Raise your hand if you’re tired.

Burnout is a psychological syndrome that develops when we have prolonged exposure to chronic interpersonal stressors. 46% of women and 37% of men in the workplace say they are burned out and we see similar rates of burnout in caregivers and stay-at-home parents.

The three key dimensions of a burnout response, according to McKinsey & Company, include:

overwhelming exhaustion,
feelings of cynicism and detachment from your roles and responsibilities, and
a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.

Does any of this describe how you feel in your current situation?

If so, it doesn’t matter how much you improve your nutrition, go to therapy, or invest in supplements, you won’t find revival without rest.

Rest helps your body to function optimally and improves your resilience to stress. Finding rest can look like maintaining a regular sleep schedule. Rest also looks like giving your mind and body a break from strenuous situations or tasks by prioritizing wellness breaks throughout your day or structuring your day in such a way that you experience more balance and prolonged energy.

Learning how to rest is one of the most difficult hang-ups I have experienced in my own personal wellness journey. For the past 15 years I have wrestled with endocrine disorders including chronic adrenal fatigue and thyroid issues that were, in part, due to chronic stress and poor mental health. Above all the well-intentioned guidance for nutrition, exercise, and supplements - what my body needed the most was REST.

A Personal Approach to Addressing Burnout

Preventing burnout and managing your energy, stress, and hormone health starts by choosing to create space in your life to prioritize rest. If you are not sure where to start your healing journey, you can gradually work through the seven types of rest explained in this article: emotional, spiritual, mental, social, physical, sensory, and creative rest.

Journaling is a great way to begin reflecting in each of these areas and see where you feel content and where you have potential to grow. In your journaling practice, or with the help of a coach, identify your core stressors and find possible solutions to mitigate the effects of stress.

You might find it difficult to prioritize certain types of rest because of your existing coping habits. In the past you may have adopted certain ways to cope with stress, trauma, or abuse using the resources you had (or made use of) at that time. This is called your learned stress response. It can take time to address the layers of emotions and thought patterns that stem from our past experiences, personal beliefs, values, and motives. You can hold compassion for your old self while focusing your attention on what you have control over now and increase your capacity to handle stress well.

Let’s unpack the 7 types of rest:

Emotional Rest

Burnout and feelings of fatigue can be heavily influenced by our emotional and subsequent hormonal response. When we get stuck in a reoccurring state of stress or alarm (think fight, flight, or freeze), it causes a domino effect of psychological and physical responses in our body. If we can’t find ways to address the source of stress in our life, we begin to run out of steam. Just like when a diabetic’s pancreas stops producing enough of the hormone insulin because of dietary stress, your nervous system and the organs and glands that make up your endocrine system can struggle to keep up with emotional stress and fatigue.

You can learn to better regulate your emotions and find emotional rest by learning ways to support a healthy stress response. Practice being mindful of what circumstances trigger stress for you and what thoughts, emotions, and behaviors follow the incident. Over time, you can identify patterns that you can then interrupt and adapt to help you find your calm more quickly. A wellness coach or counselor can be a great resource during this process.

I also recommend the book Finding Your Calm by J. Milburn to help you better understand the body’s natural response to stress and find healthy ways to shift your learned stress response.

Spiritual Rest

The state of your spiritual health and your level of faith is one of the most overlooked opportunities to combat burnout. If you find you are constantly worrying, running on all cylinders, or white knuckling life’s circumstances, you may need to reflect on your need for spiritual rest.

As you encounter stressful situations, you can redirect your attention to prayer and practice looking to God instead of looking to the world for solutions. As you allow God to take the wheel and learn to trust in his power, his provision, his justice, and his faithfulness, you can strengthen your faith and experience less anxiety.

Believe God when he says, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” in Exodus 33:14. The Bible also tells us in John 16:33, “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In addition to putting your faith in the Lord and surrendering your conflicts and concerns to him, you can find rest by honoring the sabbath. God gave us the sabbath and asked us to keep it holy by abstaining from our typical to-dos and putting our focus on his goodness. Resting in God is a holy act that benefits our relationship with our creator and savior while stewarding all aspects of our well-being.

Mental (Intellectual) Rest

Mental exhaustion and cognitive stress can happen when we overthink, overplan, overachieve, or are burdened by decision fatigue. The expression “get out of your head” is a great example of what it means to need mental rest.

If you have a lot on your plate, it can be difficult to feel like you can take a mental break without feeling like your world will fall apart. You might think, “who is going to solve the world’s problem if my brain is off the clock?“ In order to prioritize and enjoy rest, we must learn to give ourselves permission to rest. Worrying and overthinking doesn’t make you more conscientious or more responsible. Worrying does, however, make you more stressed, more tired, and less effective in addressing the problem at hand.

The most science-back way of calming your thoughts and finding mental rest is through meditation. Practicing meditation helps us overcome mental hurtles in order to be present in our rest, as opposed to feeling restless and distracted by undone to-dos and unsolved conflict. The goal is not to necessarily clear the mind rather to strengthen your mind by being in control of your thoughts (instead of them controlling you). For more help, check out our blog on How to Meditate: Techniques and Benefits for Mindfulness.

We need to practice letting go of our worry, expectations, and need for control and trust in God’s wisdom, not our own knowledge and abilities. The truth is God can magnify your efforts while you rest and bring you fresh revelation through his Holy Spirit. The next time you have the urge to Google your problem, reach for your Bible to spend time meditating on God’s word and his wisdom to give you greater peace of mind.

Social Rest

While it is important to stay connected to the people in our lives, too much of a good thing can lead to imbalance. Prioritizing time in your schedule for solitude will help you balance your social need for connection with your personal need for rest, reflection, and self-care.

The amount of social rest you need will depend on your level of extroversion, how often you socialize, and the quality of your social interactions. Our social battery can be drained more quickly in formal or professional settings, especially customer service or caregiving roles where we are hyperaware of our tone and composure (think compassion fatigue). The same goes for unfamiliar social environments or events with strangers. While new places and faces can be exciting for some it can also put our body under stress since the brain is neurologically wired to evaluate if unknown situations are safe or pose a threat to our well-being.

In the short term, you can tune into our own body’s signals for social rest and learn to excuse yourself or set healthy boundaries to get the quiet time you need. In the long term, you can learn how to better manage your social calendar or schedule breaks in between work meetings to prevent spreading yourself too thin.

A powerful way to improve your social well-being is to focus on being in right relationships with others and investing time into people who bring out the best in you and fill your cup (rather than drain it). Feeling like you have a community of trustworthy people who value you and make you feel like you belong is proven to boost your mental health, your confidence, and your longevity.

Physical Rest

Sometimes the answer to our fatigue problem is as obvious as needing more sleep or physical rest to prevent overexertion. The consequences of sleep deprivation and sleep irregularity can be huge - impacting how you move, think, feel, fight disease, perform at work, and interact with others.

Consider tracking your sleep for a week and be intentional about listening to your body and creating daily routines that support a good night’s rest. If you are struggling to get good sleep or you don’t feel rested upon waking, there are many lifestyle habits that can improve your ability to find rest: keeping a regular sleep schedule, exposure to daylight, getting adequate exercise, and addressing nutrient deficiencies and airway issues. If you lead a primarily sedentary or inactive lifestyle and feel physically fatigued, you might consider adding in some gentle movement and stretching to reduce stress, improve sleep, and boost energy levels.

If getting sleep is a concern for you, read our article 9 Barriers to Quality Sleep and What to Try.

Sensory (Digital) Rest

Do you ever feel overstimulated or overwhelmed by sound, light, or touch? Sometimes a little peace and quiet can go a long way to help your mind and body recover from sensory overload.

Having an awareness of how your daily environment impacts your senses can help you take steps to feel better. A common complaint from individuals working in an office setting is headaches caused by visual fatigue that comes from staring at a screen too long or from harsh fluorescent lighting. Many blue-collar workers suffer from noise pollution from using heavy machinery. As a mom of young children, I can relate to feeling “touched out” and long for the silence that bedtime brings.

Your go-to-method of relaxation might be picking up your smartphone for some digital “me time” but, in reality, this could be adding to your stress and feelings of sensory overwhelm. Overconsumption of information, blue light, or noise from digital sources like social media, television, and video games can have negative affects on your health including poor posture, carpal tunnel, and more. Even the type of news and entertainment you tune into can increase stress. Politics, celebrity drama, lowbrow comedy, warfare, and other forms of violence can take a toll on your mental health and ability to regulate your nervous system.

The immediate solution can be as simple as putting down your phone, turning off the TV, closing your eyes, or wearing noise reduction earplugs. Your smartphone can also track your time spent scrolling online and social media to help you set healthy limits. Your best bet is to create space in your routine to just BE - this can look like engaging in meditation or prayer, reading a book, taking a bath, or sitting in nature.

Creative (Occupational) Rest

The term occupational rest might sound like an oxymoron but finding a healthy work-life balance is crucial to addressing job-related stress and fatigue. It might be easier to blame your boss or heavy workload for your problems, but if we, instead, lean into what we do have control over we can find some relief regardless of our circumstances.

I have spent a lot of my career helping people live well at work and have found two common themes in my executive coaching sessions that, when addressed, can make a big impact.

The Flow Theory helps us understand how to attain happiness and productivity at work.

Find your flow. Managing your mood, energy, and productivity at work becomes much easier when you learn how to apply your skills within the opportunities and challenges presented in the workplace.
The Flow Theory, introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the mid-1970s, helps us understand how we can experience more motivation and reduced mental strain by working within our strengths as well as engaging in challenges that align with our abilities. While it is good to get out of your comfort zone and cross-train within your field, the majority of your role should be well-suited to your God-given gifts.
Gallup’s Strength Finder is a great resource as well as working with an executive coach to enhance your professional performance and satisfaction. The Myers-Briggs personality test is also a helpful tool to better understand what type of work might come natural to you as well as what circumstances might drain your energy.
If your current role doesn’t fit the bill, then prioritize time outside of your work hours to engage in projects or hobbies that allow you to be more creative and operate in your flow.
Take your breaks. During a recent teambuilding workshop I hosted I asked the attendees to raise their hands if they took their lunch at least three days a week. The response was sad but not surprising - people often feel too busy or too stressed to justify taking their work breaks. Some of us even struggle clocking out for the evening because of deadlines or an over dedication to work.
Do you deserve to take a break? The answer is a resounding yes.
When we forgo time to care for our basic needs like rest, food, fellowship, fresh air, and exercise, our health suffers.
It’s important to understand that both our work and our rest come from God, both are a gift that help us serve his kingdom and grow in deeper relationship with our heavenly father. While I believe God desires us to have a strong work ethic and stay accountable to our work committments, God also desires us to put our relationship with him and others first. If your work is getting in the way of spending time with God or treating others well, then it is time to reflect and consider setting some personal boundaries in this area.

What can business leaders do to address burnout?

36% of employees report their organizations lack appropriate programs, policy, or culture solutions to manage and prevent employee burnout. Organizations can educate their workforce about employee burnout and ways to prioritize and care for their physical and mental health both at work and at home. Burnout syndrome accounts for 8% of all occupational illness cases and we know there are many unreported cases where workers suffer in silence.

Human resources and managers can employ policies and placemaking strategies to encourage employees to use their allotted break time and create an environment where employees can 1) access a clean and quiet breakroom, 2) enjoy healthy snack and beverage vending options, and 3) have a safe place to walk or access the outdoors.

Ready, Set, Rest…

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