If Summer Hasn't Helped Your Burnout, You're Not Alone

You did everything right this summer.  

You took time off. Maybe even a real vacation where you barely checked your email. You slept in, read novels, and actually used those vacation days you'd been hoarding.  

Yet here you are, staring down September with that familiar weight in your chest. The same exhaustion that was there in June is still there now. Maybe it's even heavier.  

You're not broken. And you're definitely not alone.  

Here's what most high achievers don't realize: burnout isn't a battery that simply gets recharged with rest. It's a nervous system that's been rewired for survival mode. 

Those of us called to serve, to lead, to care for others -- we've been having a time of it in the last several years. We're strong and we're resilient.  But the volume and acuity of stressors, and the pace of modern life, have left our coping skills outmatched.  

So we keep doing what we know best: Try harder.  Soldier on.  Push through.  

Here's the thing: when you're operating in chronic stress, your nervous system can become stuck in overdrive. Your body learns to treat normal work challenges like life-or-death situations. An unexpected email becomes a saber-tooth tiger. A family weekend feels like just more pressure. A packed calendar becomes a natural disaster you must outrun.  

Summer break? Your nervous system sees it only as a brief cease-fire, not peace. So it stays hypervigilant, ready to spring back into action.  

This is why you can take two weeks away on Cape Cod and still feel exhausted on your first day back. Your system never truly downshifted.

Here's the deeper truth: Circumstances don't fundamentally change how we feel. A promotion doesn't cure the Sunday blues. A lighter workload doesn't automatically create inner peace.  And a vacation doesn't address the bone-deep exhaustion of burnout. 

Yet we keep trying to fix our internal experience by changing external conditions. We've never been taught the tools and skills to actually manage how we feel from the inside out.

The women I work with often describe this perfectly: "I feel like I'm working at recovery rather than actually recovering. And then, when I don't feel better, I feel like a failure at that, too." 

Sound familiar?  The real work isn't about taking more time off (though that doesn't hurt).  

It's about rewiring your nervous system to recognize the difference between genuine challenges and perceived threats. 

It's about managing your mind to create results, instead of spinning in overwhelm.  And learning to take care of yourself in real time as you navigate stress and challenges.  

It's about building what I call Core Strength, and I'm not talking about your physical core.  Core Strength is a skillset -- a set of tools and practices to manage your mind, your energy, and your nervous system at a whole new level.  These are the very same tools and skills that pulled me out of burnout during the pandemic, and that have helped so many of my clients feel like themselves again -- energized, empowered, and engaged in the work they love.  In the next few weeks, I'm going to share some insights that might surprise you about burnout and what actually creates a sustainable relationship with your work.  Because you deserve to feel as powerful as everyone else thinks you are.

☺️    ~Penni  Penelope Perri, MSW, CEAP  Life & Leadership Coach  Penelope Perri Coaching penelopeperri.com