What if the secret to burnout recovery is a hot soak and a tiny craft kit?

In this episode of Healing Is My Hobby, Jessica Colarco explores burnout recovery through two main practices: heat therapy and slow crafting. She discusses the science behind warm water immersion and its effects on the nervous system, as well as the benefits of engaging in slow, repetitive craft activities like diamond painting. Jessica emphasizes the importance of small, intentional moments for healing and encourages listeners to incorporate simple practices into their daily lives to combat burnout.

Key Takeaways

• Burnout lives in the body and requires physical interventions.
• Warm water immersion can lower cortisol and improve sleep quality.
• Heat therapy can be as simple as a nightly foot soak.
• Slow crafting activities can activate a flow state and reduce rumination.
• Engaging in creative activities can restore attention and increase dopamine.
• Burnout recovery doesn't require massive changes, just small moments of self-care.
• Taking time for oneself is crucial in combating burnout.
• Presence in the moment is more important than perfection in healing.
• Simple practices can lead to significant improvements in mental wellness.
• Healing is a journey that can start with tiny, intentional actions.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Healing and Burnout Recovery

02:12 Exploring Warm Water Immersion for Burnout

04:32 The Impact of Heat Therapy on the Nervous System

07:25 Engaging in Slow Crafting: The Diamond Painting Experience

09:44 Key Takeaways and Mini Healing Practices

12:53 NEWCHAPTER

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burnout recovery, heat therapy, slow crafting, mental wellness, personal growth, nervous system, relaxation techniques, self-care, mindfulness, healing practices

Welcome to Healing Is My Hobby, the podcast where we explore the tools, practices, and curiosities that support mental wellness and personal growth. I'm Jessica Colarco a licensed clinical social worker, and just like you, I'm on a healing journey of my own.

All right, friends, it's time for the healing lab where I try something in real life to see if it actually helps or if it's just another pretty idea on Pinterest. This month, we're going all in on burnout recovery. My nervous system has been fried. So I wanted to try two practices that sound simple on the surface but have real science behind them.

warm water immersion and slow crafting, specifically diamond painting. The big questions are, does heat therapy actually melt burnout? And can tiny glittery dots fix my fried nervous system? Let's find out.

I wanna get into why I chose warm water immersion.

I picked heat therapy because burnout lives in the body. When we're overwhelmed and stretched thin, our sympathetic nervous system stays stuck on go, go, go. Passive heat, like a hot tub, bath, or even a warm foot soak actually signals the body to downshift.

shows that warm water immersion lowers cortisol, reduces muscle tension,

improves sleep quality, and activates the parasympathetic response or the rest and restore response. So I wanted to see what would happen if I committed to just 10 minutes of intentional heat each night for five nights. Here's what I tested. I tried three different ways to see what actually felt doable and every day,

Mom slash therapist life. You the other hats I wear are chauffeur, wife, chef, household manager, right? You know what this is like. When we are wearing all of these hats, go, go, go, it just feels like we're either doing something for our family, for work, or we're sleeping.

So these are the three things I wanted to try to see if they really would fit into my life, first of all, and then obviously to see if they helped with my burnout. First was a nightly 10 minute hot tub ritual. No phone, low lights, just quiet and warm water. Second was an Ebsom salt bath with spa lighting and a calming soundtrack. This felt like recreating a retreat at home.

I use soft lighting And a playlist. I love, there is a Zen music playlist on Spotify that I play in my private practice, so

I went ahead and played that during my Epsom salt soak. Finally, a simple foot soak plus a breath work session. Perfect for days when a full bath or a hot tub is just not gonna happen. I filled a basin with hot water, added a few drops of lavender, and I paired it with four, six breathing.

Side note, 4-6 breathing is a simple science-backed calming technique where you inhale for four seconds and exhale for six seconds. That's it. And the magic is in the longer exhale. You inhale slowly through your nose to the count of four. Exhale gently through your mouth for six seconds. And you can repeat this for one to three minutes. You can do it sitting, lying down, or like I was doing during a warm foot soak.

It works because the longer exhale activates, you guessed it, the parasympathetic nervous

we're talking about, because we wanna rest and restore to try to fight burnout. This shift helps lower our stress hormones, slows our heart rate, reduces anxiety, calms our racing thoughts, brings us out of fight or flight. It is one of the fastest ways to regulate our nervous system.

which is why so many therapists like myself and somatic practitioners love it so much. It's perfect to use at nighttime to wind down, when stress spikes, during overwhelming moments, when you're transitioning like ending work before bed, before a hard conversation, and obviously like what we're trying to use it for, for burnout recovery.

Here's what surprised me during this healing lab. Every single version of my heat therapy made my shoulders drop within 30 seconds. It's like my body exhaled before I did. The hot tub ritual helped me sleep deeper. Not longer, but better. I woke up less tense the next morning. I know that I'm fortunate because I have a spa connected to

my pool and that's wonderful, but you can use a bath. But also, that's why I tried foot soaking as well, because if you don't have access to a hot tub or a bathtub, there is something else that you can try. The bath was the most emotionally soothing for me, because there's something about dimming the lights that made me feel like my brain finally got quiet.

You know, at my house, the spa outside faces the kitchen, so I can see the lights in the house, I can see the kitchen, I can see if the kitchen needs to be clean. My animals are like staring out the window. So I think that is why the bath was more soothing for me because I had complete control, you know, of kind of who could come in and out of my room. I had control of the lighting, what I saw and what I could hear. But honestly, the biggest shock for me was the foot soak. It was so simple. ⁓

But pairing warm water with slow breathing instantly calmed that jittery, overwhelmed feeling that hits at the end of the day. It really gave me the same nervous system shift in a fraction of the time. So does heat therapy melt burnout? Honestly, yes. Not all at

session soften the edges of everything I was holding onto.

I think it's really important that we carve out little slivers of time for ourself and so I just think the act of taking time for myself really was an antidote to the burnout. My second experience was diamond painting, but we can plug in for you slow crafting, right? So I wanted to test something that engages the mind differently because burnout isn't just

exhaustion, it's cognitive overload. Slow, repetitive craft activities like diamond painting or paint by number activities activate the flow state. They decrease rumination, increase dopamine in a gentle, non-overstimulating way. They give your brain a single soothing point of focus and they restore depleted attention.

And tiny sparkly diamonds felt very healing as my hobby energy. I love diamond painting if you're not familiar with it. It is like a color by number. You get these tiny little gems. You get like a little stick or a pen that you put in like a gummy, gluey substance and then you put your pen on the little gem and then you place it on the sticky numbered sheet and it just is so adorable.

⁓ I will show on Instagram some of what I did for my diamond painting, but I chose a large Halloween print, and I joked that it's gonna be like a five-year project because it's something I'm chipping away at, and I'm definitely not stressed about not finishing it, but if you get the newsletter, you'll see that one of my healing choices for the month are tiny diamond painting tiles that are only about

So finishing something is something that stresses you out. I encourage you to get a smaller diamond painting project and I have seen them even at the Dollar Tree.

You could also explore micro projects to see which one is the best for your busy schedule and which one might feel most restorative. You can also, like I said, get tiny diamond painting bookmarks. You could try a mini cross-stitch pattern. You could do a paint by number, a color by number. You could even do clay bead bracelet making.

Again, just feel free to add your personal flavor or what fits in most for you, but here's a strong starting point. I learned something instantly. Burnout makes it hard to start creative things. But once I sat down, there was this moment where my brain shifted from scattered to steady. The diamond painting is my favorite because it's mindless enough to feel calming.

but structured enough to keep me engaged. The tiny sparkles actually did make me feel lighter, almost like micro joy therapy. It is very meditative. ⁓ I don't think it requires much patience, ⁓ but it's soothing and it's fun, great for emotional release. You can even do it with your kids. So, to answer the question, can tiny glittery dots fix burnout?

Not fully, but they definitely soften the tension and help me feel more present, creative, and grounded, and that really matters. What's the biggest thing I realized this month? Burnout recovery doesn't require massive changes. It just needs tiny pockets of nervous system repair. Warm water softened my stress. Slow crafting softened my mind.

And together they created these small moments of peace that reminded me what it feels like to be me again. So I wanna give you a mini practice today. So here's your mini healing lab practice for this week. You can pick one of these, okay? A five minute warm foot soak, two minutes of diamond painting, a single row of a craft project. Set a timer, let it be imperfect,

Let your brain and body downshift and tell me how you felt. You can DM me or tag me at healing as my hobby because I love hearing about your healing moments.

Trying these two simple burnout experiments reminded me of something important. Healing doesn't require perfection, and it doesn't require hours we don't have. It just asks for presence, even if it's only a few minutes at a time. As we move through this month-long burnout series, this episode is really meant to be a reminder that we don't have to wait for a vacation or a weekend or a miracle to feel better. We can start right where we are with what we have.

and we're just getting started. All November long on Healing is My Hobby, we're diving into more conversations we've already talked about the difference between burnout and fatigue. and we've explored the types of rest your body actually needs. And I continue to share practical tools to help you reconnect with your energy, your purpose, and yourself. So if you're feeling stretched thin,

overwhelmed or just not quite like yourself, you are not alone. And November is all about creating space for your nervous system to breathe again. Make sure you tune into the next episode because we're going even deeper into burnout recovery and giving you gentle, realistic ways to feel supported. Not pushed, not pressured, but supported in your healing. And remember, healing does not happen in giant leaps. It happens in tiny, intentional moments. Today, maybe it's warm water.

Maybe it's a single shiny diamond on a bookmark. Maybe it's just a long exhale. Whatever it is, give yourself permission to start small. And thanks for joining me in the healing lab. I can't wait to explore the next experiment with you. Don't forget you can follow me on YouTube and Instagram at Healing is My Hobby. You can check out my website, healingismyhobby.com. You can sign up for my newsletter. And finally, if you wanna know more about my clinical practice,

you can go to jessicacolarcolcsw.com or follow me on Instagram at jessicacolarcolcsw. Thank you so much for listening.