Calgary, Alta. (Rural Roots Canada) – Stories of resilience in agriculture often start quietly and build over time. For Lori Kinne, that story includes burnout, recovery, and lessons drawn straight from the land.

Speaking at the Advancing Women in Agriculture Conference West in Calgary, Kinne, a rancher and mentor from Alberta’s Peace Country, explained how the pressure of balancing work, family, and the ranch eventually caught up with her.

“I was working a full-time job because after BSE, obviously, anyone who’s familiar with the beef industry knows that we weren’t able to sell any animals, and if we were, there was not a return on investment at all,” she shared. “I went back to work in various capacities, working full-time during the week, and on the weekends, I would come home, do family stuff, do stuff with the kids, and obviously help out around the ranch. It was just my husband and me, and we didn’t think that we could afford to have any help.”

The stress and anxiety of it all eventually caught up to her.

“It took its toll on me, and I found myself full of resentment, and I found myself in bed, and I just simply couldn’t get up. And so then the journey began of rejuvenating myself.”

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The rejuvenation began by turning to the ground beneath her feet.

“What I actually found was what I needed to build myself back were the lessons from the land,” she says. “Making space for myself, having rest, asking what am I putting into my body? All things that rejuvenated me, regenerated me. So, so very much parallel to regenerative ranching are the tools that I used to build myself back from my burnout.”

She also began to be mindful of her behaviours and suggests others do the same.

“We really need to pay attention to what we put in our bodies,” she stresses. “When I say maybe we’re undernourished, I don’t necessarily mean it’s by food, maybe it’s by the books we’re reading, or maybe it’s the shows we’re watching, or maybe it’s even the people we’re surrounding ourselves with. So we have to be very particular and intentional.”

She has a simple message for those who may be feeling the same way she did.

“My message would be just to take time for yourself,” she says. “We all think that we don’t have time to just sit in silence, but you need to schedule in your rest.”