Burnout recovery vs. burnout prevention: why they're different
Read me in 3:48 mins
Burnout recovery and burnout prevention go hand in hand. Of course, you want both if you don’t want to simply keep cycling from burnout to burnout. But there are a few key differences that are important to understand and will help you do both more effectively.
The key is knowing what you’ve got in your inner energy bank
The difference between burnout recovery and burn out prevention is a lot like the difference between therapy and coaching. It’s all about how resourced you are. Are you in the exhausted well-run-dry depths of burnout? Then you need recovery before you can invest energy into changing circumstances and systems to prevent future burnout. And therapy may be a better fit. But say, you’ve rested, and your nervous system has recovered some of its regulation and flexibility? Great! You’re ready to prevent future burnout by building better systems and learning new tools. This is the right time to approach coaching.
Burnout recovery: rest and regulation
That empty feeling, like a squeezed lemon, or a pot of water left to boil too long that all the water has evaporated, now just burning. There are reasons behind the language we use to talk about burnout. The first goal of recovery is to refill the pot. Allow energy to replenish and accumulate instead of burning off. Prolonged burnout comes with some nervous system dysfunction (that wired but tired feeling) that needs care and support to come back into balance. When we’ve been operating outside our capacity for so long finding the edges of that capacity again can be challenging. This is the time to slow way down. Reach out to support that feels nourishing and replenishing. This rest and replenishment can take much longer than we expect. Not to mix metaphors, but I think of it as credit card debt. So the longer you’ve been spending energy without making a payment the more you’ll have to pay now. Yes the body charges interest. There’s no free money, and there’s no free energy. It has to come from somewhere. There is no wrong way to rest what will be most effective for you is whatever you find most regulating, nourishing and replenishing.
Therapists, counsellors, elders, healers and other practitioners of this sort can be helpful here. I often do coach people in this stage, but it looks a lot less like setting goals and making changes, and a lot more like normalizing the process and helping them slow down.
Burnout prevention: redesigning structures
Once the pot on the stove has some water in it…or the energy debt is paid down, and you have some spending energy (whichever resonated with you the most), now you can start getting a bit creative. Good burnout prevention is a design project.
There is problem-solving: what needs to be cut out? What workflows need changing? What energy leaks need to be sealed with boundaries? Where can you recruit more support?
And then there is the biggest bang for your energy-buck that everyone seems to forget about: What makes you come alive? What do you have seemingly endless energy for? What excites and inspires you? What are you curious about?
The combination of creating life structures that support you (instead of draining the life out of you) paired with bringing in more things that bring you genuine delight and interest is powerful. I graphic-recorded a talk for an Indigenous addictions resilience educator named Chris Kelly. He spoke of the healing and protective power of what he termed “expressive hobbies”. That choice of words has always stuck with me. Expressive. Not necessarily creative, or relaxing, or cultural (although they could be)… but expressive. Finding the things that allow us to express parts of ourselves regardless of product or outcome protects us from all kinds of stress, and creates a flow between ourselves and the world around us that seems to do wonders for our nervous systems. Remember the power of expressive hobbies as you build your more burnout proof life.
However, you decide to design your life, this is the best time to be coached: when you have a bit of energy/time to invest and you’re ready to make some changes.
When two things need to happen at the same time.
Sometimes there are so many leaks in the pot that no water will stay inside. Or if you liked the credit card analogy better, think of the leaks as auto-subscriptions that withdraw from your account without you noticing. Sometimes rest and replenishment isn’t possible until some design and prevention is put in place. This takes some careful manoeuvring and a lot of self compassion. Talking to someone who doesn’t have their head underwater and can help you see and prioritize can be super helpful. Whether it’s a good friend, a coach or a therapist, it will be most helpful if they have some understanding of navigating overwhelmed nervous systems. That could mean they are trauma-informed, have integrated lived experience, or just a knack for helping you regulate. It’s ok (and actually important) to be discerning about who helps you when you feel vulnerable.
If you feel like I might be the right person to support you through the next part of your journey you can find more about what I do here.