"I'm Not Burnt Out, Right?"—How I Learned to Confront Burnout & Move Beyond It

I wasn’t burnt out. 

I was just … doing a lot of things I was passionate about.

Website manager for a missions university campus. Teaching classes and overseeing projects for our media interns. Leading a small group for junior high girls. Not to mention clocking 10 hours a week of social media management for another nonprofit organization “on the side”. 

I wasn’t burnt out. 

I was just … not always having a full lunch break.

Needing coffee to survive the afternoon. Running from one event to the next, always late. Then, at the end of the day—endlessly scrolling, scrolling, trying to check out with my phone before it all started over again. 

I wasn’t burnt out... right?

l still read my Bible every morning. I journaled, too. I went for walks. I would even steal away to the Prayer Room on campus during my lunch break—it was the only way I could survive.

Key word—survive. 

So maybe I was burnt out—just a little bit. 

Fast forward to December.

I’d changed jobs—and moved countries—so life looked very different than those months before. I’d learned to slow down again (forests in England help with that), and even gone to counseling to process the hard things that happened during my last season.

But it was mid-December. I was overwhelmed and overtired, swamped by the pre-Christmas rush—dangerously close to my limit once again. 

That’s when a coworker sent me a link to Soul Care’s online course, Confronting Burnout. 

Better watch it, I groaned, knowing I'd be asked about it later. So I put the first video on in the background—as I simultaneously edited a social media graphic. 

“What is burnout?” asked Mindy Caliguire, co-founder of Soul Care.

“Simply put, burnout is complete depletion and exhaustion of your spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical resources—and it can be experienced at varying degrees of intensity.”

I felt like I'd been slapped in the face.

It can be experienced at varying degrees of intensity.

I thought back to when I “wasn’t burnt out”.

I wasn’t ever at complete and utter shutdown, so I never wanted to label it as burnout.

But everything Mindy was describing? The exhaustion, the slow checking-out of what I cared about? I’d experienced it, was currently experiencing it, or coming out of it. 

So there at my desk, I finally let myself admit it.

It was okay to call my experiences "burnout".

And this is why:

If I wanted to keep doing the ministry and work I was passionate about—I needed to confront the fact I wasn't experiencing "life and life abundant" (John 10:10).

I couldn't keep going like I had been, even though I hadn't fully "crashed". I needed to call elements of my life what it was—burnout—and in response, make a plan to sustain my health, all dimensions of it.

So that week, I finished Confronting Burnout in the middle of my Christmas season deadlines. Finally, I took time off work, I slowed down, and looked for ways to recover my soul. 

To kickoff the new year, I attended our online Semi-Silent Retreat, and it was just what I needed.

I spent the following days using the reflection resource to pray through tangible goals to safeguard my soul’s health.

I set things into place that I still am carrying today, like having regular silence and solitude time, sticking to clear time limits with my social media, and meeting regularly with a mentor. 

Oh, I’m still doing a lot of things I’m passionate about.

If anything, I'm doing far more than I did a year ago. I still flirt dangerously close to overwhelmed and overtired (especially after traveling internationally, like I did last month). I still slip into a hectic schedule and prioritize responsibilities beyond my capacity.

But what’s different is now I have something to catch me.

I now have close friends, mentors, and an online community who ask me the hard and kind questions about soul health. As a result, my internal thermostat is getting better and better at taking the temperature of my soul health—and adjusting accordingly.

So, I’m still learning. I need to submit my responsibilities and hectic schedule to prayer, daily.

But in the process—I’m so grateful for the words of 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV):

“My grace is sufficient for you, 
for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

So today, wherever you are—far from burnout, experiencing pieces of it, or deeply engulfed in it—I pray for fresh grace to know the way forward. 

Because there’s life beyond your burnout—abundant life. 

Start “Confronting Burnout”, the crash course to understand, prevent, and overcome burnout in your life.

This short online course is designed to help you confront whatever level of burnout you might be in—or anticipate. Receive gentle guidance in reflection and spiritual practices that can re-engage your natural, God-breathed motivation—and experience "life and life abundant" once more.

Kayla Norris
Soul Care Media