When You Need the North

As I write this, it’s the end of 2025, and I have been reflecting on the past, thinking about the future. I recently made a fundamental change in my professional life, returning to being a full-time Happiness Engineer after over a year as a lead. There are many reasons for this shift, but probably the most important is to take care of my mental and physical health. I have been exhausted. Not the type that you can shake off with a good night’s sleep!

I am well aware of the need for boredom for creativity to spark. I am no stranger to the benefits of nature, silence, and quiet time. As a coach and counsellor, about to become a death doula, I know how important it is to respect our individual pace. Lately, I have been extra exhausted by all the content creators, the need to be constantly doing, writing, creating, showing up online to not lose the momentum, the business, the followers.

No wonder my mind has been wandering to the vastness of the Great White North—the True North, not only a country, Canada, but an empty space around or above the 60th North parallel all the way to the Beaufort Sea, at the 69th North parallel. It’s remote, it’s vast, it’s beautiful, and it’s so sparsely populated that the whole Yukon territory, the most populated of the Canadian territories, has only 47,500 people living there, mostly in its capital, Whitehorse.

Maybe the name of what I am feeling is burnout, maybe it’s something else I don’t have words to describe. But I know what I need: space to breathe, time to be still, and permission to stop performing. For now, that’s enough.