FRIED: The Burnout Podcast

FRIED: The Burnout Podcast

Cait Donovan


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Latest Episode

Cyndie Spiegel: Use This Technique to Find Hope When You're Stuck in the Muck

Burnout isn’t the end of your story. With Sarah Vosen’s guidance, recovery becomes not just possible—but sustainable. Learn more: https://caitdonovan.com/coaching Burnout doesn’t end with a mindset shift—it begins when you finally allow grief, emptiness, and small sparks of joy to coexist without needing to fix any of them. Author and speaker Cyndie Spiegel joins Cait to talk about what it means to live inside the gray area, the space where both pain and beauty can exist at once. She shares how walking away from a high-profile fashion career led her to teaching, writing, and discovering the idea of microjoys: brief, accessible moments of light that don’t erase hardship but remind us life still holds goodness. Together, they unpack how black-and-white thinking fuels burnout, why forced gratitude doesn’t work, and how simple awareness can shift everything. What if healing starts with noticing what else is true? What might open up when you stop chasing “better” and start paying attention to what’s already here? Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Introduction 02:00 Cyndie Spiegel’s Burnout Story in the Fashion Industry 08:35 Finding Purpose Through Yoga and Teaching 10:37 Writing A Year of Positive Thinking 16:08 The Birth of Microjoys 18:40 Finding Hope When Life Isn’t Okay 24:30 Living in the Gray: Holding Multiple Truths 32:54 Practicing Microjoys in Daily Life 39:21 Where to Find Cyndie Spiegel and Final Reflections Connect with Cyndie Spiegel: Cyndie’s Website Follow Cyndie on Instagram Connect with Cyndie on LinkedIn Sign up to Cyndie’s Email List Connect with Cait: Initial Call with Cait Initial Call with Sarah Burnout isn’t the end of your story. With Sarah Vosen’s guidance, recovery becomes not just possible—but sustainable. Learn more: https://caitdonovan.com/coaching Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

About FRIED: The Burnout Podcast

The place to listen to real, raw stories of burnout and burnout recovery so that you can learn: Burnout is Real. You're not alone. This is doable. There are resources for you. Someone like you has been through this and has answers for you. Interviews go deep and discuss trauma, race, deep depression, thoughts of suicide and of course, the light that enters once the realization happens and the decision to make a change has been made. We're here with you. For all of it. Access more episodes, subscribe, and learn more.