The Reset Habits That Rebuild Your Energy and Prevent Burnout
There was a moment recently where I almost said yes. When I knew it would stretch me too thin.
On paper, it made perfect sense. The ask was aligned, expansive, the kind of opportunity that signals growth. The version of me from a few years ago would have accepted immediately - no pause, no question, no hesitation. Because for a long time, I equated opportunity with expansion, and expansion with success. So I was always ready with a YES.
But something in me this time didn’t move forward. Didn’t dive in exactly as expected.
It wasn’t dramatic. It didn’t come with a clear “no.” It was quieter than that. A subtle contraction in my body. A slight drop in energy. A knowing that saying yes to this, ultimately came with a trade-off and a no to something (or someone) else.
Thankfully, I recognised it for what it was - as an old and unhelpful pattern.
The pattern of saying yes stemming from identity, not capacity. It was a deeply engrained pattern of trusting what looked right over what felt right. The pattern of stretching myself just enough to cope, but not enough to truly sustain. Overcommitting, overpromising and overdelivering. At my expense.
So in that moment, I did something different.
I didn’t override it.
I didn’t try to “make it work.”
I didn’t do the mental gymnastics of how to fit the square peg ask into the round hole of time I would have to find to make it all work.
I just chose to listen.
And my intuition knew what the real and only answer was.
This is the kind of reset we don’t talk about enough. Not the external reset - the holiday, the day off, the long weekend - but the internal one. The moment where you interrupt a familiar pattern and choose a different way of relating to your energy. Where you catch yourself, and give yourself a fresh start, reclaiming your calm, confidence and energy as you do.
The truth is, most habits designed to “fix” burnout don’t actually work in the long term. That’s because they operate on the assumption that your energy is something you need to recover, rather than something you are constantly in relationship with. I want you to consider that deeply. You can rest as much as you like, but if you return to the same overcommitting patterns post-holiday, you’re in the same cycle.
So that distinction changes everything.
We’ve been conditioned to think about energy in simple terms: you spend it, and then you restore it. Work hard, then rest. Push, then recover. Deplete, then repair.
But this isn’t a viable solve because the human system doesn’t function like a battery. It functions more like an ecosystem.
Your energy is shaped moment by moment, influenced by your nervous system, your emotional state, your thoughts, your environment, your relationships, and the meaning you attach to your work. It’s more complex, more fragile, more nuance. This is why two people can do the exact same task, for the same amount of time, and one feels energised while the other feels completely drained.
It’s not just what you do. It’s how your system experiences it.
This is where a mind-body approach becomes essential.
Research in stress physiology and nervous system regulation shows that chronic fatigue and burnout are less about isolated events of overwork, and more about prolonged periods of dysregulation. When your system is consistently in a state of activation - subtly bracing, anticipating, responding- your energy is being depleted in the background, often without you realising it.
And so, you rest. You take time off. You sleep more. You step away. But if the underlying state of your nervous system hasn’t shifted, that rest doesn’t fully restore you. You return to work still carrying the same internal load.
This is why so many high-performing, thoughtful, self-aware women find themselves asking the same question: “Why am I still tired?”
To answer that, we need to go deeper than surface-level solutions. Sustainable energy isn’t built through occasional rest. It’s built through daily regulation.
Practices like Mindfulness and breathwork are often positioned as “nice to have,” but the evidence tells a different story. Slow, conscious breathing - particularly with a longer exhale - activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing cortisol and signalling safety to the body. Over time, this changes your baseline state, meaning you’re no longer operating from constant, low-level stress.
But here’s where I want to push this further. It’s not just about doing the practices. It’s about becoming the kind of person who doesn’t abandon themselves in the first place. That’s the shift, the pattern to disrupt and dismantle.
Because you can meditate every morning, practice breathwork between meetings, and still say yes to something your body knows you don’t have the capacity for. You can be deeply “wellness aware” and still override your own limits in subtle, socially rewarded ways. I know because I’ve been there and done it myself.
This is where many reset habits quietly fail. They sit on top of the pattern, rather than transforming it.
Movement offers another layer of insight. We often think of movement as something we add in to improve our energy. But from a nervous system perspective, movement is how the body completes stress cycles. When stress is activated but not discharged, it lingers. It accumulates. It becomes the background noise of your system.
So gentle, consistent movement such as walking, stretching or shaking out tension all helps your body to process and release what it’s holding. Not as performance, not as optimisation, but as integration.
And then there are boundaries. Not the rigid, performative kind. But the quiet, self-honouring ones.
The momentary pause before you commit. The willingness to disappoint. The ability to hold discomfort without immediately fixing it by saying yes.
In many ways, boundaries are the most advanced form of energy management, because they require you to tolerate short-term discomfort in service of long-term sustainability. Writers like Brené Brown speak to this often: the idea that clear is kind, and that honouring your limits is not selfish, but essential. And yet, in high-performing environments, it can feel easier to override yourself than to stand in that clarity. This is why reset habits need to go beyond actions. To be transformative, they need to reshape your identity.
There’s also a deeper, more nuanced layer to energy that often gets overlooked: not all energy depletion is physical
Some of it is cognitive - the mental load of decision-making, context switching, holding multiple roles at once.
Some of it is emotional - the weight of responsibility, the effort of staying composed, the quiet labour of caring.
Some of it is relational - the subtle tension in conversations, the unspoken dynamics, the energy it takes to be “on.”
So when you begin to see energy through this wider lens, you start to understand why sleep alone doesn’t fix it. Why a weekend away doesn’t always touch the depth of your fatigue. Because what you’re carrying isn’t just tiredness. It’s accumulation.
And so the question shifts from “How do I recover my energy?” to “How do I relate to my energy differently, every day?” This is where real reset happens.
The Reset is not in a single moment, but in a series of small, conscious course corrections. Of catching yourself before you overcommit. Of noticing when your body contracts, and choosing to listen, then act accordingly. It is about building in micro-moments of regulation throughout your day, rather than waiting until you’re exhausted. Let your capacity be dynamic, rather than fixed. Choose sustainability, even when urgency appears louder.
That moment where I chose not to say yes - it didn’t change anything externally. But internally, it changed the way I trust myself. It made me proud of how I’m protecting something important to me. It reminded me that energy isn’t something I need to chase or fix. It’s something I need to honour.
And this is the work I’m continuing to deepen - not just for myself, but in how I support others, too. I know you don’t need more advice about pushing through, or tips on “resting more.”
We need a new relationship with energy entirely. One that is grounded in awareness, guided by the body, and built for the long term.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more about something I’ve been quietly creating behind the scenes: The Reset Toolkit.
It’s designed for this exact work. Not as another set of tasks to add to your list, but as a structured, supportive way to help you understand your energy, regulate your nervous system, and build habits that actually sustain you. If this piece resonated, it’s likely this next step will too.
I want you to understand that resetting your energy isn’t about stepping out of your life. It’s about learning how to move through it differently. With more awareness. More intention. And far more care for the one resource that underpins everything else.
…Your energy.