Protecting Your Energy (Before Everything Implodes)

Burnout isn’t always a dramatic collapse. Sometimes it’s forgetting the word “spoon” while holding one. Or fantasizing about faking your own disappearance just to get a break. Or staring blankly at a wall, feeling completely drained, thinking, “If one more task lands on my to-do list, I will actually combust.”

If that feels a little too familiar… let’s talk!

We live in a culture that applauds grind culture and then turns around to sell you a $70 magnesium spray that smells like regret and eucalyptus when your soul begins to fray. In radical truth, protecting your energy should not be a luxury. It’s survival. This is especially true if you find yourself in helping, caregiving, or solution-based roles. On the inside, you are just someone trying to make it through the week without dissolving into existential dread.

Burnout Red Flags to Validate You’re Not Just in a Funk

Burnout doesn’t always kick the door down. Sometimes it moves in quietly, eats all your snacks, and drains your will to live before you even realize what’s happening.

• Fatigue sleep or a weekend getaway cannot fix

• Low-key resentment toward everyone, including the barista who just asked “how’s your day?”

• Feeling numb or snappy, like your empathy meter has been unplugged

• Brain fog thick enough to butter toast

You might still be functioning, technically. Yet it is all held together by caffeine, calendar reminders, and the vague hope that maybe next week will be better (even though you know that’s a lie you tell yourself to keep going).

What’s Actually Draining You?

Burnout isn’t just about workload. It’s about emotional return on investment. If your output far outweighs what you’re getting back, even from yourself, the deficit grows slowly over time. When your emotional input isn’t replenished, even seemingly minor moments can trigger outsized reactions. It’s not an overreaction to the moment itself; it’s a response to the cumulative depletion underneath it.

Protective Practices for the Energetically Fried

Forget the aesthetic Pinterest highlight healing journey. Start scrappy and human. Try out these approaches:

• Micro-Boundaries

  • Turn your phone off or on airplane mode without explaining yourself.

  • Tell people “Let me check my schedule” even if you know the answer is no.

  • Leave a group chat. Yes, the draining one.

• Energy Repairs

  • Put your hand on your chest and ask: “What do I need right now?” Then… actually do it! winks

  • Play music that makes you feel like the main character of your life again.

  • Stop multitasking. Your brain can only run so many tabs before overheating.

• Thought Detox

  • Unfollow the productivity cult.

  • Balance rest and play in an appropriate proportion to what you define as work.

  • Practice saying, “That sounds like a ‘them’ problem,” out loud. Often.

    
    

In Summary: You Are Not a Battery

You are human, not a production line in a meat suit. Your worth is not measured by your output, your availability, or your full emotional endurance. Burnout is not a weakness. It is your body’s way of whisper-screaming, “Please stop lighting me on fire for the warmth of others.”

You are allowed to protect your peace before you hit emergency shutdown mode. Not as an afterthought.

Mini Journal Prompts to Reclaim Capacity

• Where are my quiet and loud resentments where I need boundaries?

• If I said no 10% more this week, what would this look like?

• What actually fills my cup? Further, when’s the last time I drank from it?

  
  

Need a permission slip to rest? This is it. Burn it into your soul: You don’t have to earn your right to exhale.

Ashley Bell, MMFT, LMFT