4 Steps to Burnout Recovery

During Occupational Therapy for tennis elbow, I realized the recovery process mirrors what it takes to heal from burnout. Each stage of the rehab process mirrors what it takes to recover from mental and emotional fatigue.   Identify Healing really begins with diagnosis. It wasn’t until I knew exactly what my elbow issue was that I could start healing it. The same goes for burnout. It doesn’t just come from high-pressure jobs or overwhelming workloads. Sometimes it develops quietly when your values clash with the company’s, when recognition is missing, or when you feel disconnected from other important aspects of work like people, purpose, or fairness.   Understanding why you're burning out helps you take the best next steps. If you’re unsure, tools like the Maslach Burnout Inventory or the Areas of Worklife Survey ( MBI/AWS ) can help you identify what’s really draining your energy. Knowing your source of burnout gives you something specific to work on instead of trying to fix everything at once.   Heal The next phase is all about protection and healing. When I was treating my elbow, I had to stop lifting heavy things, used a brace, and applied heat every day. For many people start a vacation. It helped me, too... time away gave me perspective and space to reset. Long term, you also need to learn to manage overwhelm, make your breaks more effective (like not leaning into a distraction that adds to your stress), and shut off work when work is done. Healing also means creating daily habits that protect you from future strain. Build Daily Protection Resilience : Focus on things that help build personal resilience like mindfulness, prayer, walking, yoga, journaling, or gratitude. Pick the one that lines up with your personal preferences. Sleep hygiene : In the depth of my burnout, I kept hearing, "You just need to get more sleep." My response, "How do you just choose to get more sleep?" It seemed impossible. Sleep hygiene is about setting the stage for better sleep when you can get it. None of these are new to you, you just need to commit to them. Put the phone down and turn the TV off 30-60 minutes before bed. Don't watch, listen, or play things that get your mind stressed. Keep a notepad by your bed (or use your phone is necessary) to write down the to-do list that is spiraling in your mind. Get physical : Exercise has a host of benefits around stress reduction. You don't have to become a marathoner tomorrow and don't use is as another goal to beat yourself up with. Simply (or not so simply), find a modality you find enjoyable and that you can stick with. You can also think outside the box, things like tai chi, dance, and hiking groups will give similar benefits to spending time on the treadmill and give the added bonus of building community and learning something new. If these types of suggestions initiate an eyeroll, I get it, but I'd ask that you take time to look into the research. They'll help protect your mental muscles the way a brace protects an injured joint. When practiced consistently, these small habits reduce the build-up of stress before it reaches the point of burnout. Next time you'll be able to use your vacations to enjoy your life, not recover from burnout.   Stretch Once the pain subsides, therapy focuses on regaining range of motion. With burnout, this is the stage where you start rediscovering your full, pain-free productivity. This isn’t about pushing yourself to the limit, but about gradually expanding your capacity. Start by identifying what triggers that familiar sense of burnout and where you can make small, meaningful adjustments. It might be how you structure your day, how you communicate, or how you set boundaries. Working with a coach or mentor can help you test new strategies and hold you accountable when motivation dips. It can also help you discover where you might have more influence or even control over your tasks. Stretching takes time and shouldn't reignite the injury. My Occupational Therapist drilled it into my head over and over, "Each of these motions should be pain free!"   Try changing how you approach tasks using a method I call The Three Difficulties. My clients are often blocked because something is "difficult," but what does that mean? The Three Difficulties can help you understand. Once you know why something is difficult for you (and it may be more than one), you can find an approach to get past that hurdle. Here are the Three Difficulties: Time : You know what to do, it's just a big task. Here, you need to establish a way to spend the appropriate amount of time on the task. Use methods like time blocking to help make sure you are making progress. Training : You are missing knowledge. You know how to do 90% of the work, but the 10% you don't know feels like a huge undertaking. That's okay, you just need to gain some knowledge or experience in the 10%. Project planning will help. Start breaking the task into an outline and keep refining