Member-only story
Pay Attention to These Unexpected Early Warning Signs of Burnout
Your body is trying to tell you something
I don’t like to say “no.” As a freelancer, I don’t make money unless I work––so when editors reach out with potential assignments, I typically say “yes” without a second thought. The extra money in my pocket is always helpful, but honestly? It’s more about FOMO. I’m worried work won’t keep coming to my inbox if I don’t say “yes” every time––even if I don’t have the bandwidth to do the work I’m agreeing to.
Here’s the problem: On fear-of-missing-out autopilot, I often don’t notice I’m approaching burnout until I’m already crashing and burning. As the work piles up and my stress increases, my mental strain usually turns physical: I start to get debilitating neck pain and headaches, I become crabby and detached, I have trouble sleeping, and, you guessed it––sooner or later, I can’t work at all.
As I’ve worked through my anxiety in therapy, I’ve gained a new resource for preventing burnout: detecting when I’m inching toward an emotional spiral by paying attention to the subtle signs my body gives me that it’s under stress.
Plenty of research suggests stress isn’t just an emotional experience, but a physiological one. You experience the effects of physical stress every time your heart races…
