Recovering from Burnout: A Personal Approach to Healing
Burnout may feel like the end, but it’s actually the beginning of healing. Learn how to recover and build a life that supports your wellbeing. I know right now may feel really challenging but I hope this blog helps guide you on your recovery journey.
Understanding the Burnout Recovery Process
Burnout doesn’t happen overnight, and recovery is the same. What I so often see is people becoming very impatient with themselves, falling into the trap of constantly asking “why do I not feel better yet”. Recovery is a gradual process of rebuilding your wellbeing which requires patience and intentional effort.
It’s likely you’re experiencing burnout due to prolonged stress, exhaustion, lack of balance in your life and neglecting your needs. Recognising that you’re experiencing burnout is the first step to overcoming it. Instead of seeing it as a failure, understand it is your body’s way of say “hey, I need you to listen because I’m struggling”. Often when we don’t listen to ourselves, our body’s will make us listen.
This isn’t about fixing yourself; you are not broken. This is about rediscovering who you are, what you need to thrive in life and how to meet your needs. Approach your recovery with self-compassion, know that you did the best you could in the circumstances and as awful as it might feel, there is opportunity in this.
REMEMBER: Although yes there is an opportunity, this isn’t about toxic positivity. Allow yourself to be a human being and feel all the emotions, it’s ok to feel stressed or overwhelmed some days, fed up that it got to this point, upset that you allowed it to get to this point – AND know when to bring yourself back to a place of you’ve got this and you can use this to support you moving forwards to live a life you actually want. My guess is whatever lead you to burnout wasn’t making you happy, so this is an opportunity to change that.
Prioritising Self-Care: Rest, Reflection, and Restoration
When you’re experiencing burnout, self-care might feel like a luxury, but it’s essential.
This isn’t about bubble baths and face masks (although I do love those as a way to relax!), it’s about meeting your fundamental needs for rest, reflection and restoration.
Rest: Give yourself permission to slow down. Resting doesn’t just mean sleeping more; there are actually 7 types of rest. It’s important to recognise which type of rest you need and the ways that support you to have this rest. For more information on each type and things to try, read this piece I wrote. I really encourage you to experiment to understand how you can meet your needs and what works best for you – this isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Connecting more to your needs can take time, especially if it’s something you’ve been ignoring. Be patient, the more you check in with yourself and the easier it gets. I recommend starting a practice to check in with yourself each morning by asking – what do I need today?
Reflection: Take some time to reflect on how you got to this point – this isn’t about being mean to yourself and focusing on mistakes or things you should have done better. Instead, I want you to be compassionately curious. Reflect on what patterns, responsibilities, habits, beliefs or choices contributed to your burnout? Journaling, talking with a trusted friend or a trained professional can help you make sense of what happened and give you clarity on what to change moving forwards.
Restoration: Restoration is about filling your cup back up, so you have more to give to yourself and to others. Focus on activities that replenish you - this could be reconnecting with or starting a hobby, spending time in nature, moving your body, being creative, or engaging in meaningful relationships. Again, this is about experimenting, what do you feel called to try. Start there and if that doesn’t meet your need, try something else. I want you to get to know yourself and be able to have some go-to ways to fill up your cup.
Building Sustainable Routines for Long-Term Wellbeing
One of the keys to recovering from burnout is creating routines that support your wellbeing long-term, rather than just quick fixes for the short-term.
Consistency over perfection: If you’ve read my Complete Guide to Burnout, you will be aware of the impact of feeling like you need to be perfect. Small, consistent habits build the foundation for long-term health. Start with one or two manageable changes, staying consistent with these is much more impactful than choosing 10 changes and only sticking to them for a week. As you stay consistent, you are building new neural pathways that this is the way you show up for yourself, you will build momentum and find it easier to implement other changes in the future.
Pacing yourself: Avoid the trap of trying to do too much, too soon. You need to set yourself up for success, rather than failure. Remember what I said at the beginning – patience is key. Remind yourself this is a journey and pushing yourself too hard may backfire. Create some mantras to support you on your journey, repeat them every day or have them on post it notes around your home. Some examples are, I am giving myself what I need, I am nourishing my body and mind, I deserve support, every day I am feeling more like me.
Tracking progress: Celebrate small wins, whether it’s a day of feeling more energised or saying “no” to an overwhelming commitment. Each step forward is something to celebrate, especially when you are really changing how you are in the world – that’s huge! Tracking your wins, also primes your mind to focus more on the wins. Think about how you could do this in a fun way that helps to motivate you to continue.
Setting Boundaries
Learning to set boundaries is incredibly transformative, not only for burnout recovery, but also life. Very often, burnout relates to prioritising everyone else other yourself, saying yes when you actually want to say no, overcommitting, feeling resentful and completing ignoring what you want and need.
If you’re not currently setting boundaries, yes this will be a shift, but it is essential. It’s important to realise that setting boundaries and saying no, is NOT mean, it does NOT mean you are a bitch. People may be used to you always prioritising them and saying yes so this will be a shift but the people who love and respect you will be open to this change.
Practice saying no: Start small, what can you say no to? Perhaps this is with people who you feel may be more open to you saying no or by declining non-essential requests that don’t align with your energy or priorities. The more you say no, the easier it becomes. I also find it helpful to have a buffer sentence to give yourself some space to check in with what you need before responding, for example, if someone asked you to meet up, your buffer sentence could be, “I will check my diary and get back to you”. That way you can check in with whether you want to meet up with them that day or not. Also it is completely ok to not have anything in your diary and say no, what you need might be a night in for you to look after yourself and get some rest.
Communicate clearly: Learning to communicate and be honest about what you need is important. For example, you might say “I can’t take this on right now, but I appreciate you thinking of me” or “I don’t have capacity to get to this today, can I get it to you by the end of the week?” Again, this comes back to practise and getting used to responding in this way.
Protect your time: Designate time for yourself each day, free from interruptions or obligations. Use this time to do something for yourself and come back to some of the rest or restoration practices you like. You could set aside some time in the morning, have a lunchtime break or create an evening routine.
The Importance of Mental Health Support
Seeking professional support is a sign of strength, not weakness. It is a complete myth that we need to do life alone or that asking for help is a sign you’ve failed.
Therapists and coaches train so they can provide expertise and tools to help you process your experience, understand how you’ve reached this point, what caused it (which may be unconscious beliefs) and navigate recovery with greater ease and guidance.
Investing in yourself may be new and feel a little daunting, I totally get that. I want you to know you matter, your wellbeing is important, you are important.
Don’t hesitate to reach out – I can answer any questions and address any concerns.
My Personal Experience with Burnout
When I experienced burnout, I was so disconnected from what I needed. I was either completely non-stop (seeing 4 friends separately on one day, whizzing around from place to place) or a shell of myself when I didn’t have any plans. I would come home from work most days and not want to speak to anyone.
Even though I didn’t register at the time I was experiencing burnout, I knew something wasn’t right and I ended up leaving my job to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. My job played a huge role in me reaching a place of burnout and I know I was in a very fortunate position to leave.
As I began to feel more like myself, it wasn’t for another year that I really discovered the key pillars of looking prioritising myself and what I need. It was transformative for me when I started to say no more, protect time just for me, check in with what I need and actually act on this, do activities that really nourished my soul, and let go of the need to be perfect. Working with a coach also helped me work through deeper unconscious beliefs that were impacting me.
I feel incredible grateful that I have such a strong foundation now, that I really build brick by brick. I see firsthand every day how it helps me in every area of my life and to navigate the ups and downs of life.
Embracing a New Beginning
Recovering from burnout is about creating a life that honours your needs, values and limits. Use this time to pause, reflect and rebuild – really think about how you can put what I’ve shared into action. It is through taking action that you will experience the changes you want, and ultimately start to feel less burnt out.
By prioritising self-care, setting boundaries and seeking support, you can build a strong foundation which not only helps you live a life for yourself, and not for others, but also helps you navigate the normal ups and downs of life.
If you want to read more about burnout, I have also written a Complete Guide to Burnout. I feel very passionately about this topic as I have seen first-hand, from my time working in HR, how many people are affected by burnout. You can find more information about the work I do with companies to support them in scaling team output without losing top talent to burnout here.
If you want to know how I could support you please get in touch.
