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How I burned myself out (again)

There’s a certain irony to being a mental health advocate, raising awareness about certain topics and yet somehow managing to burn yourself out. Yet here we are, it’s the start of 2026 and I feel on the fringes of burnout – I definitely ended 2025 burned out and I’m not out of the weeds yet. How did this happen, you might ask? Well, I ask myself the same question and I’ve realized that it seems to be the perfect concotion of my personality that means I have a tendency to push myself too hard. But first, let’s rewind.

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The truth about being a mindful entrepreneur

The path to entrepreneurship

About 6 months ago I decided to re-embark on the path of entrepreneurship by becoming self employed. This isn’t my first time – I did it in 2019 – but back then I had no idea what I was doing and had picked the option by default. Needless to say it was a very stressful period where I couldn’t fully embrace this status. In 2024 it was a completely different scenario: after careful consideration and wondering what I wanted to do next with my career, I decided I would give it another go.

With my 40th birthday on the horizon I asked myself: what do I want for the next 20 years of my career? Do I want to be in a corporate office job? The answer was no. I wanted to give myself a chance of pursuing the things I love and giving it a go – no regrets. Now I realize, 40 is still young and there’s plenty of time to do the things you always wanted to. 😉

With that in mind I decided to pursue my idea of becoming a life coach – something I’d been wanting to do since 2018. I thought that being able to blend my communications and marketing skills as well as being a coach would be the perfect mix. I also wanted the opportunity to pursue my artistic goals related to dance, and thus the journey started.

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Confessions of a recovering perfectionist

I’m going to be honest, until recently I was one of those people who called myself a perfectionist and would use it as my go to “weakness” in a job interview. But a few weeks ago in my coaching course, I was watching my fellow classmates worry about doing something right and I realized “I just don’t care”. From that point on I started to ask myself: am I actually a perfectionist anymore?

Truth be told, it’s not the first time I’ve heard people talk about their perfectionist tendencies and realized I truly don’t give a shit at all. 😂 And you know what? If I’m honest, I used to take pride in being a perfectionist, because it meant a job well done. It meant I went above and beyond, and held myself to ridiculously high standards no one else could meet, which ultimately made me “better”. As I write this I realize this sounds completely crazy, and yet it was true.

But today I think I’m finally free of perfectionism, I’ve reached the land of “I don’t care”, and I want to reflect a bit on this journey, and how it feels. I’m sure many of us out there can relate to the relentless life perfectionism creates.

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Why I decided to become a coach

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, or maybe you’ve come across one of my previous posts, then you will know that my coaching journey started back in 2016, and it has been truly transformative. When I first agreed to try coaching it was for two reasons. One was out of curiosity, having only ever been to therapy before. Can coaching help me? What is this trendy thing popping up? And the other was because I thought “maybe I can be a coach! I have to test this for myself”. As I just finished my coaching training with the CTI and am officially a coach, I wanted to take time to reflect on this journey.

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Risk taking, for a happier life

Above lake Annecy

Recently I started a new phase in my life. I’m continuing my coaching training, I’ve started coaching people, and I’m a full-time freelancer i.e. self-employed. I’ve also had more time to dedicate to content creation, which I have to say is making me really happy these days. All of this got me thinking about how sometimes in order to create change in your life you have to take risks, and that can be scary. I also see this with the clients I’ve been coaching: they seem to know there is another possibility, but naturally it can feel like a huge leap of faith that they’re not yet ready to take.

Today I want to dig into this a little bit more, when to take risks, and why they’re necessary if you want to succeed in creating your dream life.

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Burnout PTSD – what is it?

Not long ago I was talking to a friend who also burned out and she said something to me along the lines of “I didn’t know if I could work anymore, if work was even for me… I was scared of burning out again”. Suddenly a light went off in my brain and I realized – “oh my God she has burnout PTSD, and so do I”.

It really got me reflecting on my own experience and how my burnouts have affected me ever since. Particularly after launching the burnout checklist, it’s a topic I want to continue exploring. After all, you can recover from burnout thankfully, but what happens after that?

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The burnout checklist

The burnout checklist

Burnout remains a key problem in the workplace. Did you know that in the UK, one in four people (24%) said they felt ‘unable to manage stress and pressure in the workplace’? The issue is, we are not yet equipped with the right tools to help us know, and manage ourselves. We are told about “mindfulness”, are asked to meditate and “breathe” but we are not told why and lack context as to why this helps. So how are we supposed to meaningfully implement these tools?

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How to find the right coach?

So you’re thinking of starting coaching, but how do you find the right one for you? If you’re a first-timer to coaching this is a very important process, and I’m not going to lie, it’s a bit of a minefield. For the past 20 years (or maybe even more), the coaching industry has grown like crazy and now coaches are a dime a dozen! To make it even more confusing you have different kinds of coaches: life coach, business coach, relationship coach, empowerment coach, career coach, Executive coach… As well as people who proclaim themselves coaches without really being one. Just writing this list makes me chuckle because it goes to show how nebulous the term is. How on earth will you find the right coach in this haystack?

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How I went from burned out to thriving

Or in other words, how my thirties have been the most transformative decade of my life…

A lot is happening right now: I am about to turn 40, I just took a leap of faith and became a freelancer again, and I just started taking my intermediate coaching course with Co-Active coaching. All of this got me reflecting on the past decade and how I essentially turned my life around. I’ve gone from burned out, anxious, depressed, lacking in self-confidence, to someone who is grounded, aligned with her values and living life to the fullest. It’s a beautiful way to close off this decade and enter the next one, honestly I cannot wait to see what it brings. So, let’s jump in and let me tell you more about what happened.

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My experience with body dysmorphia

Thin in 2020
Me in the summer of 2020 – at my fittest

Recently I’ve been a bit unhappy with my body because I’ve gained weight, lost muscle, and am not as strong as I used to be. Looking back at my body during Covid times, I wish I was still that strong and lean. But the crazy thing is that back then I didn’t value it at all. And it got me thinking: I honestly cannot remember a time in my life when I didn’t think I needed to be thinner and was 100% satisfied with my body.

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Myth: burnout is an extreme condition

Extreme burnout

I was recently speaking with a friend who is on sick leave from her job. She’s been through a lot in her personal life and finally her doctor decided she needed to take time off. When we met, she started asking me questions about my burnouts. I could sense she was curious and trying to understand more, perhaps trying to decide if she herself was burned out. And in this conversation several times she said to me “yeah but you were never on sick leave, right”? Or “yes but you never reached the stage where you couldn’t get out of bed, right”? And then it occurred to me: she was trying to check if I’d had a “real burnout”, where real burnout equated with an extreme condition in which you literally can’t get out of bed any more and have to take sick leave.

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How coaching changed my life

How coaching changed my life
Picture by Anna Alekseeva

It was recently world mental health day, and I started thinking about how much my life has changed and how I got to where I am today. I’m so happy that currently I experience a lot less anxiety, depression and general low moods. I’m also happy that I no longer work in a toxic environment and actually feel safe in my job, something that hugely contributes to overall good mental health. But this didn’t happen by accident or overnight. For me the thing that has significantly impacted my mental health is coaching, and I wanted to share why.

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Mental health in the workplace – what should your employer do?

Mental health in the workplace: overcome stress and beat burnout

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being on a panel at work called “Overcome stress and beat burnout” along with 3 other colleagues who are passionate about this topic. We spoke a lot about what you as an individual can do to look after yourself and there were a lot of great tips. We spoke about boundaries, expectations of yourself, and having honest conversations with your colleagues. But someone also asked “what can the employer do for us?”, and I’ve been thinking about this ever since.

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My mental health has changed

My mental health has changed

I’m currently on holiday enjoying the beautiful European summer, and it wouldn’t be a proper holiday unless I was using the time to reflect on life and the past 6-7 months of this year. Whilst we were chatting, a friend of mine pointed out to me that I’ve been stressed at work now for pretty much the better part of the year which I realized was true. Following that, I also realized that although I’ve been stressed it’s not affecting me the same as it used to and suddenly it dawned on me: my relationship to stress and my mental health has changed completely.

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An update on That’s Mental

It’s been a while since I’ve been active on That’s Mental, whether over here on the blog or on my Youtube channel, so I thought it was time to share an honest update and writing felt like the most natural thing to do. So if you’re in the mood for a bit of a natter, read on below. This isn’t about me feeling sorry for myself or complaining, this is about being honest about my mental health which I believe is important.

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