Burnout is not a lack of resilience — it’s what happens when the mind and body stay in overdrive for too long.
It’s the crash that follows chronic stress, when your system can no longer meet constant demands.

Unlike ordinary tiredness, burnout is a deep depletion that affects energy, motivation, and emotion.
It’s the body’s way of saying, “enough.”

How it Feels

Burnout begins subtly. You tell yourself you’re just tired, that you’ll recover with rest — but rest no longer helps.
Your concentration fades. Your creativity disappears. Tasks you once handled easily now feel heavy.
You may feel emotionally detached, cynical, or numb — not because you don’t care, but because you’ve run out of capacity to care.

Physically, burnout can manifest as headaches, digestive issues, hormonal imbalance, or frequent illness.
Emotionally, it can look like apathy, irritability, or a sense of meaninglessness.

At its core, burnout is not just exhaustion — it’s emotional depletion paired with a loss of purpose.

Why it Happens

Burnout is caused by chronic, unrelieved stress.
Your nervous system stays locked in “fight or flight,” flooding the body with cortisol until the system collapses.

Contributors include:

• Work overload or emotional labour (especially in caregiving, teaching, healthcare, or parenting).
• Perfectionism and people-pleasing, which keep you performing even when depleted.
• Unclear boundaries, where rest feels guilt-ridden instead of restorative.
• Lack of recognition or purpose, which turns effort into emptiness.

Burnout can also emerge after trauma or prolonged anxiety — when your survival system has been running for years without pause.

What Helps

Recovery from burnout isn’t about pushing through — it’s about slowing down enough to feel again.
The first step is acknowledging that rest isn’t laziness; it’s repair.

Practical approaches:

• Remove or reduce stressors where possible — delegate, say no, or take leave.
• Nervous system care: sleep, nature, hydration, gentle movement, and nourishment.
• Therapy or coaching to rebuild emotional boundaries and reconnect with values.
• Restorative rituals — breathwork, reading, silence, slow mornings.
• Reconnection — with purpose, creativity, and self-compassion.

Healing from burnout takes time. The goal is not to return to your old pace, but to design a new one.

Further Reading

• NHS Stress and Burnout Resources → www.nhs.uk/mental-health
• Psychology Today: Burnout Overview → psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/burnout

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
• Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown
• When the Body Says No by Dr. Gabor Maté

In short:
Burnout is not a weakness — it’s the wisdom of your body asking for change.
Healing begins when you stop striving to be your old self and start listening to what the exhaustion is trying to tell you.