Burnout Recovery

Friends, I’ve tried to write this post several times in my mind. I’ve felt the burnout and wanted to come up with a 3 step plan for recovering from burnout and share it with the world. However, after much research and prayer, I’ve come to the conclusion that burnout recovery is a very personal process. With that said, I want to share my own story.

For a few years now the reoccurring theme of the Holy Spirit whispers to me have been all about rest. I’ve listened and made some significant changes over the past couple of years, adding more rest into my schedule. And yet, His prompting continues.

Toward the end of last year I ended up with mono, which forced me to stop and slow down lots of things. It was frustrating to have to pretty much do nothing due to extreme tiredness and brain fog. What was most frustrating is that the mono symptoms lingered for months.

On top of that I ended up needing to take off a considerable amount of time from in person work and volunteering for a family emergency. During that rest time I struggled to do pretty much anything that I would consider productive. My brain didn’t want to do anything that it felt got me to that point in the first place. I would get into fight or flight mode instantly.

When things at home were improving and I wasn’t needed at home as much I still struggled to go to work or anywhere my body didn’t feel “safe”. It took me a couple of hours in prayer each of those days to be able to get out the door. And even then there were days I would cry my entire drive.

This didn’t seem like healthy or normal behavior to me, so I sought out to figure out how to recover from burnout. My Google research didn’t get me too far. It told me to rest and that recovery time varies. I quickly gave up on Google and the results it gave me.

In the meantime, I chose to change a few rhythms in my life. I slowed down. My mornings began unplugged with no electronics of any kind. I went for long prayer walks and took in all the sights of nature. There was this little bird that would chirp at me in the same spot everyday. Poor dude seemed so anxious. Maybe he was reflecting what was inside me. Even with this new pattern, I would go from zero to fight or flight in a fraction of a second out of nowhere.

My next step was to seek a 3 step plan from Jesus, my Counselor. In early August I took an entire day in my beach chair looking out at the waters of Lake Michigan and then taking a walk. I read through my Bible, prayed, and then got my journal ready to write down my 3 steps. But, that’s not where the Holy Spirit led me. His way began with a question. He asked me when I first started feeling the burnout. I immediately began weeping. It was 2 years prior. I was doing all the things I loved, but it was too much. I had a mini breakdown at the time. I tried to explain how I was doing to let some things go, but I didn’t receive any help or relief for almost 2 months. And when I did get some help, it was still too much and I didn’t know how to stop doing. I never really got enough rest. Sure, things improved, but it wasn’t a big enough change.  I spent the rest of the time at the beach finally allowing myself to grieve all the things.

I didn’t come up with a 3 step plan that day. What I did experience is finally feeling seen.  Jesus saw me. He showed me in a vision that He’s my protector and He won’t let it happen again. My rhythms are so different now out of necessity. My body won’t allow myself to get to that point again. My rhythms begin each day in peace. If at any time my peace feels threatened, I have to physically and mentally follow the pathway to peace.  That may mean physically leaving a room, putting in headphones to drown out noise, or canceling at the last minute.

As someone whose top trait is responsibility, it’s been a struggle to have to say a firm “no” to things I love to do. However, I’ve learned to do just that without any guilt. I’m also so much kinder to myself. There’s no way for me to get through the day with no mistakes, and I’ve been giving myself a lot more grace.

While everybody’s journey is different, I’m going to share what’s been working for me to heal from burnout. I don’t believe you ever completely get over burnout to the point of going back to your old routine. However, you can find healing and have new rhythms in your life as you follow the pathway to peace.

3 Steps To Heal From Burnout:

1. Start your day from a place of rest. With no expectations, go for a walk, take in the nature, read a little bit of scripture.  Let all the anxious thoughts go and surrender them to Jesus.

2. Ask Jesus to help you. Listen to what He tells you, and obey.

3. Listen to your body, and have “safe” alternatives in case your body feels you’re in danger. Give yourself lots of grace.

This is what’s been working for me.  It’s been several months since I began this healing journey and I still get triggered from time to time. Even so, I’ve been able to bring back a few of the responsibilities that I love, and I consider that a win.