Heal Within with Dr. Evette Rose

Unwired: How to Reset After Burnout and Overwhelm + Meditation

• Dr. Evette Rose • Season 15 • Episode 16

Share episode

Send us a text

Have you ever felt like no matter how much you rest, it’s never enough? Like your mind is still running, your body still buzzing, and your soul quietly whispering for a pause? Burnout isn’t just exhaustion — it’s your nervous system calling out for a reset.

In this episode, I explore what really happens beneath the surface when overwhelm takes over — why recovery can feel so hard, and how to gently bring yourself back into balance.

I’ll also guide you through a soothing meditation designed to help your mind and body reconnect to safety, calm, and steady ground.

With love,
 Dr. Evette Rose

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Heal Within here with me, Dr. Evette Rose, trauma therapist and also creator of Metaphysical Anatomy Technique. And this podcast is your safe place to explore emotional healing, nervous system repair and deep inner transformation. And if you are ready to go deeper and you would like to be supported in your healing journey, then you, of course, can always book a one-on-one session with me or with any of my certified metapsychology coaching practitioners. You can also join us for our upcoming live healing events, workshops or retreats at metaphysicalanatomycom. And now let's begin your journey back to wholeness, one breath at a time and one breakthrough at a time.

Speaker 1:

And in today's podcast, we're diving deep into unwired how to reset after burnout and overwhelm. Now, this is a place where I myself have been as well, and I don't know if you can relate. I mean, if you've ever felt like you're running on empty, no matter how much you rest, you might be experiencing burnout. You see, today we are exploring what burnout really is, why our brains and bodies struggle to recover and how to reset in a practical, science-backed way. But first let's name the problem. What is burnout? You see, burnout? This is when we feel a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion, and this normally is triggered by long-term high-level stress. It can also be long-term low-level stress and a continued behavioral pattern where we overextend ourselves. A continued behavioral pattern where we overextend ourselves, maybe take on too much responsibilities every day, working just that half an hour, a little bit later, not exercising as much, cutting down because maybe we are too tired, skipping that meal every more so often because we are too tired, or our schedule just slowly starts to become unbalanced until it's completely unbalanced.

Speaker 1:

Now some of a lot of the common signs that I myself have had, and let's see if you can relate. It's fatigue, irritability, lack of motivation, brain fog. It can also be physical symptoms. It can be headaches, it can be insomnia, it can be digestive problems and when our energy is so depleted and we start to feel it's a tough way to explain because it's so unique, it's so personal for everyone else. It's like for some people they might say they feel anxious, other might say they feel depressed, other might say they just feel like a complete loss of motivation. I've heard people say, well, when I feel depressed, I feel anxious, and other people might say, well, I feel depressed, I feel fatigue. So you can't even call it depression, because even that in itself is a very unique experience for every person, but what it does have in common is that burnout arises when demands exceed our resources. It can be physical and it can be mental. So there's too much output and there's not enough recovery and there's a discord between how much we put out and how much is what we put back in. But why is that discord there in? But why is that discord there? That is now the big question, because if that was balanced, we wouldn't have burnout in the first place. So why do we experience it?

Speaker 1:

You see, sometimes it can be due to a lot of chronic stress that we're feeling. It can be multiple small little issues that's coming together. There can also just be that one. I call it like that thorn in your side situation. But regardless of the source, regardless of whether it's multiple or just one, chronic stress actually keeps our sympathetic nervous system in that fight or flight response. So that switch is turned on and cortisol and adrenaline, all of this is staying elevated and it's leading to such an incredible amount of energy drain. And then we have our lack of recovery time. We don't put enough back in and that perpetuates that nervous system dysregulation.

Speaker 1:

Because when we look at instances where we are caught up in acts of what I would call like emotional labor. This is when we're caring for others. They could be high pressure at work, there could be toxic environments that's draining the brain as much as physical labor. And I mean we're surrounded by phones, social media, ipads, computers. Even kids have a phone and an iPad. Now, I don't know about you, but I grew up way back in the early 80s and the TV. If it had signal, I could watch a show, maybe once a day, once a week, I don't know, but nature, that was my playground. So now we're living in an era where there's this absolute digital overload, constant notifications, so accessible, always ready to help. You know, phone is always turned on and there is such a blur now with work and life boundaries. It's almost like it's fused together as one life, instead of having a work life, having a personal life.

Speaker 1:

You know, it's when I talk about some of you might've heard when I talk about the star of life. Right, that's really important. So when you're a star, each tip is maybe your career. One tip is your relationship with yourself, another tip can be relationships, another tip can be health and another tip can be mission, finances or purpose. I mean, you can have many tips, but if you invest too much energy in one of the points right, like your career, it's going to throw your star of life off of balance. And the only way to have the star perfectly balanced and not wobbling all the time is to have balance in all these different areas. But why is it that we don't have balance in these areas? What boundary failures do we experience in ourselves and with our environment? So I'm going to leave that question and let your subconscious mind percolate on that a little bit, because I want to briefly come back to the neuroscience of overstimulation, because there's a lot of things leading into one another.

Speaker 1:

This is not just a singular experience, right, there's multiple things happening. So firstly, we have the thalamus. That's our sensory filter. When this becomes overwhelmed, its ability to start to filter input weakens, and that's why every sound, light or demand, it feels amplified. The amygdala, our threat detector. This becomes overactive, overactive, and this is what's making spilled coffee feel like the. It feels like the end of the world. We've all been there, that small little thing and we just snap, it's like this explosion. Then we have the prefrontal cortex. That's our decision making center and also our self-control. Now this part becomes fatigue during burnout and it's so much harder to concentrate, problem solve or regulate our emotions. And then our insula, that is, our introception. Now, this is when we have that heightened body awareness of stress. Right, this is the mind and the body's ability to communicate with one another and this is what helps us to build awareness of sensations and changes within our body, whether it's tight chest, racing heart feelings of waves of stress, you see, chronic overstimulation. It increases what's called allostatic load and that's like the you can call that, almost like the wear and the tear of the body from a lot of built up stress.

Speaker 1:

Now, the big question also is why is it so hard to release the feeling of overwhelm? Hard to release the feeling of overwhelm? It's one thing to try to address it, but we don't necessarily look at looking at overwhelm in its entirety, instead of trying to pick it apart and see what's the cause of it. What is this? Let's look at it as an overall experience. An overall experience, the emotions, the sensations, all of it, just overwhelm. You see, this is when we look at neurochemical residues and this is when stress hormones linger in the bloodstream for hours and sometimes days, and it doesn't get an outlet, it doesn't get released.

Speaker 1:

We have memory encoding as well. You see the hippocampus now it tags a lot of stressful events as. This is not safe. This is making me feel uneasy, this is making me nervous, and that can make certain circumstances and events very hypersensitive. So we get triggered more easily. Now what I notice also happens is sometimes it's not the event, a person or a place. That's necessarily always the challenge, and I'm not saying this is always the case, but listen very carefully. Sometimes, when we carry a lot of stress with us, we can subconsciously start to associate people and circumstances. That's not part of the problem with that stress. It's called patterning. So every time when we see other people that's not part of the problem it can trigger low levels of this ongoing stress and that is why we start to become overwhelmed, because we feel like we can't get a break. It follows us everywhere. This is a big, big flag that a lot of people overlook during overwhelm, when they work with burnout. You see another part that gently flows into that is our default mode network, the DMN. So when this is resting, the brain starts to replace stress loops and this can also keep overwhelm active.

Speaker 1:

Our childhood. I'm telling you a lot of people don't want to go there, but this plays such a big role. Your foundation started there. Your foundation started there and we continue to build on that foundation throughout our life. I mean early stress. We know that this wires the nervous system to maybe remain in a hyper vigilant state, making it a lot harder to downregulate as an adult. So we're going into adult life with this preconditioned nervous system that's hypersensitive. What do you think is going to happen? You see, this is what brings us into the learned productivity culture.

Speaker 1:

We often feel so much guilt or fear around rest and this can make recovery so much harder. I can't rest because I should be doing this. I can't rest because I should be getting up 4 am to look at the stock market. I should be dropping my kid off at school. You know 8am I need to go to the gym, I need to do yoga, I need to eat right, I need to prepare all the meals. I mean that's a lot. So the mind and the body actually gets stuck. It becomes a habit. Not resting almost becomes a habit. It becomes part of just our lifestyle. And when we start to overlook signs, that's the problem. It's that insula. We know something is going on but we don't pay enough attention to it, because if we did, it would allow us to understand and decode the challenge of that clearer, which means we can apply the correct solution.

Speaker 1:

Now let's look at signs that you need to rest. It's constant exhaustion, even after sleep. It's feeling detached or very cynical about work and life. It could be that you have difficulty experiencing maybe joy, motivation. Your body can feel very on edge or even buzzing, and small tasks it can feel very overwhelming. Now the big question is how do we reset after burnout and overwhelm is, how do we reset after burnout and overwhelm? You see, we have a point that we also need to look at and that is sociological reset.

Speaker 1:

This, for example, is through breathwork. A lot of you know that I love breathwork. It can be movement, it can be walking, stretching. You know shaking to discharge, you know a lot of stress and energy that's built up. Another one is sensory reset quiet environment Get these gel silicon earplugs, more nature exposure, if it's possible, digital detox, light and sound productions as well. This can really give the thalamus a well-deserved break and emotional reset. Journaling, therapy it can be any type of therapy practices. It can be metapsychology coaching, it can be sound healing, it can be yoga, whatever you feel you need. It can be sharing feelings with just safe people, right, co-regulate. This really can help the nervous system to calm down as well.

Speaker 1:

And then, most importantly of all as well is cognitive reset Redefine, productivity, shift from doing more to doing what actually matters most, to doing what actually matters most Micro breaks. For me, it's a habit. I don't have to force myself anymore, it's an absolute habit because my insula is hypersensitive now to recognizing when I need to take a break. And what I've learned is that inner discipline to take action and actually take that micro break it really helps. And then, of course, lifestyle anchors sleep, hygiene, balanced nutrition, hydration and constant or not constant, but consistent rhythms. That helps to give you this feeling of stability that soothes your nervous system. And boundaries, boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. I'm telling you, if most people can just really clean up their boundaries with the world and with themselves, it would eradicate burnout.

Speaker 1:

So now, now that we know all of this, let's start our healing meditation. And remember, if you know anyone that's really going through this right now, if they can really use this, this podcast episode, please share it with them. Share it with them and help someone to take a nice deep breath. But now you and I, let's start our meditation Taking a nice deep breath, very good, and remember to don't be driving, don't walk while you're doing this, just pause. You can always come back to this.

Speaker 1:

So I invite you to sit down. Lie down whatever you feel most comfortable with, closing your eyes, gently, place one hand on your heart and another hand on your stomach, just taking a nice slow breath in your nose, and exhale out your mouth, just becoming aware of your breath. So let's now inhale on the count for four, hold for two counts, exhale for six counts. Very good, very good. And as you're doing that, notice, notice how your body's just starting to feel a little bit more relaxed, a little bit more peaceful. It's slowly slowing down. And now imagine roots extending from your fate, strength of the ground Supporting you and with each breath, draw in steady, grounding energy from the earth. And with each exhale, release tension, exhaustion and stress down through the roots, feeling all that nervous energy is leaving you out of your fate.

Speaker 1:

Bring your attention now to your mind. Notice any racing thoughts, fog or pressure. Imagine a soft wave of cool light washing over your forehead, just calming and clearing that mental clutter and just opening up your jaw just a little bit and notice as you do how your thoughts quiet down even more and let that soothing light now move through your chest, softening any tightness around your heart. Allow it to flow through your stomach, releasing maybe that tension that could be there. And notice now as you breathe silently, remind yourself I am safe, I'm supported, I'm safe. I can let go. Imagine your nervous system gently resetting, very peacefully, so gracefully and calmly. It's almost like a computer resetting, feeling those stressful pathways quiet down and your body returns to balance. And now let's affirm affirmations together and all that you have to do is listen to my voice or you can also repeat them if you wish.

Speaker 1:

I give myself permission to rest and reset. My body knows how to restore balance. Each breath I take calms my mind and heart and I welcome renewal. I am safe, steady and supported. I'm going to say that one again and feel each word running through every single cell in your body. I am safe now, steady and supported.

Speaker 1:

It my worth is not defined by productivity. I allow space for joy and peace in my life. I'm reconnecting with my natural rhythm. I choose calmness over stress. I'm healing one breath at a time, and that is okay, is okay.

Speaker 1:

I invite you now to take one more deep breath, really filling your lungs completely, and slowly exhale. Exhale, feel your body lighter and calmer and more grounded, and when you are ready, feeling that surface beneath your body again, gently coming back into the here and now, and when you open up your eyes, very gently carry this reset energy into the rest of your day, and always remember that you, you are not alone and you are healing one step at a time, one breath at a time. An affirmation for today is that my worth is no longer defined by my productivity. Remember, if this episode touched you, then please share it with someone on their healing journey as well. And, as always, breathe deep, listen within and stay gently curious. I look forward to seeing you in the next podcast. I love you, thank you for you and thank you for being here today, and until next time, be the light that you are.