What Is Energetic Overwhelm?
- Brainz Magazine
- Apr 28
- 6 min read
Written by Trina Zaragoza, Wellness Coach
Trina Zaragoza is a National Wellness Coach, Registered Nurse, and Energy Practitioner who blends holistic wellness with integrative coaching to help clients achieve personal empowerment. Focusing on mind-body connection and healing, she offers a unique approach and perspective to transformation and well-being.
Feeling overwhelmed and disconnected? Discover why exhaustion isn’t failure, and how to reclaim your rhythm through soulful rest, intentional pauses, and energetic renewal.
If you’ve ever looked around and thought, “I can’t keep doing this, but I don’t know how to stop,” this article is for you.
Because chances are, you’ve been doing everything possible to hold it all together. You’ve been managing responsibilities, tending to others, and showing up daily even when the tank has been empty.
You may find yourself silently questioning why rest never feels enough, why motivation comes in bursts and disappears again, and why even the simplest tasks sometimes feel monumental.
And somewhere in the back of your mind, a familiar voice whispers:
“Maybe I’m just lazy.”
But you’re not. You’re not lazy. You’re likely energetically overwhelmed.
In a culture that worships productivity and shames stillness, it’s no wonder we internalize this struggle. We’re told that success looks like always doing more, pushing harder, never stopping. But the truth is: your exhaustion is not a character flaw. It’s a signal.
And when you learn how to listen to it, you begin the journey of reclaiming your rhythm and your well-being.
You’re not alone. And more importantly, you’re not lazy.
In a culture that worships productivity and shames rest, it’s no wonder many of us are silently burning out while trying to keep everything together. But what you may be experiencing is something deeper than just feeling tired. You may be in energetic overwhelm.
What is energetic overwhelm?
Energetic overwhelm isn’t simply physical fatigue. It’s a full-system depletion, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. It can show up as brain fog, emotional numbness, chronic fatigue, lack of motivation, or even a deep desire to withdraw.
What’s important to understand is that this isn’t just about mindset. It’s also biological. According to Harvard Health, chronic stress keeps your body stuck in a heightened state of alert, affecting digestion, immunity, memory, and mood. The longer this state persists, the more deeply it impacts your energy system.
And it’s not just you. Emotional exhaustion is a well-documented experience among caregivers, parents, healthcare workers, and high-performing individuals. According to a recent article in Psychology Today, the constant pressure to perform and the lack of meaningful rest can lead to emotional detachment, lowered resilience, and increased feelings of inadequacy, especially for those who rarely receive permission to pause or ask for help.
Energetic overwhelm is your system's signal to pause, recalibrate, and heal before burnout becomes your baseline.
You’re not lazy – You’re carrying too much
Let’s clarify something important: Laziness is often a misdiagnosis for something much deeper. What we perceive as procrastination or lack of motivation is often the result of unacknowledged emotional overload, nervous system fatigue, or chronic depletion.
We’ve been conditioned to override our limits, value productivity over presence, and keep showing up for everyone else, even when we’re unraveling inside. In many ways, this has become our culture's default mode, rewarding constant motion but rarely recognizing quiet endurance.
According to Psychology Today, hustle culture promotes overwork at the cost of mental and physical health, leading to chronic stress, anxiety, and eventual collapse. It’s a cycle that encourages pushing through exhaustion and pathologizes rest. In this model, slowing down is treated as weakness instead of wisdom.
So, when your body starts to say "no more" when you feel foggy, resistant, emotionally flat, or physically heavy, it’s not a failure of character. It’s your inner wisdom calling you back to center.
It’s the sacred voice of your body saying, “Something needs to change.”
This voice isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s subtle fatigue that doesn’t go away. Sometimes it’s a creative block, a wave of irritation, or a sense of disconnection from what once mattered.
The more we ignore these signals, the louder they become. Until eventually, the body steps in with stronger messages: burnout, anxiety, autoimmune flares, illness, or deep emotional fatigue.
But here’s the healing truth: when we recognize this not as weakness, but as guidance, we begin to trade shame for self-compassion.
We begin to soften, we begin to listen, and most importantly, we permit ourselves to respond to rest, realign, and replenish in ways we may never have been taught were acceptable.
The journey from burnout to balance doesn’t start with fixing yourself. It starts with believing that your needs matter and are not negotiable.
A personal story: The power of stepping away
For over a decade, I worked as a hospice nurse. I sat with death daily, and some of the most painful moments were helping children cross over, children the same age as my own. It shook me. I carried their stories home with me, often in silence, as I tucked my own children into bed. The emotional weight of witnessing loss day after day carved a space in me, I didn’t know how to fill.
At the same time, I was a mother of three, a full-time nurse, a wife, and a spiritual advisor. I was the one people turned to when they needed comfort, insight, or support. But I was running empty.
There were moments when I would be in the middle of my kitchen, surrounded by laundry, dinner prep, and the noise of life, and feel like I was disappearing, like I had become a shadow in my own story.
Eventually, I reached a point where I knew I had to reclaim space for myself. That’s when I started taking what I call a “Mom’s Vacation” every year. Sometimes it’s a spiritual retreat where I connect back to the sacred parts of myself. Other times, it’s simply a few days away where I don’t have to be anything for anyone.
And yes, the first time I did it, chaos erupted. Schedules fell apart. My partner panicked. But they made it. And more importantly, so did I.
I returned to my life with clarity, grace, and presence. I was in a better place to hold all the energy again and to move through life, not in a shell but completely present. Interestingly, this process also gave my husband permission to take his own yearly guy trip with friends, something he hadn’t felt allowed to do until he saw me prioritize my own restoration.
This ritual of stepping away has become essential not just to my well-being but also to my identity. It is now a yearly investment in myself and the relationships around me.
And let me be clear: This practice isn’t just for moms or women. It’s for anyone holding invisible weight. Fathers. Caregivers. Teachers. Partners. Leaders. Healers.
We all need a pause. And we all deserve one.
Creating space (even if it’s just one day)
Not everyone can take a full week away, especially in today’s economy and with the demands of daily life. But that doesn’t mean restoration is out of reach.
Sometimes, a single day or even a few intentional hours can begin recalibration.
What would that look like for you?
A solo hike where you intentionally unplug and reconnect with nature?
A day at home with no obligations, no screens, and your favorite journal or book?
A slow morning with tea, nourishing food, and the kind of silence that lets your thoughts settle?
These moments don’t have to be grand. They simply need to be yours.
When you carve out space that’s solely for you, not for productivity, not for others, but for your own nervous system, you send a powerful signal to your body: We are safe now. We are allowed to rest.
Even brief pauses have physiological benefits. Studies like this one from the National Institutes of Health show that taking breaks improves cognitive performance, emotional regulation, and resilience. Regular rest intervals help reset our stress response, improve memory retention, and enhance creativity.
Beyond science, these moments allow your spirit to breathe. They create a space where intuition returns, joy reawakens, and clarity rises to the surface again.
In a world that teaches you to fill every minute, choosing stillness becomes a radical act of self-respect.
We need this. And we need to model this for others, especially the next generation.
Final thoughts: Rest is not a reward
Your body is wise. Your burnout is not a failure. And your need for rest is not a weakness.
You’re not broken. You’re human. And your humanity deserves care, reverence, and restoration.
If this message resonates with you, I invite you to explore more tools for energetic support and whole-person wellness at AlteredHaven or connect with me @alteredhaven for rituals, coaching, and soulful reminders.
You can also sign up for my monthly newsletter, where I share cosmic updates, journal prompts, seasonal wellness tips, and rituals aligned with the Earth’s cycles. Each month, we focus on restoring your rhythm in harmony with the natural world.
Let this be when you trade burnout for balance and shame for sacred pause.
Read more from Trina Zaragoza
Trina Zaragoza, Wellness Coach
Trina Zaragoza is a National Wellness Coach, Registered Nurse, and Energy Practitioner who loves helping people reconnect with their inner strength and well-being. Drawing from both her medical experience and energy-based practices, she creates a supportive space where clients can heal and grow. Trina is all about making wellness practical, using simple yet powerful tools that guide people toward a balanced, fulfilling life. She believes that everyone has the ability to transform their own health from the inside out.
