In retrospect, when I think about when I was burned out, I first felt it physically. I was drained, never felt like my sleep was at all restorative, and was prone to aches and pains. Over time I was even more irritable and negative, frustrated with me increased brain fog and difficulty concentrating. I also felt emotionally spent—with guilt and grief arising in places I didn’t have the capacity to really process. But most affected was my feeling of being connected to something more than just my day-to-day. It was like I was living with blinders on, and couldn’t remember the last time I genuinely laughed. I was a ghost of myself.

*Burnout can look like not wanting to get up and be a part of life.*

Burnout is more than just exhaustion—it’s a depletion of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual reserves. It is a type of soul-level trauma that affects us all a little differently, yet most of us caregivers feel it at some point in our lives. While we often think of burnout as just feeling “overwhelmed,” it manifests differently depending on which part of us is most impacted. Addressing burnout requires a holistic approach, one that restores our nervous system, challenges distorted thought patterns, strengthens our emotional boundaries, and reconnects us to spiritual sources of meaning.

Burnout is layered and often a perpetual cycle unless we address it from all points of contact—in our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our souls. Renewal is possible—and awareness of how it affects you is the first step.

Physical Burnout: Restoring the Nervous System

Like in my case, burnout often shows up as chronic fatigue, muscle tension, headaches, digestive issues, and even immune system suppression. From a polyvagal perspective, burnout is a sign that our nervous system is stuck in survival mode—either hyper-aroused (fight/flight) or shut down (freeze/collapse).

First Steps for Renewal

• Co-Regulation: Connect with safe, supportive people, pets, and energies. Find space to rest without distractions, outside of sleep. Gentle eye contact, soft voices, and compassionate self-led touch (like a hand on the heart) can help shift your nervous system into safety and connection.

• Rhythmic Movement: Walking, rocking, humming, and deep diaphragmatic breathing stimulate the vagus nerve, supporting nervous system regulation.

• Cold Water Therapy: Splashing cold water on your face or taking a cool shower can activate the vagus nerve and reset your system. Running your hands through ice-cold water can also be a quick re-set.

• Breathwork: Physiological sighing—two quick inhales through the nose, followed by a long, slow exhale through the mouth—is proven to quickly downregulate stress.

• Time in Nature: Sunlight, fresh air, and the natural world activate the parasympathetic system, inviting rest and repair.

Mental Burnout: Challenging Cognitive Distortions

Mental burnout makes everything feel overwhelming and unmanageable. One way to address this is by identifying and reducing cognitive distortions, which are automatic, unhelpful ways of thinking that fuel stress and exhaustion.

Common Distortions

• All-or-Nothing Thinking: Seeing things in extremes—either success or failure, good or bad. A quick reframe would be asking yourself, “What’s a middle-ground perspective?” Instead of “I completely failed,” try “I learned something valuable that I can improve next time.”

• Personalization: Taking excessive responsibility for things outside your control. A reframe could be asking, “What factors contributed to this situation beyond me?” and “Would I hold someone else to this same standard?”

By challenging these thought patterns, we create more space for mental clarity and self-compassion.

Emotional Burnout: Strengthening Boundaries

Emotional burnout often stems from overextending ourselves, people-pleasing, or carrying emotional burdens that aren’t ours to hold. Managing boundaries effectively requires both boundary setting and boundary hygiene—the ongoing maintenance of our energetic and emotional space.

Two strategies to try for boundary hygiene:

• Body-Based Check-In: Before saying yes to something, pause and notice how your body reacts. Does your chest tighten? Do you feel heavy? These sensations signal that a boundary may need to be set.

• Energy Releasing Rituals: At the end of the day, practice a “return to sender” meditation. Imagine sending back any emotions or burdens that aren’t yours while calling your own energy back to yourself. Release them down through your toes, into the earth, or out through your breath, into the air. Let go of what is not yours to carry.

Boundaries aren’t just about saying “no”—they’re about saying “yes” to your well-being, saying “yes” to sustainability so that you can continue supporting your clients, your family, your community.

Spiritual Burnout: Healing from Moral Distress & Oppressive Systems

Spiritual burnout often is the consequence of living in modern systems of capatalistic greed, over-focus on independence over interdependence, and social inequities of sexism and racism. These systemic problems cause moral injury—the distress of witnessing or participating in systems that violate our core values. This is particularly common for healers, helpers, and advocates working within our modern society’s structures, where we are unable to fully enage in our empathy systems core to our being human. The weight of injustice, inequity, and exploitation can erode our sense of meaning and connection. We have to adovcate for our own humanity—and it starts within.

First steps to cope and reconnect:

• Acknowledge how systems are wounding you and those you care for: Name the moral distress instead of suppressing it. Honor the grief, anger, or disillusionment that arises. Best practice? Do this in safe community.

• Seek communities rooted in mutuality: Reconnect with frameworks that prioritize interconnection, equity, beauty, and awe—whether that’s through nature-based practices, social justice-oriented faith groups, or rituals that center community healing.

• Create meaning through collective care: Engage in mutual aid, activism, or creative expression as a form of spiritual restoration. Learn about the 3 Pillars for Burnout Care. Knowing you’re not alone in the struggle can transform despair into purpose.

Healing from spiritual burnout isn’t about bypassing pain—it’s about reconnecting to sources of resilience that align with our deepest values.

Your Path Toward Renewal

Burnout is not a personal failing—it’s a signal that you are a human living in modern life that prevents us from fully being able to resource ourselves. You deserve care, attention, and support towards change—even when we can’t change the systems themselves. Whether it’s resetting your nervous system, shifting mental patterns, reinforcing emotional boundaries, or reclaiming spiritual connection, true renewal happens when we listen to ourselves with compassion.

A Question for You

Which area of burnout feels most present for you right now?

Taking even one small step toward restoration can create a ripple effect toward deeper well-being.

Contact me for support—I offer free consultations for my services such as 1:1 therapy (PA and FL), soul care spiritual direction, and therapeutic retreats.

These strategies are for information purposes only, not to diagnose or treat mental health conditions—please contact your care provider if you’re having difficulty coping with everyday life. You deserve care! Call 988 for immediate assistance in the USA.