Body-First Healing Podcast

Somatic Practice for Fatigue & Burnout Recovery

• Britt Piper • Episode 41

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 19:05

In this somatic practice episode, Britt explores what fatigue and burnout can look like through a nervous system lens. She explains why exhaustion is often not just about doing too much, but about a system that has been carrying unresolved stress for too long and has shifted into shutdown. Through a gentle guided practice, she helps you orient to the present, notice where fatigue lives in the body, and slowly move between discomfort and support to build more capacity, regulation, and flexibility. If you feel tired but cannot truly rest, overwhelmed, numb, or disconnected, this episode offers a grounded place to begin. 

Connect with Britt:


Body-First Healing Resources:


LISTEN, FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE:

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Body First Healing Podcast. I'm Britt Piper, Survivor Turn Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Aut. If you feel stuck in old patterns, overwhelmed by your emotions, or disconnected from yourself, you're in the right place. Each week, I'll share practical somatic tools, personal stories, and conversations to support you in building a more regulated and embodied life. Because you can't talk your way through healing. You have to feel your way through. Together, we'll explore what it means to come back to yourself and create a life that feels safe enough to fully live in. I am so glad that you're here. Thank you so much for all of the feedback. This one I feel like is especially important because we're not just talking about fatigue. We are not just talking

A nervous system view of burnout & fatigue

SPEAKER_00

about burnout. We're talking about what happens when a nervous system has been carrying too much for too long without resolution. And when that happens, at a certain point, the body stops asking for help and it starts adapting. And one of the ways that it adapts is by shutting things down. And so what we call exhaustion and burnout isn't just about doing too much. It's about living with a nervous system that's been stuck in survival mode without a way out. And for many of you listening, that might feel really familiar. You might feel tired, but you can't actually rest. You might feel overwhelmed, but you don't even know like where to start. You could feel shut down, but underneath there's still kind of this low hum of activation that never really fully goes away. Like it's kind of that, you know, wired and tired feeling. Or maybe you don't even feel wired anymore. Like maybe you just feel numb or flat or just really disconnected from your body or your energy. And so what I would love for you to hear me say is that this is not a failure of your willpower. This is not you being lazy or not trying hard enough. This is physiology. When the body experiences prolonged stress, whether that is emotional, relational, or environmental, it moves into activation. It goes into fight, flight, mobilization. And energy gets recruited to help you survive. But if that energy never gets to complete, if it never gets to move to be expressed or discharged, then the nervous system doesn't just stay activated forever. Eventually it shifts into collapse, into conservation, or you can kind of think of it like hibernation, or what we call our dorsal state. And that is where fatigue really lives. Okay. So with that said, the nuance that I really want to add that I feel like a lot of people miss is that fatigue is often layered on top of unresolved activation, which is why you can feel completely exhausted, but still not be able to rest. I remember in one of my somatic experiencing trainings when I was becoming a somatic experiencing practitioner, hearing Peter Levine, who's the developer of somatic experiencing, say that your level of exhaustion and shutdown and burnout is actually a reflection of how much mobilizing energy your nervous system and body has learned to shut down over time. And the reason that we're still holding on to that is because your body hasn't yet felt safe enough to fully let go or express. So when the world tells you to just rest or take a break or to slow down and it doesn't land, that makes so much sense. Okay. Because rest is not something that we can force. It is something that your body allows when it feels safe enough to do so. So today, we are not going to try to force ourselves into calm. Okay. We're not going to try to fix your fatigue. Instead, we're going to do something much more supportive. We are going to help your nervous system begin to move again because healing is not about just staying still. As you guys have heard me say time and time again, it's about restoring your capacity to move between states gently, slowly, and with choice so that your body can begin to come out of overwhelm and

Somatic practice for fatigue & burnout recovery

SPEAKER_00

back into regulation. All right, guys. So let's begin to transition into the practice today. So wherever you are right now, I'll just invite you to allow yourself to get a little bit more comfortable. Okay, and before we begin, I just want to name this clearly. You don't have to do this perfectly.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

I'm going to give that disclaimer at the beginning of every somatic practice episode. You don't have to feel anything specific. You don't have to get this right. This is not about performing healing. Okay. This is about being in relationship with your body exactly as it is today.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

All right. So let's begin by first just letting your eyes stay open. Okay. And gently and slowly just allowing your gaze to move around your space. All right. And just remember we're not like searching for anything. We're just noticing. So you can notice things like color, light, shapes, maybe texture. So for me, I'm noticing, and I notice this a lot, just the fluted glass on my office doors. And just the kind of broken up reflection that comes through. So for you, can you let your eyes just land on something that feels neutral, maybe even slightly pleasant to observe? And then can you just stay there for a moment? And as we're doing this, we're just allowing the body to register just where we are. Okay, we are here right now in this moment. We're not in yesterday. We're not in everything that's waiting for you later. We are just here. And as you do this, you might begin to notice just a small shift somewhere inside. Maybe your breath softens a little. Maybe your shoulders drop. And maybe nothing changes at all. And that's okay too. Okay, we're just beginning to orient your system back into the present. Alright, so from here, now we can begin to just gently invite our awareness inward. Okay, just a little. We don't have to completely dive in. Okay, we don't need to get pulled in. We're just again noticing. And as you do this, I'll invite you to just bring your attention to where you feel the fatigue in your body. Okay, and with this, we don't need to track the story of why we're tired. Okay, we don't need to focus on everything that's on your plate. We're just observing where it lives inside. So maybe it's in your eyes. Are they heavy and strained, or maybe wanting to close? Perhaps you notice it in your shoulders or your chest, your belly, your legs. Okay, we're just finding and just noticing. And as you find that place, see if you can stay at the edges of the sensation. Okay, whether it's heaviness, constriction, dullness, emptiness. Okay, we don't have to go all the way in. We don't have to merge with it. We're just touching the boundary. So for me, I'm feeling that a little bit in the tops of my shoulder. It feels like there's this pressure pulling downward. And so I'm just tracking the outside edges of that, kind of around where my shoulder joints are. It's where it starts to soften a little bit. Okay, and just remember if at any point it feels like too much, you can always come back to the room and come back to the objects or the things that your eyes can find that feel neutral or even pleasant. Okay, you can come back to what you see, back to where you are. Remember that you're in charge of the pacing here, always. Okay. All right, so now without needing the fatigue to change or go away, can we gently start to shift our attention to a different place in the body? Okay, somewhere that maybe now feels a bit more neutral. And we could even say maybe a little more supported. Okay, could be your hands, could be your feet, maybe your sit bones or your back against the the chair. And then from here, can you just notice what that place feels like? Maybe there's warmth or openness or just a sense of stability or groundedness. Or maybe it just feels like less intensity. Remember, we're not trying to make it big. Okay, we're not trying to force a good feeling here. We're just just noticing what is already there, what's naturally emerging. Okay, so now we are going to begin to gently move between these two places. Okay, the place where you feel the fatigue and the place that feels a little more neutral or supported. Okay, so let your awareness just move slowly on your own timing. So let it go to the fatigue for a few moments, just noticing, tracking, kind of staying at the edge. So for me, I'm again just feeling that at the edges of my shoulders. And then gently shifting your attention back to the resource or the support or the neutrality. And for me, I'm just feeling my sit bones on the stool that I'm sitting in. And as we do this, we're just allowing our body to feel into and experience that contrast. Okay, staying five, ten, fifteen seconds in each place. Just back and forth gently between fatigue and support. Between overwhelm and just enough. Okay, maybe the fatigue, the quality of the sensation there begins to change slightly. Maybe the resource or the more neutral place becomes easier to find. For me, I'm noticing that my breath is deepening without effort or without trying. Okay, or maybe nothing obvious happens. Okay, but there might be a subtle sense of movement or settling or openness or flexibility. Okay, and if you sense into that at all, that is your nervous system beginning to reorganize. Just remember that there's no rush here. Okay, we can let this be slow. Let it be small and just enough. All right, so now can you just let your awareness settle wherever it naturally wants to go? Okay, we don't need to direct it anymore. Just notice kind of what's here now. Okay, maybe your body wants to take a deeper breath. Maybe there is a small shift in posture. If you're watching the video recording of this episode, I've been shifting a little bit, readjusting in my seat. Maybe you notice there's a little bit more space somewhere, or you just feel slightly different in a way that's kind of hard to name. So one thing that I hope we can, you know, kind of take away from this practice is that we don't need a big release for this to be working. Okay. Small, titrated, and gentle shifts are how the nervous system changes. This is how we rebuild capacity. Okay, not through force, but through relationship, through allowing your body to move at a pace and your nervous system to move at a pace that it can actually integrate, right? By touching in to the discomfort or activation and then back out to safety, touching in gently again and back out. And each time we're following that rhythm, each time we're pendulating back and forth, we're just lifting the lid of that pressure cooker a little bit and allowing some of that activation to be released. All right, guys, as we begin to close, I'll just invite you to gently bring your awareness back into the room. Just let your eyes slowly start to move again. Okay, just noticing your space, your body, your breath. Notice what might feel different. Do you feel more present? Do you feel more lifted, more grounded, more open? Is there more energy? And then if it feels okay, can you take a moment to just acknowledge yourself for showing up, for listening today, for beginning to build a different relationship with yourself and with your body? Okay, because again, your fatigue is not a failure, it's communication. And today, you responded differently. And that matters more than you know. Okay, so if you felt the impact of this work and you're wanting to go deeper into understanding your nervous system, to building a relationship with your body and nervous system or building real capacity, then remember you can always, always join us in the Body First Healing program. And if you feel the pull to not just experience this work, but to guide others through it, remember that our somatic practitioner training certificate through the Body First Healing Institute is open right now for enrollment. We have just a few spots still available for our July cohort before we close it out until 2027. You can find more information at bodyfirsthealing.com. And as always, guys, if you felt like this episode resonated with you, if you feel like there's someone you know that could really, really be supported by this practice, feel free to send, to share, to comment, to leave a review. It always means so much to me. I will see you guys next week here on the podcast. Until then, have a great one. Thank you so much for tuning into the Body First Healing podcast. If this episode resonated with you, I would be so grateful if you subscribed, left a review, or shared it with someone that you love. I'll see you back here next week. And until then, be gentle with yourself. You're doing the best you can with what you have, and that is more than enough. Just a quick note this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always consult a qualified provider for personal support.