I used to collapse when I got to every holiday I had during my old corporate career – terms like burnout just weren’t used then. If I’m honest, I wouldn’t have paced myself any better even if I had heard the term. What I needed instead was someone to explain why working the way I did wasn’t good for my long-term health. Exhausting myself daily, weekly, and yearly was only going to make healthy ageing more difficult. You may not have heard of the term inflammaging, but it refers to the process where inflammation accelerates ageing. Stress, exhaustion, and poor nutrition create a perfect storm for ill health. This month’s blog highlights 9 crucial ways to help you slow down physically and mentally. These strategies will help you have a bug-free winter, an energised Christmas, and set you on the path to a better midlife relationship with yourself. This month I look at ways to avoid burnout this winter.
What is burnout and what causes it?
Burnout is a term that refers to chronic fatigue and illness caused by stress. While it originated to describe workplace stress, let’s drop the "workplace" part – stress can stem from any source. Pushing yourself further than your body can handle leads to physical and emotional symptoms. As the saying goes, "If you don’t take time to rest, you’ll be forced to stop when you’re ill."
Symptoms of burnout can worsen as the weather turns colder because our bodies don’t function as well in the cold. You may find your back muscles cramp more easily or that you can’t get warm at certain times of day. Stress also causes unusual symptoms like cold flushes in the evening or a burning face paired with freezing cold feet.
Stress-related symptoms in Western medicine include fatigue (even if you sleep well), frequent illness, and brain fog. Overloading on caffeine or sugar to combat fatigue only worsens brain fog due to increased inflammation in the brain. Burnout often manifests as crashing during the first days of a holiday, when your body attempts to heal in the limited time it’s given. In severe cases, burnout leads to prolonged fatigue or autoimmune conditions.
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, your body prefers a temperate state – neither too hot nor too cold. In TCM, the lower back (where your Kidney Qi resides) plays a key role in temperature regulation and adrenal health. Western medicine may not officially recognise "adrenal fatigue," but many menopause symptoms are linked to stress and insufficient self-care.
How to check if your body is stressed
When your Kidney energy (Qi) is depleted, you may struggle to regulate temperature, feel persistently cold, or experience hot flushes and irritability. Interestingly, you mainly register heat from your chest to your face, but the best way to monitor if you’re too hot or cold is to feel your back around the lower ribcage.
Place your hands over your lower ribcage – if they feel warm and comforting, you are likely too cold, which indicates stressed Kidney/adrenal function.
Ways to Avoid Burnout This Winter
1. Pause Before Saying Yes!
Learn the power of saying No. Pause and think before committing to requests. Stop automatically saying "yes" to everything – this will help create space and energy for yourself.
Building in a pause (I literally learnt to bite my tongue – you only do it a few times!) allows you time to engage your brain and decide whether you need to do what’s been requested of you. You have a finite amount of energy per day – choose wisely where you spend it.
2. Breathe
The Japanese concept of forest bathing encompasses 3 powerful natural and holistic ways to reduce stress. They are:
Walking mindfully in nature, breathing in fresh air to re-energise your blood.
Inhaling tree-derived scents (essential oils), these lower stress and blood pressure.
Listening to natural sounds, which calm your system and promote healing.
A walk on the beach very offers similar benefits and both are grounding and resting the mind.
3. Rejuvenated Resting
Engaging in activities that calm the mind without exerting the body is the eastern way of mindfulness. This might include reading, meditating, restorative yoga, or creative hobbies like knitting or fishing (men are very good at finding hobbies that are mindful). Choose something that leaves your mind clear rested and refreshed. This is how you rest whilst you’re awake!
4. Prioritise Sleep
Struggling with sleep - you either can’t get to bed earlier or once you get to bed there are blocks of hours that you don’t sleep. Sleep issues are either can’t get to sleep or fall asleep quickly but wake up one or more times a night for an extended period of time. I can address your specific pattern of wakefulness and align it with the TCM clock for a tailored solution (this can also be done on a zoom consultation).
Rejuvenated resting can also help combat fatigue caused by insufficient sleep.
If you sleep well but still wake feeling fatigued then you are nutritionally depleted and will need to add in the right supplements as this is a more extreme state of stress.
5. Keep Your Kidneys Warm
From TCM, keeping your kidneys warm supports your adrenal health and regulates your internal temperature. A simple tip to keeping warmer all the time is to keep your kidneys warm. If you're out and about from dog walking to cleaning out the horses, wear an extra layer around your kidneys (situated under the lower back ribcage); this is known as a Hara maki. Either a cut off T shirt (worn as a band) or tying a blanket/scarf around you as you sit at the desk. If you wear a gilet or hoody always keep them zipped up – it’s about trapping your own body heat and utilising that to help balance your temperature.
Ankles, wrists and neck are points of weakness, where the Qi is thin and can be used for warming or cooling. To keep these strong, shake to ensure blockages are released and Qi can flow freely; your hands and feet will feel warmer if you do this regularly.
6. Warm Foods and Spices
Gentle spicing is another effective way to keep you warmer (and reduce burnout). Consuming food and drinks at room temperature or warmer, especially in cold weather. You shock your system whenever you drink/eat anything chilled and you divert precious energy to reheating your system again. As you now know heating is expensive!
If you find that your joints are worse in the cold and damp then spices like cinnamon, turmeric, and ginger can support warmth and reduce inflammation.
7. Hygge Over Guilt
Embrace the Scandinavian practice of hygge: create a cosy, restful space to relax completely Settle in with comfortable loungewear, candles, and a good book. Lighting candles (natural flames) is now known to have a therapeutic effect on calming the nervous system.
Winter is an energetic time of stillness and hibernation - embrace it guilt free. Humans are the only animals that don’t and we’re the most stressed and ill. Also - do this for your animals as they pick up on your stress. Chill out with them and help them feel better too 😊
If you feel tired - listen to your body. If you don’t take downtime in the winter, it’ll soon be Spring and you’ll be on the go again. Treat winter as a time to rest.
Resting IS NOT a waste of time and especially if your body is crying out for it – are you listening?
8. Replenish Nutrients
Stress depletes nutrients quickly, leading to symptoms like muscle aches joints and fatigue. Start with nutrient-rich foods and, if needed, supplement with high-quality, vitamins and minerals.
For supplements to really work they need to be plant-based (i.e. 100 heads of broccoli packed in a capsule) they will be absorbed by your gut and utilised like food and you’ll feel the benefits!
I’ve created a handy guide to explain all of this – you can access it here.
In times of stress, you can take an additional multivitamin, vitamin C and magnesium for a few days; or to overcome illness.
9. Receive Shiatsu Regularly
Shiatsu can help calm the nervous system, if stress keeps you in "fight or flight" mode, shiatsu can help reset your system.
I have to pop this in it’s a shiatsu blog after all! Shiatsu is fantastic at helping your nervous system calm down quickly allowing your body to switch into a healing state. You may never calm down enough on your own to trigger this as many of us are stuck in the fight/flight mode for 90% of the day (when it should only be 5%!). Shiatsu will help reset your system and you’ll to feel the difference after your first session!
Taking proactive steps to rest and nourish your body this winter can set you on a healthier, more balanced path – both now and in the future.
About Andrea at Shiatsu Bodyworks Cheltenham
Andrea is a qualified zen shiatsu and Chinese medicine practitioner with over 20 years immersed in holistic therapies and the energetics of mind and body. Based in Cheltenham, UK she offers in house clinic and online shiatsu sessions to help people with midlife health issues and also offers online consultations for helping you resolve health issues and regain your vitality. She is a menopause specialist too, find out more at cotswoldmenopause.co.uk
Healing starts when you are truly listened to and in shiatsu we listen to what your body is saying...
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