One day I just couldn’t lift my head off the pillow. My first thought was how frustrating as I just didn’t have time to deal with it. But it was bad. My body ached, my head ached, my eyes and ears ached. This was burnout. This was no more pushing. This was “you have gone too far now.” This was my body saying enough.
Burnout is real. It is detrimental to our health and wellbeing and has lasting long-term effects that need to be cared for, sometimes for the rest of our lives, so it is worth understanding it and being aware of it. Twenty years ago, when I hit burnout, no one talked about it, and burning yourself out was really showing a badge of honor regarding how hard you can work and push yourself. For me, the result was chronic fatigue syndrome and depression. It is something I have had to live and dance with for the past 20 years, but now I see it as a gift.
I had to rebuild myself from the ground up as well as how I operated physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I had to rewire, reset, rebuild, and retrain myself for long-term high achievement with sustainability built in. This has been an incredibly journey of evolution for me and one of incredible fulfillment.
What is burnout?
Burnout is the result of chronic stress that has not been managed over time. Full-blown exhaustion physically with mental depletion and emotional upheaval.
What are the stages of burnout?
Honeymoon phase: This is when we are in our excited phase of achieving and can run on the stress hormone cortisol.
Stress onset: This is when we have little anxiety creep in and start to neglect some basic self-care.
Chronic stress: This is where we get a little angry, may miss a deadline, increase caffeine/alcohol stimulants, and start to numb the feelings.
Burnout: This is when we completely start to neglect our personal needs— eating well, moving our bodies, and sleeping properly. Headaches are daily, and we start to lack motivation as well as feel isolated and empty.
Habitual burnout: Chronic conditions start to appear, such as mental fatigue, low moods, overwhelm, social isolation, and shutdown.
What is roadmap out of burnout?
Own and recognize where you are in the stages of burnout. Take time to reflect and really understand where you are. What are your physical, emotional, and mental symptoms? Writing or adding bullet points in a journal is highly recommended to declutter your thoughts.
Make a plan to reverse the burnout experience. Come back to your own true values (learn how in The Life Plan: Simple Strategies for Building Confidence in a Changing World), and set some new boundaries to support yourself in creating space.
Make time to heal. Diving into extreme self-care to reverse the damage and getting yourself some help from a coach or counselor is recommended. The first action I took was to get a coach to help me devise a plan as I was too exhausted to think for myself.
Build a good support network. Do this with theeople who will support you through recovery, will go for a gentle walk with you, will help you with eating good food once again, and begin repairing the damage. I worked with a naturopath for a long time to heal my body from the chronic stress.
Learn stress management techniques. I finally learned how to breathe properly. I went to yoga for the first time and started with yin yoga and yoga nidra, all reinforcing self-care, healing, and learning to breathe the stress out. Using breathing apps, etc. to train yourself to breathe for internal space was to become my new superpower.
Focus on healthy sleep as a priority. Creating a new sleep ritual is one of the most powerful things you can start to establish for yourself. Taking a warm bath, writing in your gratitude diary, or listening to a yoga nidra meditation as you go to sleep are a few suggestions. It can also be beneficial to have no screens an hour before bed, where nonnegotiable.
It is critical that we admit and own the problem and understand the causes of burnout. Take a break, make a plan to create your roadmap (your new life plan of what is most sustainable), and then take action to focus on well-being as your greatest achievement. Go back to your values, understand them, and work for them on a daily basis, both externally and internally.
What a journey it is back from burnout, where you rebuild your foundations, set new nonnegotiables, have strong boundaries to protect the asset—which is—and find joy in achievement once again… but achievement with sustainability!
We are human beings at the end of the day. We all need a life plan, a plan for our health, finances, career, and adventure. When we only have a career plan, we tend to become extremists and suffer from burnout, which if not treated, can become a lifelong hindrance.
