One of the most popular questions I get asked is “how long does it take to recover from burnout?”
And it’s a difficult question to answer because everyone is unique. I’ve seen some of my clients recover from severe burnout in under a month, and other clients, particularly those who have a history of burning out, take three to six months to really get back to their best.
So why the range? Well it principally depends on the state of your adrenal glands. You see the adrenal glands sit atop of the kidneys and regulate the release of stress hormones in response to stressors. The more your adrenals are engaged, the more your body will start to wilt in response to new stressors, so effectively your adrenal glands are your battery, your hidden store of energy to help you raise your game when you need to rise to a challenge.
Typical symptoms of your adrenals being spent include constant tiredness, inability to go to sleep and stay asleep, craving salty or sugary foods and reliance on caffeine or energy drinks. And the trouble is that stimulants actually make the problem worse over time.
The trouble is, our adrenals aren’t designed for the level of stress that we have to cope with today. They are designed to give us a short burst of energy to escape predators or hunt down prey, back in the Stone Age.
So the more spent your adrenals are, the longer that it's going to take to recover from burnout. Typically I see people with most of those symptoms recovering from burnout in four to six weeks of coaching, but that's because I am working with them to correct the habits and behaviours that are perpetuating the burnout.
Most people who go it alone can expect a period of three to six months to recover, if and only if they actually address the reasons that they got burnt out in the first place.
And that leads me on to the action you have to take to recover from burnout.
You see there are generally two factors that cause burnout and prevent you from recovering.
The first one is the habits that deplete your battery. You see the people most at risk of burnout are the ones that live in the fast lane. They put long hours in at work, they like to do spin classes or go for a run, they like a glass or two of wine in the evening to take the edge off, and they are always on the go, fuelled by caffeine and ambition. Unfortunately all of those activities drain your battery. Even the alcohol, it all requires adrenaline to process.
As do toxic relationships, which is the second factor. The difficult boss or the angry client. The oxygen thief at the next desk and all of those competing commitments you have because you don't want to say no to anything, even when you know you're overloaded.
All of these habits and relationships drain your battery, and to recover from burnout, you need to resolve some of them. This is where a Coach comes in really handy, because you probably can't see the real root cause of these habits, and so it makes it very difficult for you to pick the two or three things that will make the difference.
So the simple equation in to how long it takes to recover burnout is this: the more time you spend recharging your adrenal glands versus draining them. It's ok to go out with your friends, work long hours and do spin classes, as long as you counter it with recharging activities, such as going out for walks or swims, getting plenty of sleep and learning how to keep your calm in difficult situations. The simplest way to know how charged you are is to measure your heart rate variability, and you can find out more in my HRV video which has a link in the description. Apps like Heartmath and sensors like the amazing Oura ring actually measure your stress levels and they tell you in no uncertain terms whether you are recovered enough from recent stresses to go out and do something draining.
Using Welltory ([ Ссылка ]) or Oura ([ Ссылка ]) every day will help you understand what drains your battery or recharges it, and I often find that it takes less than two weeks of using these tools for people to getting back on the road to good health. Add to that Heartmath Training ([ Ссылка ]) or the Vagus Nerve Stimulation ([ Ссылка ]) that you can find in my other videos, and you can recover from burnout in three or four weeks, and be back to your best.
Heartmath Playlist: [ Ссылка ]
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#burnout #stress #heartmath

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