busy as I ever was, but just taking that 30 minutes before bed to wind down, use my sauna and have a relaxing spa bath has made a massive difference to my happiness levels.

I now want to encourage you to do the same and take time out every day for a little pampering.

Here is my daughter in my portable home sauna

In this website, I share everything from creating a home spa room, to making your own homemade beauty products, to planning a spa party for you and your friends, unique relaxation techniques and other ways to pamper yourself each day.

Thanks for joining me in my quest to make a spa a daily practice.

And thank you for reading my story.  I hope it’s encouraged you that there is hope for recovery if you are burned out, and if you’re not burned out, I hope this helps you to prevent burnout in the future.

To get started, you can read my ultimate guide to home spas here.