How to Prevent Burnout by Regulating your Nervous System
Burnout isn’t just about feeling tired or overworked—it’s often the result of chronic stress, low emotional resilience, and a narrow window of tolerance. When stress becomes a constant presence in your life, it makes it harder for your nervous system to return to a calm state, and that’s when burnout can take hold.
Why Burnout Happens
Have you ever found yourself suddenly feeling anxious, irritated, or completely shut down without knowing why? One moment you feel fine, and the next, you’re overwhelmed by your emotions.
Our emotional states are deeply tied to the health of our nervous system. When we feel overwhelmed, anxious, or disconnected, our nervous system shifts into hyperarousal (overwhelm) or hypoarousal (numbness or shutdown) — these are all signs that your nervous system is dysregulated. Staying in these states for too long shrinks our window of tolerance, making it harder to manage everyday stressors, increasing our vulnerability to burnout.
Your window of tolerance is the zone where you feel emotionally regulated aka your best. The more expanded your window of tolerance is, the greater your ability to handle stress and build resilience. Emotional regulation and nervous system regulation tools help us do this.
What do each of these states feel like?
Window of tolerance feels like: calm, confident, peaceful, creative, balanced, present, focused, and in flow.
Hyperarousal feels like: overstimulation, anxious, all over the place, overreactive, irritated, annoyed, frustrated, stress, panic, scattered, talkative, fidgety
Hypoarousal feels like: shutting down, intense emotion of numbness, feeling very disconnected, lethargic, numb, unmotivated, apathetic, don’t care, depressed
The Foundations of Well-being
Burnout can also indicate that some foundational areas in our lives are out of balance. When these areas are neglected, it places extra stress on your nervous system, making burnout more likely.
How can I help my body regulate?
The tools that we use to support our body in regulating are different depending on what state we’re in. Here are 2 tools you can use depending on what state you’re in:
Hyperarousal: Feeling overstimulated? Try the Compassion Hold.
Hypoarousal: Feeling unmotivated or shutdown? Try Body Tapping.
Want personalized support on regulating your emotions? I’m here to help you on this path to greater balance and well-being. Book a 1:1 EFT session, where we’ll work through emotions, regulate your nervous system, and help you expand your window of tolerance.
