You serve with excellence. You show up for your family, your workplace, your church, and your community—often putting others first, while your own health quietly slips to the back of the line.

Many of us live with a quiet tension torn between the need to provide and the longing to be present. We want to make memories, not just money. But when self-care is always postponed, health begins to decline not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

That short window after work, the one meant for rest and restoration gets swallowed up by dinner prep, homework, practices, bedtime routines, and the unfinished tasks that trail behind. This becomes the rhythm. Days blur into weeks. And before we know it, we’re not living with intention we’re surviving. Survival mode is a temporary stress response characterized by hypervigilance, urgency, difficulty resting, and prioritizing tasks over nourishment.

In survival mode, you find yourself saying:

• “Surely things will slow down soon.”

• “Where did the time go?”

• “I just need to push through this season.”

Surviving or Burning Out?

But when survival mode shifts as a state of being, your health cannot be ignored. This state of being drains your energy, clouds your thinking, and disconnects you from the people and purpose that matter most. It’s the slow erosion of joy, clarity, and vitality. If left unchecked, survival mode can lead to burnout, a state of depletion.

The term “burnout” was first coined by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in 1974. It refers to a place of exhaustion — which can be both mental and physical — that’s the direct result of consistent or prolonged stress.

Burnout can show up as:

• Chronic fatigue and hormonal imbalance

• Emotional reactivity and spiritual dryness

• Guilt around self-care and resentment toward responsibilities

• Disconnection from your body, your calling, and your Creator

• Poor sleep quality or insomnia

• Emotional reactivity

• Decreased motivation

• The pressure to keep everything together, even when you’re running on empty

Here's the truth: Burnout has many culprits, not just from a stressful career. Burnout can show up in any place or season of your life, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all, it shows up in distinct patterns depending on the source of stress and how it affects your body, mind, and spirit. There's mental, physical, emotional, occupational, and spiritual burnout. If that wasn't enough, there's also a separate category for neglect, under-challenged, and overloaded burnout. 

Survival mode can lead to the path of burnout quickly. Spend time alone to reflect how stress and survival mode is affecting your thoughts, behaviors, and interactions. Is there one area of stress that feels most overwhelming? As your coaches, we're here with supportive tools to overcome the overwhelm.