Burnout: How it happens & How to recover

Burnout has become so common that many people treat it like an unavoidable stage of modern life. Something you “push through” with caffeine, willpower, and the occasional weekend off. But burnout isn’t a moral failing or a lack of resilience. It’s a message. A deeply physical, emotional, and spiritual call for recalibration.

A holistic approach doesn’t just help you cope with burnout; it supports you to heal from the root.

What Burnout really is (beyond the buzzword)

At its core, burnout is a state where the demands placed on your body–mind system exceed your capacity to meet them. It’s not just stress; it’s stress without recovery.

Holistically, burnout shows up on multiple levels:

Physical

• Exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix

• Hormonal imbalances

• Digestive disturbances

• Increased inflammation

• Nervous system dysregulation

Emotional

• Irritability, hopelessness, feeling “flat”

• Emotional overwhelm or numbness

Mental

• Difficulty focusing

• Reduced creativity

• Decision fatigue

Spiritual

• Feeling disconnected from meaning, purpose, or inner guidance

A holistic approach honours all of these layers, because true recovery means restoring harmony throughout the whole ecology of the self.

Burnout rarely arrives with a dramatic collapse. It creeps in quietly through the micro-choices we make every single day.

Most people imagine burnout is caused by one huge thing: too much work, a toxic workplace, or a personal crisis. And yes, those can be triggers. But in practice, burnout is almost always the accumulation of small lifestyle patterns that chip away at your resilience until your body can no longer compensate.

Understanding these patterns is one of the most powerful steps you can take toward reclaiming your energy, mood, focus, and sense of self.

Let’s look at the subtle lifestyle choices that pave the way to burnout and the shifts that restore balance.

1. The addiction to “being busy”

Somewhere along the way, busyness became a badge of honour. Many people treat rest as a reward rather than a human need.

But constant busyness keeps your nervous system in a low-level “fight-or-flight” state. Over time, cortisol rhythms flatten, sleep quality deteriorates, and your body loses the ability to switch off …. even when you finally sit down.

Signs this is you:

·       You feel guilty when you’re not productive.

·       Rest feels uncomfortable or “a waste of time.”

·       You keep taking on “just one more thing.”

Shift:

Schedule rest as intentionally as you schedule work.

If you don’t protect downtime, nothing else will change.

2. Overcommitting and People-pleasing

A huge driver of burnout is the inability to say no, especially for gentle, caring, service-oriented people.

When your default setting is “yes”, your energy leaks everywhere. You stretch beyond your limits, ignore your inner signals, and end up depleted.

Signs:

• You’re the reliable one… to your own detriment.

• You avoid conflict or disappointment.

• You rarely check what you actually want.

Shift:

Start practising “slow yes’s.

”Pause before agreeing to anything.

Ask: Do I truly have the capacity for this?

If not, it’s a no.

3. Living on stress chemistry (Caffeine, Sugar and Adrenaline)

Many people unconsciously self-medicate their fatigue with “false energy”.

This includes multiple coffees, sugary foods, energy drinks, rushed mornings, and deadlines used like adrenaline hits.

The body perceives all of this as stress.

Over time, the nervous system becomes dysregulated, the adrenal response weakens, and the line between anxiety and exhaustion blurs.

Signs:

• You need caffeine to feel “normal.”

• Afternoon crashes.

• Cravings for quick fixes.

• Feeling wired but tired.

Shift:

Stabilise blood sugar, hydrate properly, and reduce stimulants (gradually).

True energy comes from nourishment, not chemistry.

4. Chronic under-sleeping

Sleep is the first thing sacrificed and the last thing restored. Yet it’s the foundation of everything: emotional regulation, immunity, focus, and hormonal balance.

Regularly going to bed even 60–90 minutes later than your body needs can quietly build burnout over months and years.

Signs:

• You feel “tired but wired” at night.

• You can’t get to sleep because your mind is busy.

• You wake unrefreshed.

• You push through evenings on willpower.

Shift:

Guard sleep like the medicine it is.

Your brain and body repair during deep rest. Nothing can replace it.

5. Not eating enough (or eating unstable meals)

Burnout often begins with subtle blood sugar instability:

• skipping meals

• grazing instead of eating real meals

• relying on snacks instead of protein-rich food

• eating on the run

• stress-eating carbs without balancing nutrients

Unstable blood sugar feels like moodiness, fatigue, anxiety, and brain fog and repeatedly cycling through this stress chemistry pushes you closer to burnout.

Signs:

• You often forget to eat.

• Cravings, irritability or shaky feelings.

• A “3 pm slump”.

Shift:

Build meals around protein, healthy fats, and fibre.

Support your brain and adrenals before you support your schedule.

6. Emotional suppression or over-functioning

If you constantly push emotions aside to “just get on with things”, your nervous system stays in survival mode. Emotional labour counts as energy expenditure yet most people never replenish it.

Over-functioning (doing more than your share in work, relationships, parenting, or life admin) is another fast track to exhaustion.

Signs:

• You hold everything together for everyone.

• You rarely ask for help.

• You don’t know what you’re feeling until you hit a wall.

Shift:

Build emotional hygiene:

·       venting

·       journaling

·       therapy

·       herbal support

·       mindful conversations

·       nervous system calming practices

Your inner world needs as much care as your outer responsibilities.

7. Zero time for joy, play, or pleasure

Burnout is not just exhaustion; it’s the absence of aliveness.

When life becomes all duty, productivity and responsibility, your spirit dims. Without moments of play or pleasure, your brain becomes starved of dopamine and motivation.

Signs:

• You can’t remember the last time you did something “just because”.

• Life feels flat or grey.

• Even things you used to love feel like effort.

Shift:

Reintroduce pockets of joy: music, nature, creativity, movement, sunlight, laughter. These are not luxuries. They’re nourishment.

8. Living out of alignment with your values

One of the most overlooked causes of burnout is living a life that doesn’t match who you truly are.

When your work, relationships, pace or lifestyle contradict your core needs or values, your body feels it as constant internal conflict: a heavy, draining, chronic stress.

Signs:

• You feel disconnected from yourself.

• Something feels “off” even if life looks good on paper.

• You daydream about a different life.

Shift:

Reconnect with your values.

Notice what energises you versus what drains you.

Make small, tiny shifts toward alignment; they compound fast.

So what actually causes Burnout?

It’s not one big thing. It’s the accumulation of many small choices, made daily, unconsciously, and often with the best intentions.

Your body keeps score… not to punish you, but to guide you. Burnout is simply your system saying:

“This way of living is no longer sustainable for who you’re becoming”

The path back

Healing begins with awareness.

Then micro-shifts:

• better boundaries

• intentional rest

• nourishing meals

• herbal and nervous system support

• healthier rhythms

• reconnecting with joy

• saying ‘yes’ only when you mean it

Burnout is both a wake-up call and an invitation: back to your body, back to your values, and back to a life that feels like yours again.