I got sick last week. Thankfully, it wasn’t COVID, just a head and chest cold that knocked me on my butt for 5 days. Suddenly, I found myself ensconced in the corner of my couch, and I remembered.

I remembered all of the days I spent in the exact same spot in the living room (different couch) as my body succumbed to my complete inability to call for a full stop to my life (except for when I was sick) and began to release the emotional and physical toxicity it had been holding for so long.

I remembered that for years leading up to my ultimate crash and burn, I was sick often. One year, I was on antibiotics 9 months out of 12 for sinus infections and/or bronchitis. I caught everything that my kids brought home from school, even if they were only the carriers and didn’t get sick themselves.

My immunoglobulin levels were tested twice during these years in an attempt to identify why I was sick so often.

Did you know that poor immune response, chronic immune conditions and other chronic (and sometimes fatal) illnesses can be triggered by burnout?

Cortisol is the body’s main stress hormone. And while it has an important role in our capacity to survive, we weren’t actually biologically designed to be flooded with cortisol all day, every day. In fact, one of the many bodily systems that starts to deteriorate when we are living in a cortisol flood all day every day is the immune system.

Even though I felt pretty terrible last week, I was grateful, because I realized that I hadn’t been that sick for more than a year. And in the year that brought us COVID, that truth felt even more remarkable.

One of the things that I hope “sticks” from our collective experience of that last year is the radical idea that when you are sick, you should stay home and rest.

I used to be terrible at this. It used to be that when I got sick, I would only go to the doctor when it became clear that I was getting worse without medical intervention and then I would get my antibiotics and go back to work. It wasn’t until I was so sick that I could barely move that I would actually take the day off.

I did two olympic distance triathlons while on antibiotics if that gives you any idea of my ability to propel my body through illness despite its protestations to the contrary. I would not recommend that you disregard your body’s illness(es) the way that I did.

This time, as it became clear that what I was experiencing was not just allergies (the pollen has been brutal this year), I called a full stop. I cancelled my walk with a friend. I cancelled the gym. I didn’t try to work (my brain wasn’t highly functional anyway). The only thing I did last week other than rest was drive my kids around to their various practices and appointments.

When you are sick, rest. Tend to your body. If you could be contagious, spare other people close contact with your illness (to the extent possible). Don’t try to push through and, by doing so, potentially prolong your illness and/or interrupt your body’s own healing processes.

And if you are experiencing illness more often than you used to, or if it seems like your body isn’t healing the way it used to, in addition to consulting with your healthcare provider, consider whether your body is trying to tell you something; like perhaps you have been pushing yourself too hard for too long, and you are on the path to burnout (or you have already arrived).

And while you are used to being able to push through obstacles, I am here to remind you that pushing through burnout will only worsen its symptoms and impact. The sooner you stop and give your body what it needs, the sooner you will heal. Period.

Take care of you.

Love,

Booth

p.s. The Running on Empty Quiz is back up and running! If you want to know where you sit on the burnout scale right now, go here to find out!

p.p.s. If you missed last week’s podcast episode, you can check it out here. The path to well-being isn’t about self-improvement. This path is about nurturing the person you already are so you can bring your best to the world.