5 Practical Ways to Pull Yourself Out of Burnout Without Quitting Your Life
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Written by Johnna Key, Spiritual Guide & Teacher
Johnna Key is known for her calming and serene voice when guiding meditations. She is the author of the newly published book, Making Space to Breathe, and YouTube channel, Journeys with Johnna.
As an Energy Worker and Meditation Guide, I am seeing more and more practitioners arrive in class or at my Reiki table who are experiencing deep levels of burnout. The World Health Organization is calling burnout an “occupational phenomenon” and organizing studies to better understand the effects on mental health, predominantly in the workplace.
In the United States, “hustle culture”, we are expected to be productive 100% of the day, even when sleeping. As soon as the average American’s toe-tips touch the ground, it’s “all systems go” from there. There’s very little thought given to the physical or mental capacity needed to be in a consistent, productive mode, we just move through the subconscious patterns and mask through the struggle.
The major problem with this lifestyle programming is that, on average, for decades now, U.S. Americans have consumed more than they have produced. This is in relation to everything from food to TV, to products purchased, there’s countless evidence in any one direction that shows Americans consuming more than any other country in the world, yet producing far less. The consumption habits of U.S. Americans have been a building block for economies around the world.
I’m not much of a figures-and-numbers gal, but when you start reading about it, you’ll need to pick your jaw up off the floor. U.S. Americans are programmed for this instant gratification lifestyle that is not only playing a major role in harming the planet but is also detrimental to the health and nervous system of everyone involved.
As a functioning member of the United States, I take comfort in being a minimalist. In 2020, I sold everything I owned because having a condo full of furnishings from a divorce, and a storage unit that housed extra decor for my real estate listings, was too much for me to manage. The very sight of “my stuff” brought on extreme anxiety and physical nausea.
I did the Marie Kondo method before she was widely known for it. I could look at everything in my possession, and very little sparked joy. Her method to declutter is based on focusing on what items in your possession spark joy, and getting rid of those items that don’t.
Now I only buy what I need and what I can afford at the time, which has allowed my nervous system to heal in a deeply rooted way. We are, however, programmed for excess consumption, which causes burnout and illness. Oftentimes, we use this habit of consumption to help regulate a deregulated nervous system. Have you ever heard of “retail therapy”? I once used credit cards and shopping habits to make a bad day feel better, giving me that short-lived dopamine hit.
Years later, I have no desire to sell all that I own to start again, yet I still appreciate the mindful practice of “Consuming Less” or the evermore popular phrase, “Less is More.” I also no longer use shopping as a form of regulating my nervous system.
The WHO might limit burnout to the workplace, but that would be another U.S. American programming that’s not benefiting us. If you’re burned out at work, you’re more than likely burned out at home also. Just like in Traditional Chinese Medicine, any one aliment of complaint is viewed from the mental, physical, and spiritual perspective, they all play a role.
If you’re in a burnout phase, then what you’re consuming matters
Consumption doesn’t only refer to buying goods & products, but also what you eat, the type of movies you watch, how many hours you scroll in a day, and the overall external environment.
When one is in burnout and not taking small steps to find daily regulation, we are liable to blow up our lives or have a reactionary response to an otherwise easily solvable issue. Quitting your life isn’t on the top ten recommended list, this is also very disregulating for the nervous system, but taking small, actionable, and manageable steps to work yourself into a more thiravable space is doable.
Symptoms & signs of burnout
Burnout is defined as emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual exhaustion from prolonged exposure to stress. You can trust that chronic stress in any one area that you can see is also affecting all the other areas you cannot see. A lot is going on behind the scenes when dealing with burnout. Here are some signs and symptoms for the body, mind, and spirit.
Physical symptoms include, but are not limited to:
Chronic fatigue, feeling tired and unmotivated most of the time
Frequent illness
Body aches and pains
Disrupted sleep
Emotional/Mental symptoms include, but are not limited to:
Feeling like a failure or self-doubt
Feeling alone in the world
Feeling helpless or trapped in one’s life
Loss of motivation
Increased pessimistic perspective and output
Spiritual symptoms include, but are not limited to:
Loss of purpose or joy
Apathy around Source or God
Disinterest in spiritual practices that once nourished you
Resentment or isolation
Some of these signs and symptoms can mimic depression or even a spiritual awakening. It would be up to each individual to slow down and take the time needed to assess their current state to determine which one they’re actually in.
If you find yourself floating through some of the above symptoms, get curious about what this is and how it’s affecting your life. See if you’re in burnout because something in your life needs to change, which is very often the case, or if there’s something deeper going on.
How to begin lifting yourself out of burnout
1. Slow Down
I mentioned the above information about hustle culture because it’s time to let the art of slowing down become the norm. This doesn’t mean that you begin living in a state of laziness and lethargy, but rather to accept that you don’t need to be in “go mode” 100% of the day. Give yourself space to enjoy the day or the week without melting down because things didn’t go to plan. Permit yourself to take some time for yourself, whatever that may look like right now. Slow down to listen to your needs.
2. Observe what you are consuming
Is the food you’re eating truly nourishing? If not, change it up by cooking at home or buying prepared meals from a local chef, skip frozen or highly processed meals. Are the movies and shows you watch uplifting or dark and violent- based? This has a huge effect on the nervous system and healing burnout. Tune in to more gentle programming, whatever that means for you. Give space with your devices, look at your screen time, or pay attention to how much you mindlessly scroll, and cut it back where it’s manageable to do so.
3. De-clutter your space
This isn’t always easy to do when in deep stages of burnout, so go through this when or as you can. Sometimes, I just clean and organize one room or only the kitchen, which gives me the energy to do more in a few days. Whichever way it looks for you right now, what can you alleviate from your space? Take some time for “spring cleaning” to reduce things in your home you don’t need or use, let it go, that alone helps to alleviate burnout. Whether it’s burnout, depression, or spiritual awakening, all of those emotional experiences need a phase to clean out the old to welcome in the new.
4. Change the routine
Be aware of the things you do that are routine, the drive to work, your daily lunch, etc., and change them up. Take a new way to work for several weeks, try a new meal or eat with a friend, get a new shampoo, anything new yet not overwhelming to help the mind get “out of the comfort zone,” which assists you in overcoming burnout. When you can make these small but option to be fun shifts, it trains the mind to see that change isn’t as scary as you thought. It strengthens the nervous system to be able to manage bigger life changes without melting down.
5. Yoga Nidra and other forms of meditation
Yoga Nidra is designed to help you overcome burnout by boosting the baseline dopamine for a lasting result rather than a quick fix, like from shopping. There have been times when I’ve slowed down for this practice 2 or 3 times per day, it assists in reducing the busyness of the mind and anxiety in the body to let you land gently into healing the nervous system. Other calming forms of meditation, a walk in nature, yoga, QiGong, ThaiChi, or even bird watching, all reduce burnout symptoms and begin to recalibrate a deregulated nervous system.
Consult a professional
I cannot emphasize how important this is for the overall well-being of mind, body, and spirit. Where to begin depends on the person, consulting a Holistic Doctor can help, and an Ayurvedic or Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner is also a great resource. All will work with you on food, meditation, lifestyle management, etc., in a way that’s unique just for you.
Healing and overcoming burnout takes time and care. Consulting a professional will help to talk out the emotions that arise, reframe pessimistic thought patterns, and plant new seeds of a healthy perspective to help avoid the repeat pattern of burnout.
You deserve to enjoy your life. You deserve to be happy, and that happiness is not brought about by consuming more things but by welcoming in your spirit, your health, and your well- being. You deserve to give yourself this gift and overcome an exhausted nervous system.
Each person has the power to change the narrative of their life, therefore assisting the planet in her growth, but not overconsuming and not wearing ourselves down to the bone. Being productive is a healthy way to be, it’s the fabric of a global society that keeps things going, but overdoing it and burning out helps no one, least of all you.
It’s a practice, not a state of perfection
The biggest way to your success is one consistent step at a time. Consistency doesn’t have to mean the same time every day, etc., but rather choosing to create a change, acknowledging when you slip out of it or are too tired to meet it, stepping right back in as soon as you can, and keeping going.
Modern life is taking its toll on each of us at any given time. Don’t give up and say it didn’t work, know that what’s worth having doesn’t come easy, because everyone would be doing it. What’s worth having comes with patience, faith, and waves of emotions to process, and trusting the ebb & flow.
Join me for Yoga Nidra
My favourite quote is by Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
I hear over and over, “I can’t do anything about the state of the world.” I reply every time, “Yes, you can, you have to be the change. Stop waiting for the world to change in your favour, you change it.”
Giving Yoga Nidra a chance to boost the dopamine and help reframe subconscious thinking patterns, alleviating burnout and exhaustion, will have positive results in your life. You might get better sleep, clarity where it was needed, motivation for life, or just an inner sense of calm in a chaotic world. I hope to meet you on the channel. YouTube: Journeys with Johnna
Read more from Johnna Key
Johnna Key, Spiritual Guide & Teacher
Johnna Key is a certified Yoga, Meditation guide, & Spiritual Teacher, leading others to calibrate their nervous system and ease overwhelm within the mind. Derived from her experience in the Western medicine system as a child and divorce from a narcissistic relationship as an adult, Johnna has learned and implemented tools to heal the mind, body, & spirit from traumatic experiences to exit karmic loops and generational patterns. Her passion is teaching others to find self-acceptance for their experiences and the emotions or perspectives that can surface. It's her passion to help others calm a busy mind, ease the tension in the body, and learn to meditate to find joy and self-worth in the journey we call life.
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