Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

Mixed feelings! I loved Come As You Are and I expected this to be even more insightful and relatable.

But, it left me kind of cold, and I was even rolling my eyes at some points... I'm not sure I buy the main premise, which is that you can be carrying decades worth of “uncompleted” stress cycles in your body. I mean, sure, it's good to do something physical to let your body feel that you've escaped the lion that's chasing you in these modern times when the lion is, like, a stressful email. But the idea that there's a debit of “uncompleted” cycles that build up over years seems a bit far-fetched to me. I guess maybe for people who literally never exercise or relax at all?

I do believe the bits about how exercise is good, sleep is important, being overweight isn't necessarily unhealthy, and social connections are vital... but none of that is news.

They describe burnout as being rooted in “Human Giver Syndrome”, which is to say, the core idea in our society that givers (usually women) are supposed to sacrifice themselves in order to support the actualization of “human beings” (usually men). I buy that this is a thing that many women feel, but personally it does not get at the core of my feelings of burnout. (I relate far more to the description of burnout that talks about lack of control over outcomes, lack of meaning, etc.)

I do relate to the talk about perfectionism and self-compassion; but that's addressed here in a pretty cursory way. I've read other works that were far more helpful in that area (Brene Brown comes to mind).