For the past two years, I’ve been quietly pondering to recover and heal in ways that I didn’t know I needed. I’ve been a hibernating pupa, sheltered by choice, just waiting for my thoughts to come together and for me to emerge fired up and ready to go. This is my Eat, Pray, Love story. It is series that is part of a conversation that I want to have with the world to shift the way we think about wellness and self-care.

Start at the beginning of The Cocoon:
Introduction: The Metamorphosis: Finding Purpose
Part 1: The Candle Flickers: Work Burnout
Part 2: The Start of the A-Ha Moment: What is Emotional Labor?
Part 3: Glimpses of a Career Rife With Emotional Labor
Part 4: Work Life Balance and Self Care
Part 5: Lofty Goals: Weight Loss, Health, & Insecurity


I believe retreats provide an opportunity to eat well, move, enjoy the outdoors, and meditate with like-minded individuals who gather, share ideas, and enjoy themselves. Retreats are concentrated self-care to shut away all of the outside influences, so we can tap into our own quiet voice and hear what we really want, what we really need. Time and time again, I’ve seen individuals, who had a question, find their answer, by giving themselves the opportunity to listen.

At AnamBliss, we want to ask the deeper questions: Why do you do what you do? Does it serve you? Is it what you really want? What can you do to reach your goals better? What is holding you back?

Our name, is an extension of that process. Anam was chosen because it means Soul in Gaelic. Bliss is a word that we respond to on a higher level than others. Together, they give us a power that we can aspire to obtain, myself included.

I started AnamBliss to move away from the rat race of a company. Knowing my tendency to overwork and burn myself out, I crave the autonomy to release myself from greater outside pressures to achieve. Now, my own level of expectations will rule the roost and I’m working on adopting “Better Done Than Perfect” as a moto over perfectionism. (To be honest, this has taken me a long time to write and to edit to be in a place that I feel can see the light of day, but really, I’d love to work on it more. Sigh.)

The journey of this thought process of connecting stress, burnout, emotional labor, work life balance, and self-care, has been cathartic. I’m feeling a sense of excitement that I haven’t felt in a long time. I want to talk to others about breaking the chains of our own and our cultures making, so they can feel they way I do. One way is by throwing away the scale and focus on looks, for nourishing our body through food and building self-compassion. 

I’m not feeling afraid to begin to take to more women first. I’ve been hesitant, as I haven’t wanted to exclude half of the population, but women need to hear what I have to say in a way that men don’t. I still don’t plan on excluding men, as their levels of emotional labor have been increasing as well, but women are under greater pressures to be perfect.

This means that as I break out, I need to be in the limelight. Oddly, I have no problem leading discussions and speaking to hundreds when I’m in charge, but fighting through the many voices of the world is intimidating. By speaking with integrity, honesty, and even vulnerability, I know that one person will listen and tell another and a tribe will slowly build.

I expect there to be challenges, more bumps, times when I need to step away, but I also need to charge full steam ahead.

The working title for this series was The Cocoon. It’s been a festering of thoughts of musings that I expect will continue to improve. But I’m ready to soar.

Do you want to join me?


Thank you for reading about my journey. Please share your own thoughts with me and the articles with anyone who may be interested. Continue the conversation with us.

Kate Hamm combines her 15+ years of experience in the fitness industry and high-end resort program development into sought after wellness adventures at AnamBliss. Visit www.anambliss.com for future retreat dates and locations.

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