Tag Archives: burnout

To the wandering soul who needs to hear these words tonight…

You’re not failing
You’re not failing by feeling this tired
You’re responding
Appropriately to years of compounding crisis

Any human would be tired
Any human body would be strained

You don’t have to break to deserve stillness

Grief and trauma don’t expire
They morph
And enduring multiple major traumas…
That’s not weakness; that’s reality

When people say “you’re so strong”
What they often mean is
“You make hard things look easy”
or worse…
“I don’t have to worry about you”

But strength doesn’t mean infinite capacity
And compassion doesn’t mean you owe yourself to every need that arises
The strength people admire can become your cage
It can bankrupt your reserves, erode away your body, and suffocate your spark

True strength isn’t just saying yes
It’s also saying no
With Love
It’s disappointing others rather than abandoning yourself
It’s choosing rest even when there’s more to do
Even when there’s always
So. much. more. to. do

I’m not telling you to quit–trying, improving, working, growing
But there is no medal for self-erasure
No reward worth the slow burn of collapse

You are not weak, and you are not broken

I know. It sounds like a cliché now; everyone says it
But maybe that’s because it’s a message we desperately need to hear

You are responding perfectly to impossible circumstances
And you are so deeply worthy of rest, healing, and being held too
Not just always being the one who holds
Not just always being the one to reach out first

Don’t normalize martyrdom
It gets us nowhere. It cages us even more
And it doesn’t keep good company with unconditional love
Or good mental health

Normalize treating ourselves with as much human dignity as we offer others
Normalize self-care, health care, self-kindness, and rest
Rest isn’t weakness; it’s sacred return
Normalize time to play, time to visit
Time to breathe

Breathe

That’s the legacy I want for my daughters
That’s the freedom I want for the future
Including mine

—
July 25, 2025
11:52pm