Can You Fully Recover from Burnout?
Factors that impact burnout recovery
Are you struggling with burnout and wondering if it's possible to fully heal and recover?
In this newsletter, I'll explore the factors that impact burnout recovery and discuss whether is it possible to heal and fully recover from burnout or not.
Let's find out.
This is an extract from my upcoming online course Master Burnout - more about it at the end of this newsletter.
So I got recently asked this question whether or not we can fully heal and recover from burnout by one of my followers on Instagram.
He wanted to know:
“I just have one question, if someone is suffering from severe burnout he can heal and become like he was before burnout, or once the damage is here he will not completely heal?”
Great question, let’s explore it.
Burnout can be quite a challenging condition: If you've ever experienced it, you know just how difficult it can be to overcome.
First, let’s define what burnout is.
Burnout is a state of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion.
Symptoms can range from mild — from being tired all the time — to very severe — like being unable to get out of bed and unable to do anything.
What makes burnout so challenging is the fact that it affects multiple areas of our health and well-being at the same time: it affects our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
In the public, there are two groups of people: those who don’t believe that burnout is real and those who take burnout very seriously and believe that burnout is a very serious condition.
Some people in the second group believe that burnout is a permanent condition and that if we experience it, we can’t recover from it.
But is that true? Are we really unable to recover from burnout?
Can You Fully Recover from Burnout?
Burnout recovery and healing depend on multiple factors: age, sex, physical and athletic capabilities, genetics, severity and duration of burnout, etc
A lot of people who experience burnout are able to heal and recover from it fully!
They usually come out of burnout on the other side better and stronger: they report that their burnout has helped them gain and learn new insight about themselves and their life and has helped them become a better version of themselves.
But while the majority of people experience an episode of burnout and rise back up right away, some individuals might struggle with recovery and healing: their burnout can become a chronic injury that will define the rest of their life: It’s what I call a “Chronic Burnout Injury”.
It’s just like with sports injuries: some injuries start out as acute and over time become chronic due to complications and poor treatment and recovery.
The most common long-lasting consequences that burnout can leave us are:
poorer energy levels,
diminished ability to handle stress and life’s demands,
diminished ability to recover quickly and properly,
the need for more rest and recovery,
more problems with mental health (anxiety and depression), etc.
A lower energy budget — the amount of energy that we can use in our daily lives —could also be another one of the long-term consequences of burnout.
You can learn more about the idea of an “Energy Budget” in the newsletter below.
Factors that impact burnout healing and recovery
But although burnout can be hard to recover from and can have some negative health consequences, I also strongly believe that we can heal and recover from it fully!
I strongly believe that we humans are able to do so much more than we think we’re capable of doing —and that includes healing almost any health problem and disease.
Thinking contrary is just a false and limiting belief that is preventing us to accomplish important things.
There are a few reasons why I believe this.
Reason #1. Our mind is much more powerful than we realize
Our mind plays a much bigger role in our lives than we usually think.
It controls our physical, mental, and emotional functioning and thus influences how we perceive the world and how we operate in it.
Our mind acts and works based on what we focus it on: if we focus on our problems and things that don’t work, we will unconsciously create more of them. But if we instead focus on solving problems and healing, our mind will dictate and make things move in that direction.
Once we realize the importance of the role that our mind plays, we can start learning how to take control of it and become the master of it, instead of being its slave.
Reason #2. Our body has its own memory
Our body has its own cellular or epigenetic memory and remembers what it feels like to be healthy and in optimal health.
It’s similar to physical fitness: because our muscles have a kind of “memory” — cellular and epigenetic memory — it’s much easier to get back in shape after a period of non-training than to make brand-new progress.
In order to harness this cellular and epigenetic memory, we have to direct our mind and focus on how it feels to be healthy and in perfect health, visualize it and believe it. Once we do that, our body will find a way to heal and become healthy once again.
Reason #3. Inner Healer and Inner Healing Power
We all have an Inner Healer and powerful healing power inside of us.
Don’t believe me?
Think about this: When you cut yourself a bit, what do you do? You put a band-aid on the wound and let your body heal itself. The more you scratch it and don’t leave it alone, the worse the wound will heal and the bigger the scar will remain.
It’s the same with all types of healing. If you catch the flu, you have to give your body space and time and give it some help — eg. tea, supplements, sleep, etc — so it can heal and regenerate itself.
We just have to learn to tap into that inner healer and inner healing power and switch it on: more about the strategies below.
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that every person heals at his own pace, depending on their genetics, metabolic speed, predispositions, age, sex, etc …
So while some people might take a day to recover and heal, others might take a few days to a few weeks.
We have to accept that and adjust our lifestyle and expectations to this rate of recovery.
So all in all yes, I do believe that humans can heal and recover from almost any health problem and disease, even burnout.
If you’re currently suffering from burnout, don’t lose hope! Burnout is curable and reversible — it just cannot be done in a day or a week. Have patience and faith: trust the process and believe in yourself and your body!
If you need any help with navigating burnout and you don’t know how to deal with it and recover from it, hit reply to this email and I’ll be happy to guide you along the way.
If you have a question about burnout or an idea or suggestion for future videos, use the form linked below and I will answer it in the next newsletters.
I’m working on an online course called Master Burnout about how to prevent and recover from burnout. In the course, I’ll teach you everything I learned from my burnout journey, including how to improve and elevate all four pillars of the body in much more detail.
The course is in the making, but you can join the waitlist and get updates on its progress and when it’s about to launch.
Members of the waitlist will get a limited special offer when the course launches, so make sure to secure your spot and grab that special offer!