The Science of Burnout and How to Recover - 58

Burnout has become so common among professionals and high achievers that many of us mistake it for normal life. But burnout isn't simply feeling tired after a long week—it's a state of chronic stress that impacts your brain, body, nervous system, and overall well-being.

In this episode, we explore the World Health Organization's definition of burnout and discuss the three hallmark signs: exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced professional efficacy. We dive into the neuroscience of chronic stress, including how elevated cortisol levels can impair the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for decision-making, focus, and rational thinking—while increasing activity in the amygdala, our brain's threat detection center.

We also discuss why so many professionals continue pushing through exhaustion, how our limited cognitive resources become depleted, and why burnout recovery isn't a productivity problem—it's a nervous system problem.

Finally, we explore practical tools for recovery, including meditation, mindfulness, nervous system regulation, Reiki, sound healing, and other holistic practices that help shift the body out of survival mode and back into balance.

If you've been feeling exhausted, disconnected, overwhelmed, or like you're no longer showing up as your best self, this episode offers both science-backed insights and practical strategies for recovery.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The World Health Organization's definition of burnout
• The three primary signs of burnout
• How chronic stress affects the brain and nervous system
• Why high achievers are especially vulnerable to burnout
• The connection between cortisol, decision-making, and emotional regulation
• Practical ways to begin recovering from burnout
• How nervous system regulation supports resilience, performance, and well-being

Because your greatest asset isn't your productivity—it's your energy.

Transcript

Autumn G Noble (00:00)

Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. Today we're talking about burnout. And I honestly feel like I've been talking about burnout nonstop for weeks now. some of you may know that I contract with a continuing legal education provider. So it's a company that offers continuing education courses and credits to attorneys to fulfill their state-based requirements for their licensing.

So a couple times a month I speak for this organization and to their attorneys all over the country on a variety of topics, most of them wellness and holistic based. The last few seminars I've done have really been focusing on the neuroscience of stress, burnout, and kind of nervous system support. And so when I say I've been talking about burnout and studying burnout for weeks now, I mean that quite literally. I feel like I'm always talking about it.

So I thought it might make sense to come on here and share a little bit with you about what I'm finding in that research and what I'm finding to be useful for those of us that may have experienced burnout in the past or maybe going through it right now. But I want to set the tone here and just be really clear that I think the word burnout is really overused. And so I'm not talking about burnout in kind of the social media sense and not about just being tired.

After a long week at work. I mean true physiological burnout is what we're going to be talking about here today. Because whether you're an attorney or an executive, an entrepreneur, or really a professional of any kind, you have likely experienced burnout or witness those around you experience it as well. And I just don't think we talk about it enough. I think we sort of use it as this catch-all phrase to encompass those moments when.

We're just not really feeling it and we're really struggling and we're just really exhausted. But it's so much more than that. And I think we have to talk about it more because what is driving our burnout is I think this societal and cultural pressure that we just have to push through exhaustion and this understanding that we should just continually.

be able to add more and more to our plate, that there is no sort of threshold at which point it's okay to say no more. And I think that sort of implicit expectation societally and culturally is driving this recurring pattern of burnout for a lot of us. I think most of us grew up in a world that always said, you know, you just have to work harder.

If you're struggling, you're exhausted, just get more organized or be more disciplined with your time or manage your time better. But I will tell you, and I really want you to hear me when I say this, is that burnout's not often a productivity problem. It's an energy problem. It's a nervous system problem. And oftentimes, and what I want to share with you it's a biological and physiological problem.

So today we're gonna talk about what is burnout actually with respect to kind of the health industry, what do they see burnout is, and how do they define it? And how does it affect your brain and your body? And why is it that so many professionals miss the early warning signs? And then once we've missed those signs and burnout sets in, how do we dig back out? I always tell people that more often than not, when people come to coaching.

They're like tap dancing around the edge of burnout. They kind of wait until that moment where they're about to just rage quit and kind of burn the whole thing down. And it's really unfortunate that for a lot of us there is this sort of stigma around asking for help and letting in support. Like, my gosh, you have a coach. That's so ridiculous, you know? Be a real adult and go get a therapist like the rest of us. And and truly that's how I felt about the coaching industry.

You know, almost 20 years ago when I first started experiencing people around me using a coach, I thought that's the dumbest thing ever. And I think a lot of us sort of subconsciously buy into that idea that asking for help is a sign that we can't take it or we're not cut out for it. And so a lot of times when people come to coaching, it's because it's sort of like their last ditch attempt to fix things. And while that's perfectly acceptable, whatever gets you to coaching, I I think is

you know, the path that was meant for you. But as I think you're gonna understand here today, burnout is so much more than time hacks, productivity hacks, and and the things that we often work through in coaching. There's a whole different level of tools and and things that we have to go through in coaching to help you recover from burnout before we can even start unwinding and unpacking whatever your contribution was

To the circumstances that led to that burnout. So it becomes a little bit more of a complicated fix when that's your first entree into coaching. It's better to come to coaching earlier, notice the signs, and then make adjustments as you sort of see those signs coming up. It's harder to dig out and then clean up from there. But let's start and just really kind of set the tone here. What do I mean when I say burnout?

And I always look to the World Health Organization and their definition of burnout. And they sort of refer to it as this like occupational phenomenon, which I think is hilarious because I just think that's a really nice and fancy sciencey way of saying like this is a cultural and societal trend that we're seeing. But okay, occupational phenomenon that results from chronic workplace stress that's not successfully managed.

And they come up with all these different dimensions to kind of tell you what burnout looks like. And a couple of those dimensions are feeling completely depleted of your energy and exhausted, increasing mental distance from your work or feeling negativity and cynicism around your work. Or lastly, reduced professional efficacy. And here's what I want to tell you about how I see all of those showing up.

When someone comes to coaching and I'm kind of feeling like they're probably burnt out, one of the first things I ask them is, you know, okay, I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but do you ever have a day where it's not totally chaos and you're not doing 10 million things at once? It's actually kind of a quiet day. And maybe you didn't actually accomplish a lot. maybe you even got enough sleep the night before. But despite all of that, you come home at the end of the end of the day and you are physically.

mentally and emotionally exhausted. And they're always like, Well, how do you know? That's amazing. It's like, well, that's burnout, right? I've lived it. And I know how I know that feeling of why am I so exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally, even though I didn't really like do anything today, what is that about? That's a sign that there's something more happening in your body and your nervous system that is indicative of burnout. The other ones I see most often, the signs I see are

Attorneys sort of saying, or professionals saying, why does it even matter? Nothing that I do really makes a difference anymore. You know, yeah, I could really, you know, cross my T's and dot my I's, but what is what difference does it And that's a phrase that I hear a lot from women who are going through a burnout. It's sort of this like, what does any of this matter anymore? It doesn't really move the needle. It's like, what am I busy about? None of this really means anything. And that kind of a sentiment.

is indicative of that kind of second element of burnout that the WHO points out. And that's increasing distance from your work and kind of cynicism and negativity around your work. The other one that I see most often is that reduced sense of efficacy despite objective markers to the contrary. So I'll have I'll have women say, I just don't feel like I'm doing as good a job anymore. I feel like people are frustrated with me. I think my work product has suffered and I say, okay.

Didn't you just have a meeting with your your boss or your supervisor to kind of assess where you are? And then they say, Yeah, okay, well, tell me how that went. And invariably they will say, They're really happy with my work, no complaints, like I'm definitely on track to be where I want to be. And so there's always this disconnect between objective feedback that we're getting and how we actually think we're performing. And that's that delta is.

That reduced professional efficacy, which is also kind of that last indicia of burnout. But what's really interesting, I think, in the position that d the WHO takes on burnout is that they don't describe it as like a weakness or like a failure or laziness. and they certainly don't call it a lack of resilience. And I think that's what a lot of us sort of see it as. It's just a a marker.

that we can't hack it or we're not cut out for it. And I think that's a really troubling way to look at burnout because once once we get into it, you'll see that there's some real stuff happening in your body that is outside of your control. And that's what's actually causing the burnout. You know, at the core of it is this chronic stress and elevated rates of cortisol without any type of

Adequate recovery or reset for our bodies and our nervous system. So, in other words, what's happening in your body and brain when you are under stress for prolonged periods of time, that's what causes burnout. And I think when you think about it that way, it sort of tells us that when we operate at those high levels of stress without rest, reset or recovery.

It only goes one place, one direction, physiologically, biologically, and that is to burnout. Which leads me to my first point that I think is really important and something that I hadn't considered and I wish I had known when I started off my grown-up career. We have limited cognitive resources on a day-to-day basis. One of the biggest misconceptions that I think professionals have is that.

We believe that our mental capacity is unlimited and and we almost think that it's like a muscle that we'll just keep growing. Like, okay, that first time I, you know, pulled an all-nighter, like that was tough, but I'm just gonna get better at it over time. Or the first time I worked 12 hours without taking a lunch break or stepping up from my desk, like that was challenging, but I'm gonna get better at it as it goes on. And it's really ignoring this truth. Your mental capacity is limited. And so you're actually not going to get better at those things.

Because it's a finite resource that once it's spent, it's spent. Every day when we wake up, there's a limited amount of cognitive energy in our thinking brain. And everything we do, every decision that we make

It draws from that reservoir. So think about every little email that you're making a split second decision on, every difficult conversation or frustration that you're having in your head, client issues or deadlines, and every little interruption it's pulling more and more out of that cognitive store. And that resource just starts to dwindle over the course of your day, which is really interesting because I think.

that a lot of us that are in high stress and pressure environments, our jobs are sort of nonstop. Like there isn't a break and there isn't really room in our jobs to embrace this idea that we only I only have so much juice during a day. And we're kind of expected to have this constant ability to analyze and make decisions and regulate our emotions.

And we just end up solving problems all day long and drawing from that cognitive store all day long. And this is something that over time will eventually end up burning up.

Because a lot of us will, you know, we'll do that mad dash. I call I call it kind of the burnout cycle, you know, we'll go really hard, we'll blow through those cognitive stores, you know, by noon or one o'clock in the afternoon, and we keep pushing through until six, seven, or ten hours, and we'll just keep going without recognizing that I'm, you know, I'm kind of running out of juice or I ran out of juice a couple hours ago. It's like driving a car when the gas light is on.

And just pretending that it doesn't matter and pretending that at some point the engine's not going to blow up. And you know, when we think about it that way, logically, it is no wonder that a lot of us live in a constant cycle of like burnout, crash, ultimately recover and do it again and again. And because this is how a lot of us treat our brains day in and day out. We we see the engine light or the gas light and we just keep going. And over time.

It always ends the same way.

And to understand why that is, we have to talk about our nervous system because I think that's the piece of burnout that everybody just kind of ignores. You know, we're not just the body that shows up at work every day. There's a lot more going on back here, you know, in our brain and in our nervous system that's impacted by everything we do day in and day out. And that's to say that burnout is not something that just happens in your mind. It's really happening in your nervous system.

Our nervous systems have two primary modes, and I'm being overly simplistic, so be gentle with me in the comments. But we have big two general modes. One is survival mode and one is restore mode. Our survival mode is the one that we all know about fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses. It's very quick to act quick acting. It's sort of intended to identify threats and respond very quickly.

That system is intended to protect us from danger. What's really interesting is that when our amygdala is triggered and that that survival kind of nervous system takes over, what cortisol does, and cortisol is released when that happens, cortisol is sort of like the manager of all of the organs in your body.

And during a stressful situation when cortisol is released, it kind of tells certain parts of your body, okay, like heart and lungs, like you you gotta go, man. Like we gotta run, we need some air, we need to pump oxygen through the body and our limbs so that we can get away from this tiger. And then cortisol will say, you know, for instance, to your digestive system, like, hey, there are no potty breaks when we're running from a a lion. So you gotta like stop and calm down.

And not digest right now, like we're we're gonna sprint here for a little bit. And so that's kind of how cortisol operates and regulates your body during stress. Some systems ramp up, other systems shut down. over time, this beautiful nervous system that we have that's I intended to identify threats and dangers is having a hard time or is unable to really distinguish between that lion that's chasing us.

And the glare that we're getting from our boss across the the hallway, right? It sees all of those really non-threatening kind of daily stressors as the same level of threat as that lion. And so it doesn't really distinguish between the two so what that means is that to our body and our brain, stress is stress.

The net result is that when we are constantly under stress or pressure and our nervous system is always seeing these little kind of triggers around us as a dangerous threat to our to our livelihood, to our life, it causes our body to constantly live in a state of stress where certain systems are ramped up and other systems are shut down. And the net result that I see is that a lot of us as professionals, we live in a

Low grade fight or flight every single day with our body kind of flooded with cortisol day in and day out without much room to really reset. So eventually that high state of cortisol and stress becomes our normal and we stop noticing it. But that doesn't change what's happening in our bodies. And I think that really kind of synthesizes how a lot of us operate in our careers.

Over time, you just start to kind of roll with the chaos and craziness of your stressful workplace. But what we don't realize is that we kind of stop noticing when we're in that stress state and when we're triggered and activated, which can be tremendously helpful to be productive, but it's also very scary when we start thinking about, okay, I have been in fight or flight all day. I'm not clocking it anymore because I'm so used to living here.

I'm so curious what that's doing to my body and my nervous system right now. I'm so glad that you asked. That's what we're gonna talk about now. So, what does all of that chronic stress do to your brain? When we are under chronic stress, like I've described, our bodies produce cortisol kind of nonstoper as long as it's able. And while cortisol can be really helpful in those short bursts, like, hey, I'm running from a tiger, I need extra oxygen and blood flow right now, and I need no bathroom breaks.

That's very helpful when we need to respond to challenges and threats. But when it stays elevated for really long periods of time, what the research has told us is that it actually impairs the part of our brain that's responsible for cognitive, rational thinking. It's that prefrontal cortex where we do our decision making, our strategic thinking, rational analysis, planning.

impulse control and emotional regulation. Now listen, I'm a lawyer by training, okay? And whenever I think about this and I think about what stress is doing to my brain, it sort of tells me that that stress, that elevated cortisol, is literally shutting down every part of my brain that people actually pay lawyers to use. And I say it like that because the reality of it is that's what we're being paid to do. Think rationally, help people make decisions and be strategic.

When we marinate our brain and our bodies and cortisol day in and day out, we physiologically, biologically lose access to the part of our brain that people are actually paying us to use. And I think that's pretty important to know.

Other studies, when that they look at errors by attorneys or malpractice claims, a lot of those result from periods where the individual was under under chronic stress. And it makes perfect sense. When you are living in that state, it increases errors. Attention to detail decreases. You're not able to regulate your emotions as much. So you're snapping at people. It's very clear to me that for most of us as professionals, in order to show up.

And do the work that we are hired to do, we have to learn how to keep that prefrontal cortex part of our brain in the driver's seat. And the only way you can do that is if we learn how to pull ourselves out of that stress response and let our prefrontal cortex kind of come back online. And that only works if we learn to regulate that nervous system better.

When we live in this heightened state day in and day out, it actually increases the activity and responsiveness of that amygdala. And that's the the threat detention threat detection center that I mentioned earlier. What that means is that the amygdala just kind of stays on like high alert or like close to high alert because it's starting to kind of recognize I'm in a stressful space. And so I need to be on or close to on at all times. And eventually it just

keeps that higher rate of activity in that part of our brain. And what that creates is humans who are more reactive, less patient, more emotionally triggered, less able to think clearly, they're less creative, they're less strategic. Ironically, the very state that we're operating in to meet the demands of our careers and our professions is the state that makes us

Worse at performing that very job. And I think that is really kind of a sign that we need to understand this better because the science tells us that we're just going to be doing a worse job, creating more mistakes, risks, and liability to ourselves if we don't learn how to regulate this better. And what's more, we're going to take longer to do things because we're not going to be as efficient. We're going to miss things. We're going to have less attention to detail.

So now things are gonna take even longer, which heightens the stress and the backlog, you know, and around and around we go on this fun little burnout merry-go-round.

Hopefully some of this is resonating with you, but let's talk about How do I know and start paying attention to whether or not I may be experiencing the early signs of burnout?

Burnout rarely shows up like people lying in bed and not able to get up and function day to day. Most professionals who are burnt out are still incredibly productive. And I think this is part of the problem. As professionals, like we've learned to kind of live like this, right? We we candle the flaming torches day in and day out, nonstop, while riding a bike down the road and you know, buying groceries. We're so good at it.

But that doesn't mean it's not happening in our brains and in our bodies. And I think one of the hardest things for people to recognize is not only that they're not okay, but just maybe everybody else around them is also not okay. And one of the things I always tell people that when they come to coaching and they're kind of

You know, sharing this vulnerable feeling of just burnt out. And then there's the judgment that maybe I just can't hack it or I'm not able to do it as well as this person. And I say, you know, I have worked with some pretty amazing and powerful people in my life. And when I coach with them, I get to really see the behind the scenes and I will tell you, they're not okay. Most people have just gotten really good at functioning.

and carrying it. And so we may feel like we're the only ones. And I I promise you that is not the case. And if you don't believe me, run a simple research exploration on the internet for the number of people in your profession experiencing burnout. And then look around and start to kind of see, okay, you know, maybe it is like half of the people around me are suffering from anxiety or depression or burnout, which is that's what it is in the legal industry. It's that high of a rate.

Most of them are just suffering while still showing up and doing all of the things. And so, and I really hope you hear me when I say that if this is something you're experiencing now or have in the past, you are by no means alone. And it's not a failure. It's simply your body and your nervous system trying to take care of you. So here's how we know that we might be kind of cruising towards that burnout.

When it's more than just physical exhaustion. And I think the physical exhaustion is certainly in there, but for a lot of us that sit at a computer all day long, it's like, why am I so physically exhausted? So that's definitely in there, but it's always more than that. It's that mental exhaustion, emotional exhaustion, just feeling like you don't have any gas in the tank to connect with the humans in your life at home and the people that really

matter to you. You just feel like you've got nothing left to give. That's a huge sign that you may be experiencing some low, early signs of burnout.

Depersonalization is another one from the WHO that's pretty classic burnout. And and I think it's sort of one of the bigger hallmarks that I see. And that's where we start to just really feel disconnected from our clients, from our coworkers, from work in general, and maybe even just kind of feeling a general disconnection from yourself. It's almost like

Every day we're just on autopilot. We're going through the motions. Everything is just kind of a means to an end. There's no real meaning or connection or like human at the other end of anything we're doing during our day. We're just kind of going through it and it's washing over us. it can feel incredibly isolating. It can feel incredibly lonely. But it's also, I think, our nervous system's way of sort of kind of closing off and trying to conserve what little energy we have left. Because we don't have

energy for ourselves, never mind connecting with other people and caring about other people and their needs as we meet them on this journey. Cynicism is a pretty common one, especially working with lawyers for as long as I have.

That's where work or activities that once felt really meaningful start to feel pointless. So you may find yourself disconnecting from things that you previously really enjoyed or looked forward to do. And you just feel kind of negative about everything and maybe irritated that anyone's asking you to do those things or that you, you know, you're expected to go back to that aerobics class that you used to really love and your friends are wondering where you are, and you get irritated that they even ask.

and there's this real detachment from those parts of our lives that we used to enjoy. And again, this makes sense, right? We are we are working in an energy deficiency. We don't have enough juice to get through the day. Of course, our nervous system is going to kind of close the ranks because that also means that we don't have energy to give to passion and joy, even on things that previously sparked that in us, because we're just on such little energy.

that there's nothing left to give, even to those things.

reduced efficacy. This is one we talked about earlier. in short, we just start to question our competence. And I think it's easy for this one to spiral because we feel ourselves kind of feeling burnt out. We look around, everyone else seems to be okay. And it makes it really easy to kind of judge ourselves and say like I'm just not good enough. Like I'm not as smart as they are. And then when we tell our brain that our confirmation bias is like, yeah, you made that mistake and you made that mistake. And you know, we just kind of spiral from there.

A lot of times individuals in this space will feel like they're accomplishing less and less, even though they're working harder and harder. And I think this one may be easier for the people in our lives to spot. So if you think you might be in this space, sometimes it is kind of helpful to ask the people around you if they're noticing you saying things that maybe seem cynical or sort of indicate a lack of efficacy or feeling like you're just.

not as competent as you actually are.

A sign I see of this that I think is also really common is that small tasks that used to feel really easy suddenly feel overwhelming. And that may be something as simple as like figuring out what to order for dinner. Not even cook for dinner, but just figuring out what to order feels like an insurmountable challenge and some kind of a an affront to your capability that you can't figure it out, right? So little bitty tasks.

Now start to feel really overwhelming and insurmountable.

Your nervous system is also at play. So there's a variety of signs to be looking for there. I think the easiest one for most people is we have problems sleeping. And you're not getting full night's sleep or it's not restful sleep. Maybe you've got those spinning thoughts keeping you up. Maybe it's just general anxiety day in and day out, brain fog, digestive issues. And I think this kind of goes back to

When we are triggered and that stress response kicks in and cortisol is telling which organs and and systems of the body to turn on, turn on or turn off, one of the systems that gets turned off is your digestive system because again, we're running from tigers. We don't have time for bathroom breaks. It's no wonder to me that so many high-stress professionals have issues with their digestive system or their GI system. Other symptoms or signs in your nervous system are just that constant fatigue.

difficulty concentrating or kind of at the other end of the spectrum you're feeling really wired, but you're also really exhausted. And so it's sort of like I think of those toddlers, you know, when they're they're totally acting like a spaz and there's kind of running around like mad little men and women, but you know that they're just like totally exhausted. If you've ever spent any time around young children, you've seen it. But we do it as adults when we're we're kind of wired and we're running around like little spazzes ourselves.

But we are also just physically, mentally, and emotionally tired. And it's sort of like we're fighting it and running just on straight adrenaline because we don't want to rest.

So now that we have some clarity around what burnout is, some of the signs, I think I really need to spend a little bit of time talking about why traditional solutions don't often fix it. It's not as simple as some other challenges that would just require you to set a boundary or take some things off of your plate. For a lot of the professionals that I work with,

their solution to their burnout. I'm not, I'm not trying to poke fun, but it's just fascinating, right? Because I know they're not thinking logically. So it's always interesting to hear how they propose to solve this for themselves. Because the first solution they all offer is, well, I just need to work really hard. I need to pull a couple all nighters for the rest of this week and and then everything will be fine. And that is almost always the solution that I hear. Like I just, you know, I need a couple days of working 16, 18 hours and then everything's gonna be fine.

Or they want to get more planners and be more efficient in their planning, develop more systems or new ways to optimize their time.

That would be tremendously helpful if the burnout issue was one to do with efficiency. Meaning we had the right amount of energy for the appropriate amount of work, but we just weren't using our time efficiently. A lot of those tools would solve for that. But we're talking burnout. So we have typically way more work than we have energy at all, or even reasonable time for one human being to do all of the work. So

Too much work, too little energy, and we're starting from an unrealistic place. That is why a lot of those tools, they're not gonna fix it. What we really need in order to get out of burnout is restoration of that energy. Once you blow through that cognitive store again and again and again, right? And we've just kind of run out of clear thinking juice.

And then we just keep going and burn up our entire nervous system. It's gonna take a little while for the system to come back online. Think about that car that we drove with the engine light on or the gas tank on, and we just kept gaslight on. We kept going. That car's not gonna be better if you just pull over on the side of the road and like give it 15 minutes or an hour or a day, right? We need to kind of rehaul it. We need to restore it. We need to kind of look at what was damaged, fix it, and then move on.

To have forward momentum be meaningful in any kind of a way.

Similarly, we cannot optimize our way out of nervous system depletion. At some point, we have to allow that system to recover and reboot. And it doesn't happen just overnight.

This then begs the question: how do we actually recover from burnout? The first step, in my opinion, is recognizing that time to recover and reset, it's not a luxury. It's a biological requirement. Okay. Remember, like that burnt out car on the side of the road, that's your nervous system. You kind of want that for the rest of your life. You kind of need it.

And so we have to take time to allow our body to heal. And so taking time off, finding space to recover, it it's not just an ideal

or a sunshine and margarita is kind of a dream. Like it is an actual requirement in order to move forward.

From that space, we have to focus on managing your energy, not your time. And they're different. A lot of people manage our calendars. I know I personally am obsessed with my calendar, but for most people, they don't also focus on managing their energy, which is not the same thing. And what I mean when I say that is taking a moment to kind of consider.

During my day, what is it that drains me? And is there anything that actually restores me? Or are there areas where I'm leaking energy every day? Having that data available to you will allow you to better assess where you're losing energy, things that are harming your kind of already depleted stores of energy, and things that may be improving your energy. For example,

I recently had this conversation with my own coach about where I may be losing energy. And what I realized was that I had these standing yoga classes on my calendar. Sometimes we held them, sometimes we didn't have them. But I found myself thinking about them a lot. And one, am I going to have it this week? Am I not going to have it this week? I was always kind of wondering about it. And and what I realized is that I was actually leaking a lot of energy around those classes.

Because I wasn't able to really plan out my week, plan out my work, because I kind of had these big question marks on my calendar. And then almost like this low-grade dread, like, am I having it, or am I not having it? Like, I hope I'm not having it, or maybe I really want to have it this week. And like that back and forth and that mental kind of tug-of war, I was draining a tremendous amount of energy. And so I needed to let some of that go so that I could protect the little energy that I have for things like this or things like working with my clients.

Every day is not just about managing what's on your to-do list and what tasks you're taking off. We have to also look at what bogs me down and what fills me up. And if you've listened to my podcast long enough, I have some episodes on, you know, how do I know, how do you know when a relationship has run its course? And and I I r mentioned that because there could be relationships in your life that do bog you down.

And drain you, and you don't come away feeling energized, you come away feeling more tired. So when you are burnt out, or maybe you're just operating in a really stressful time in your life, we have to not only look at what we're doing with our time and how we're spending our time, we want to ask the question what makes me feel energized and what doesn't, and make adjustments accordingly so that we can protect the energy that we do have left. It doesn't have to be forever.

But certainly when our stores are running low, we have to look at ways to protect it and replenish it. For me, I replenish my energy through journaling and spending time outside and exercising. So I know when I'm feeling really depleted, those are things that I can do to start feeling more like myself. But it takes time to find what those may be for yourself and starting to add those in when you feel yourself being completely drained.

It's very difficult to recover from burnout when we don't have a sense of little things that we can do that fill our cups and replenish our energy. And so it's something that I suggest for anybody listening, no matter where you are in your professional journey, having that tool belt of things that fill your cup and energize you is really important because you're really going to need those in the event you feel yourself getting burned out. So start paying attention to those now.

so that you know what to leverage in the future if you need them.

Create more recovery moments during your day. We talked about how when we live under chronic stress, our nervous system is on high alert and our prefrontal cortex is kind of like checked out, and our amygdala, kind of fear-based brain, is kind of driving the bus. We have to provide our nervous system evidence that the threat has passed and that we're safe.

Because that allows the amygdala to kind of cool it, the prefrontal cortex to come back online. And so we do that by creating intentional moments of restoration in your day. So we don't need like a big humongous vacation, but we need daily restorations and daily resets where we are intentionally allowing our nervous system to reset and go back to kind of that rest and digest and process state.

This could be taking 60 seconds to go outside. It doesn't have to be anything big. It could be taking five minutes to do a guided meditation. Lucky for you, there's a ton of them on this podcast. Or just taking a few minutes to breathe deeply and check in with your space. So simple daily restoration activities where maybe you pull yourself out of your inbox and you go take some big breaths.

Before you come back in and start thinking about what you're going to tackle next, we have to give our nervous system an opportunity to come back online and recenter. Otherwise, we're just going to stay heightened all day long.

Meditation, as I mentioned, is a very simple way to re-engage that parasympathetic nervous system. That's kind of our rest and reset nervous system. Meditation activates that nervous system in particular. It teaches your brain and your body to return to calm. And so there is a reason why I'm such an advocate for meditation. It really allows that part of our brain that we're wanting more connection with.

to come back online. So even just a few minutes a day can truly make a meaningful difference in helping your nervous system move between those states seamlessly instead of staying locked in in just one.

Sound healing is another really simple one. You can on any of the music platforms and find binaural beats. they have an interesting impact on your brain frequency and your ability to kind of focus and reset. sound bath meditations, anything like that can really facilitate relaxation and shift your body into a more restorative state. A lot of people who engage in sound healing report reduced stress.

improved sleep and just a greater sense of calm after the sound bath or any other sound based practice. So again, there's a reason that I offer these services because they help our nervous system reset.

Reiki and energy work are another easy way to access this. A lot of people find that Reiki and other energy-based practices can help them relax and reconnect with themselves and release some of that accumulated stress. whether you view it through an energetic lens or a mindfulness lens, or simply as just a dedicated period of rest and self-care, the goal is the same.

We're trying to create conditions where your nervous system can begin to recover and heal.

This brings me to the last option: sleep and recovery. You cannot out-supplement, out-coffee, or out-hustle a lack of recovery. Your body and your nervous system are smarter than that. And I they will only speed up the sprint at the burnout brick Sleep will still be one of the most powerful tools available for restoring brain function and nervous system.

Health. And I know it can be really challenging when we're feeling burnt out. So maybe you pair your sleep routine with some journaling, some meditation, some energy work, or some sound healing, whatever you can add to your nighttime routine to kind of allow your body to slip into that relaxed state before trying to sleep, because I know sometimes sleeping when we're burnt out can be a challenge. So try mixing in any of these other activities or tools to improve that sleep and recovery period.

If there is only one thing that you take from my episode today, it's this. Burnout is not a personal failure or a sign that you can't hack it. It is often a predictable response to prolonged stress without adequate recovery. That's it. So the solution is not doing more.

And in fact, for a lot of us, the solution can present itself only when we stop asking, how can I be more productive or more efficient? And instead start considering how can I better support my nervous system in this moment, but also make a habit of it day in and day out.

Because your greatest professional asset, it's not your calendar, even though I love calendar and time management work, but it's also not your credentials, it's not your intelligence, it's not your work ethic, it's not your ability to just keep on pushing through and grinding. It's your energy, it's your ability to think clearly, to make sound decisions.

To solve problems, to connect with other humans around you and navigate challenges without constantly operating in survival mode. Without any of that, your credentials, your calendar, your work ethic, none of it matters if you don't have the energy and the cognitive stores available to do a good job. All of those things depend on your nervous system and the health.

of your nervous system. So I guess the good news is that burnout recovery is possible Because our brains are so adaptable and our nervous systems are so beautifully resilient. this means that with the right tools and support we can start shifting away from chronic stress and back into a state of balance

and clarity and more well being.

If this episode resonated with you, I offer a variety of services designed specifically to support nervous system regulation and burnout recovery. These are the tools that I found I needed to dig out myself. And so now I offer them to everybody. Through virtual meditation instruction, Reiki sessions, sound healing experiences, traditional coaching, or other holistic wellness practices, it's my goal to help professionals reconnect with themselves.

And create sustainable ways of living and working. I also provide workshops and trainings for law firms, businesses, leadership teams, or any kind of an organization that cares about stress management, nervous system regulation, burnout prevention, mindfulness, and resilience. These are all really designed to give teams very practical tools that they can immediately apply to improve focus, well being, communication, and

performance of their employees and their teams.

If you were looking for a place to begin and wanting to implement some more nervous system support or care into your daily routine, I encourage you to check out my 21-day future self-meditation challenge. And it's inside my private podcast space, Becoming Her. Over the course of 21 guided meditations, we work on calming the nervous system, increasing self-awareness.

Releasing limiting beliefs, reconnecting with your intuition, and stepping into the version of yourself that I think you're wanting to become or slowly evolving into. Each meditation is intentionally designed to help you create meaningful change from the inside out.

You don't have to wait until you're burnt out and completely exhausted to start taking care of yourself.

You can start implementing some healthy habits now to protect yourself for the long haul. What's more, you don't have to earn rest. Your brain was designed to only go hard for so long every day. It was designed to rest and reset and rebuild that store day in and day out. And I think that we could all learn.

To adapt ourselves a little bit similarly and just recognize, you know, I can only work so much, and then I need to reset because that's how I was built, because that is the truth. We do not have to prove our worth through constant productivity. Your well-being, it matters now. And at the end of this career, whatever path that you're on, your health and well-being are still gonna be there. The question is: did you invest in them and care for them at all?

Or are they that burnt down car on the side of the road that no one ever spent any time or love on and just kinda left it?

The sooner you start supporting your nervous system, the sooner you will discover that success does not have to come at the expense of your health, your peace, or truly your life.

You are worth so much more than that. Thank you as always for spending time with me here today. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone, a friend, a colleague, a family member, or just someone that you think might be quietly struggling with burnout. Your willingness to continue to share this information allows me to reach the people that truly need this support. Until next time, my friends, be sure to take care of yourself.

Honor your energy, check in with your energy, and remember the quality of your life and work will always be influenced by the state of your nervous system. And it's time to start paying more attention to that part of yourself.

Thank you so much for joining me here this week, my friends. Our next episodes are going to be pretty interesting. The next one is going to be for Litha, the celebration of the summer solstice, and offering some ways that you can kind of integrate this seasonal change into your life and noticing how your energy may be changing as we start beginning this climb into a new season. After that, we're going to be talking about the psychology of.

of reinvention and what happens in your brain when we start making decisions about who we wanna be moving forward, especially when that differs from who we have been. I look forward to seeing all of you in these next episodes.