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Life and Work with Jess Bonasso

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jess Bonasso.

Jess, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My personal story & how I got where I am today really began in my late 20’s & early 30’s, when I started to experience physical, emotional & mental burnout that came as a result of climbing the corporate ladder as a high-achieving, corporate professional over 13 1/2 years. I had a belief that success & happiness would come when I financially successful so I accepted one promotion after another in the pursuit of financial abundance. Unfortunately, I sacrificed myself & my happiness in the process & began struggling with disintegrated symptoms of burnout so bad that it actually lead to a full on breakdown. I was 40 lbs overweight & was also dealing with anger management issues, depression, toxic self-talk, carpal tunnel syndrome, friendships that were failing because of my toxic attitude & negativity, marital issues, & the worst… debilitating back pain that I had tried everything to correct & was considering surgery for.

Ultimately, it was the physical pain I experienced as a result of this breakdown that became the catalyst that led to a spiritual awakening & the realization that if I was going to turn it all around I would have to become my very own hero & make self-care & self-love a priority for the first time in my life.

As a result, I envisioned a new future for myself & started my own business in 2007 as a hard-working, heart-centered entrepreneur & within three years, experienced burnout again as a result of wearing all the hats of the business owner & not knowing how to leverage my time & energy effectively while learning how to create a profit & build my business.

Both experiences with burnout & breakdown helped me understand how to resolve the underlying root causes of burnout more deeply & led me to realize what an epidemic burnout is quickly becoming for so many in the workforce, but especially for worn out, working wonder women, who deal with very different challenges in the workplace than men do.

Has it been a smooth road?
LOL! I wish I could say it was but as you can gather by what led me to become a Burnout Rescue coach, no it was not a smooth road. 🙂 There have been valleys to cross & mountains to climb along the way, which included some of the following moments:

– Realizing that I was the one holding me back in my 20’s & that my dream career wasn’t as dreamy as I had hoped it would be.
– Wanting to start my own business with no knowledge or expertise of how to do so effectively.
– Not knowing how to manage my time or my energy effectively.
– Limiting beliefs, unhealthy behaviors & past trauma that I had to heal & resolve.
– Dis-empowering ego patterns such as fear of failure, self-doubt, workaholism, over-achieving, care-giving, etc…
– Physical health issues & dis-ease that included over-eating, chronic back pain & joint tension
– Emotional health issues such as anger management, anxiety & depression.
– Disintegration of key relationships that led to loss of friendships & divorce.
– Financial devastation following a difficult divorce & bankruptcy.

If I could offer any advice to women, I’d say a few things. The first would be “body first, business second” which means to make sure you put your oxygen mask on yourself each day before anyone else by having daily practices & rituals in place the nurture & fuel your body, mind, & spirit. Second, learn how to leverage your time & manage your energy effectively so that you can do more in less time, enabling you to make yourself a priority in your life. Beyond that, get crystal clear about the kind of life you want to experience along with your deepest passions & purpose so that you can make a commitment to making those dreams & desires a true priority.

After all, saving & serving others from a place of self-sacrifice is a tainted gift to give if it comes at the cost of your own depletion and if you make yourself a priority first, you’ll be able to live your best brave life without self-sacrifice & be able to give to other from a place of power & fullness. 🙂

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’ve been a Burnout Rescue coach, author & speaker since 2007 who teaches worn out wonder women (& supermen too!) learn how to save themselves from the saboteurs that lead to burnout so they can rise bravely when they fall, reclaim their time & energy, and live their best, brave life without sacrificing their soul, sanity or health.

 As a result of overcoming my own personal challenges with burnout & breakdown, I created The Burnout Rescue! a powerful 6-part feminine hero’s guide that teaches the worn-out working wonder woman how to awaken, strengthen & unleash the hero within who will save them from burnout through radical self-growth, radiant self-care & cellular self-healing.

I am also an accredited practitioner of The Journey Method®, a highly effective form of cellular memory release therapy that has the power to resolve at the root level any emotional, physical, and mental saboteurs that sabotage one’s greatness & finally, I have also been a student & teacher of the Enneagram, which is a path of radical self-growth for reclaiming personal power.

The thing I am most proud of is that I’m taking my pain & turning it into my purpose by empowering others to save themselves in much the same way that I did. This is a purpose worth living for & will result in me living my best, brave life in a way that exponentially raises the frequency & vibration of everyone on the planet!

Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
Absolutely! I was raised in poverty conditions as a child, with no running water or electricity until I was in the 5th grade. This environment of lack & scarcity growing up played a huge part in how driven I was as a young adult to prove my value & worth in my corporate profession because I had a belief that SUCCESS = MONEY (which is what I thought would then lead to my happiness).

I didn’t realize until I was finally making great money but still feeling unhappy & miserable about myself & life that my definition of success needed to be re-written in order for me to happy, healthy & whole again, which is ultimately what led me to leave the corporate world & start my own business! I knew I needed to “be the change I wished to see in the world”. 🙂

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Image Credit:
Kelly Shroads

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