When My Body Said No: Burnout Warning Signs I Ignored—and How Holistic Wellness Brought Me Back

When My Body Said No: Burnout Warning Signs I Ignored—and How Holistic Wellness Brought Me Back

In my previous blog post, I delved into my journey toward financial freedom—a path that, perhaps unexpectedly, kick-started my holistic health journey. Today, I want to share what holistic health means to me and the changes I'm implementing to enhance my quality of life and well-being.​

The Prelude to Burnout

In 2023, I experienced burnout. In hindsight, the signs were there long before I acknowledged them.​

Having worked in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry for many years, my passion has always been about helping patients worldwide get access to medicines they need. My role was truly global, supporting countries from South America to Australia. This translated into years of long hours, early starts, and late finishes to collaborate with team members across these time zones.​

At home, I embraced the role of a DIY homemaker. As a woman of colour, wearing my natural hair is vital to me and my two daughters—it's an essential part of our identity. However, maintaining afro hair is time-consuming; a typical wash day can span several hours, and with three heads to tend to, the time commitment multiplies.​

Cooking is another passion of mine……well, perhaps maybe more like I feel a sense of responsibility for my family to have fresh home cooked meals. Our weekends often revolved around bulk cooking to prepare for the week ahead. Add to this the laundry, cleaning, and general household maintenance, and you might wonder—when does one find time to rest on the weekend? Good question???​

As my elder daughter prepared for her secondary or high school entrance exam, I took on the role of tutor. Despite some external assistance, my thorough nature compelled me to stay on top of her learning, marking her work, and providing additional tutorials.​

Let's not forget my side hustle as an Uber driver—well, not in the traditional sense. I became the chauffeur for my kids, shuttling them to their various activities.​ All this, while building an investment and property portfolio with my husband to support our financial independence goals as well as taking on extra duties at work to advance my career.​

The Breaking Point

How does one sustain such a lifestyle over several years? The truth is you don't. You're merely stockpiling trouble for the future. Unfortunately, my story isn't unique. In today's economy, many households require dual incomes to manage the myriad financial demands. Beyond covering the basics—food, water, shelter according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — we strive to save for the future when we're no longer able to work and let's be real, to have a little bit of fun as well. Let's not forget the increasing cost of living, increased mortgage repayment due to increased interest rates, rising rent, adding to the financial burden for many families in many western economies. The cost of higher education is increasing and for those that have children, there may be an aspiration to support their children's university education to help them start life debt-free. This has been a reality for many Americans for the last few decades and has become an additional layer of pressure in the UK. This leads many working households to cut costs wherever possible, to save a little for tomorrow—if there's anything left.​

Something had to give. In my case, it was my emotional and mental health, which eventually began to affect my physical health.​

Understanding Burnout

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes burnout as an 'occupational phenomenon.' While not classified as a medical or mental health condition, it's defined as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed. Burnout manifests as physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.​

While stress is typically short-term and may impact sleep, energy, and emotions, individuals can often still engage in the activities causing stress. Burnout, however, leads to such detachment and demotivation that it hampers one's ability to function, fostering a sense of hopelessness about the possibility of change.​

The Statistics Speak

Burnout isn't just a personal issue; it's a widespread concern affecting workers across various countries:​

• United Kingdom: Over 90% of adults have experienced high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the past year. Additionally, one in five UK employees has taken time off work due to poor mental health resulting from stress. ​
• United States: Nearly 50% of employees and 53% of managers reported feeling burned out at work, highlighting the pervasive nature of this issue across different levels of the workforce. ​
• Europe: In Poland, 70% of respondents reported suffering from burnout or feeling on the verge of it. Similarly, in France, 34% of workers experience acute work-related exhaustion. ​

A Personal Crisis

By the spring of 2023, I was barely functioning. My motivation had dwindled across many areas of my life, though I managed to summon short bursts of energy to maintain appearances. I experienced brain fog—a condition where clear thinking, focus, and concentration become challenging. Mid-sentence, I'd lose my train of thought, feeling as though a cloud hovered over my mind all day, every day.​

For years leading up to this point, I'd struggled with sleep, often going to bed late and waking up early due to work pressures. I'd wake up feeling exhausted, my mind unable to find rest. Teeth grinding—a known sign of stress—had been an ongoing issue for many years. My body and mind were worn out, crying for help, flashing signals to slow down, but I didn't listen!!!

The Toll on Relationships

Years of mental and physical fatigue began to affect my relationships. I was snappy, moody, and generally unhappy most of the time. Yet, outside and at work, I put on a game face.​

My physical health also started to decline. Living a healthy lifestyle and well balanced nutritious wholesome food and regular exercise has been a part of me for many years. This included annual health checks and ensuring that I had a green mark on all metric. I was proud that in my late 30s, I had the metabolic age of someone in their 20s. Until, I didn’t. This is because with the chronic stress I had built, I became more dependent on caffeine and the occasional glass of wine to modulate my energy level. The problem is that the occasional glass of wine started to become more like daily glass of wine….and the late-night working, gave me the excuse to have the occasional snack, as my body craved what I had deprived it of during the day. So for the first time, in late 2023, my health check was not looking so green….I was seeing some red and amber.

This is when I woke up. I realized that I had to make a U-turn and fast. Not just for me, but for my family. I loved them too much to keep going like this.

So, I started by journalling, getting down my thoughts every day. Relieving myself of some of the extra responsibilities I had taken on at work and learning to say no. Learning to receive help, and outsourcing on occasion, so that I could actually rest and enjoy time with my family on the weekends. Reflecting on my journey so far and how I got to this place to help me forge a new path forward. Not knowing how to say no was part of the challenge too. Naturally, I like to help people. I want to be there for family and friends, also to contribute to the culture of my workplace. But this can be harmful. Our time and energy are limited resource, and we need to learn to give them to what matter most, by doing the work of identifying and determining our top priorities.

Recovering holistically.

My journey to improving my health had to be holistic, because the cause was multifactorial and primarily driven by mental and emotional imbalance. The emotional decline in my health was in some ways impacted by my financial health as well. Whist I believe it's important to reach financial independence to give you more choice and better control over your time, it's important to have fun today, enjoy time with those that matter most to you and build a collection of incredible experiences along the journey. So I switched from a focus on financial independence to financial wellbeing. This is about having a more positive relationship with money. Maintaining good habits and money discipline to ensure you spend less than you earn remains important, building financial resilience by having a safety net, saving for tomorrow in a steady way so you can enjoy some of the fruits of your labour today. To make this switch, this for me meant understanding my money blueprint, the unconscious messages I had received about money throughout my lifetime and reframing those messages to create a new relationship with money. I had to improve my mental wellbeing. This for me meant journalling and expressing my raw emotions about all aspect of my life. I also went on a journey to learn more about human psychology and behaviours to help me better understand what drove me. Increasing self-awareness meant that I could recognize patterns in my behaviour and make more conscious decisions about how I wanted to do something rather than being pulled by automatic habits I had learned over my lifetime. As for my emotional health, that for me meant protecting time with my family, consciously disconnecting from work at set times for family meals, planning fun and relaxing activities over the weekend. Mindfulness practice and meditation were an important aspect of improving my emotional wellbeing. The headspace app in particular has been my go-to for this and made a big difference to helping me to calm down and recognizing certain emotions for what they were, accepting and making a choice of how to deal with them, rather than letting the emotion lead me.

In terms of my physical health, a big part of my journey has been to love my body and accept my natural physique and how it’s changing as I mature. So this meant, no more yo-yo or fad dieting, instead just simply eating a balanced nutritious meal 80% of the time, with room for treats (namely chocolates and a delicious pastries….hey, we can’t all be perfect, remember, this is not about perfection but being real and true to yourself), regular resistance training, cardio, with adequate rest to avoid injury.

My holistic health journey in some ways is just starting, although I have been health conscious most of my life. I am now more intentional about caring for the different dimensions of health and wellbeing.

I will continue to share with you what I am doing and details on what has helped me, whilst I also bring you stories of how others are living more holistically.

Many of us hope to live to our 80s and 90s. With the growing demands on our life and poor demarcation between work and family life, consciously and intentionally caring for the different dimensions of wellbeing is a priority. Because when the body says no, the decline in health can be rapid.

Let me know what you think. Have you experienced burnout? If so, what was is it like for you? 

How did you deal with, or are dealing with it?

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