Elaine Crowley took a break from Ireland AM because she stopped feeling empathetic towards guests.
The TV favourite took a couple of months off the Virgin Media breakfast show back in March following a tough few years which saw her lose her mum Mary V and nephew Ultan to cancer.
Elaine is thankfully in a much better place now and is back working on Ireland AM after taking the time to allow herself to heal from the heartache.
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She told RSVP Magazine: “I just needed a break from it all. You can’t pour from an empty cup. That’s a phrase that resonates very strongly with me, and if I can’t have it in me to be empathetic towards people I’m interviewing then I’m not doing my job properly.
“I needed to take some time off to heal a little bit and make myself whole again. There is no point trying to do the job that I do if I don’t have any sympathy for anybody else.
“It was exhausting trying to do it all for so long, you can’t do it all, all the time. There’s no shame in wanting a break from everything.”
Elaine is grateful that her boss was understanding of her situation and she spent quality time with her family in Cork during her reset.
She added: “I think it makes a massive difference having a female boss, to be honest with you. There’s more understanding, sympathy and empathy.
“You can keep going as much as you can but eventually you hit a brick wall. I did not want that to happen to me, so I was lucky enough to be able to take the time to look after myself.
“I spent time with my family in Cork to get through the toughest times, and did a wellness course too.”
Cancer is a disease which affects everyone in Ireland, whether they face a diagnosis themselves or watched a loved one go through it.
The Virgin Media presenter has spoken so openly and honestly about the grief of losing her 11-year-old nephew Ultan to childhood cancer, which comforted her viewers and social media followers going through similar situations at the time. But, sadly for Elaine, the heartbreak that comes with a cancer diagnosis is something she has dealt with more than once over the years.
She told us: “I’ve been involved with cancer charities since my dad died 23 years ago, so unfortunately I’ve been connecting with all of these people years before it happened to Ultan.
“I was involved with [children’s hospice] LauraLynn, doing abseils in Croke Park and obstacle courses over the years. I never thought my family would have to use their services to be honest. I didn’t think it would ever visit my own door, but it did.
“I knew a lot of people who were bereaved before it happened to me. I’d like to say it’s all new since it happened, but unfortunately cancer has touched my life an awful lot over the last 20 or so years.”
Elaine misses Ultan every day and is still navigating the grieving process. However, she is mentally in a much better place these days and has learned how to appreciate the little things in her day to day life.
“I’ve always been focused on the massive steps and the bigger picture — where I want to be in five years, what big house I want to live in or the car I want to drive. Those big things can be overwhelming and sometimes I get exhausted from it all, so for the last six months I’ve been taking baby steps,” she explained.
“I’m grateful for every day, appreciating the little things that make my heart happy. For me, it resets my brain and makes me so much more appreciative of what I have.
“There are so many horrible things and so much loss going on in the world, so you just have to mind the things that make you happy. It sounds awfully cliched, but it works for me.”
Read the full interview with Elaine in this month’s issue of RSVP Magazine on shelves nationwide now.
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