Still Showing Up (Even When It's🖕🏼Hard)

Crystal Tomlinson
Mar 23
4 min read

Recognize - Reclaim - Reset | Practical Tools to Tame the Burnout Bitch

Burnout Types, Brain Science, and Free Tools for Educators & Helpers

by Crystal Tomlinson, M.Ed | Csky Solutions

This is something that, quite literally, needs to be celebrated at this point—unapologetically and guilt-free.

The heaviness right now is almost too much to handle at times, especially for those of us who are in the business of Human Helping. As someone who uses writing and creating as an outlet, finding words of validation or "fixes" is almost nonexistent. "Blah blah wrap it up" is what most of us hear these days.

Burnout has become the background noise in every conversation I have - with educators, counselors, families, teens, management, leadership, strangers, neighbors, cashiers at checkouts, coaches, you get the point. Whether it's rooted in politics, systems, trauma, or just the sheer weight of showing up every day for other people, we're running on fumes. And once again, I don't think we're talking about it honestly enough.

So....let's have a

This isn't just stress, it's trauma. Burnout experiences aren't always dramatic or crash-and-burn. For me, it was the slow burn type. The creep-ins, even though I was excelling, being amazing, and doing everything right. The kind that looks like silence, detachment, and that heavy sense of "I literally can't right now" I mention some of my "ah-ha" moments and triggers in a few of my other posts. I even started feeling the burn creeping in again as I was helping others heal from theirs and creating and sharing content on prevention and healing. Seriously!

It's time for a collective reality check for our collective trauma. Because it's not just us- the adults, the helpers, the educators. Our communities are being reshaped through this chronic stress and trauma too. Denying this is stupid and I refuse to do it. The world is gaslighting us - but our nervous systems know the truth. Our communities were not as trauma-informed as we needed to be pre-pandemic and now it's just an amygdala-activated zone 24/7 post-pandemic. A hot mess.

Recognize

Burnout Is Not One Size Fits All

One thing I've learned - and what I now teach others is that burnout isn't a blanket diagnosis. There are actually different types of burnout and naming yours matters. 🫵

Frenetic Burnout	overworking, overgiving, go-mode constantly, not saying "no", the body shuts down
Under-Challendged Burnout	same thing each day, bored, procrastination, resentment
Exhaustion Burnout	physically, emotionally, and mentally drained, with nothing left to give
Compassion Fatigue	emotionally worn from caring for and about others, numbing out, detaching

🧠 SEL Connection This is self-awareness in action Recognition helps with the development of self-management tools that actually fit your reality.

It won't work, if it don't work for you.

Reclaim

The Burnout Bitch and The Brain

We are living through ongoing, collective trauma - and no that's not dramatic. It's biology.

If you're one of those people who needs it to be REAL to FEEL, then I suggest you focus on the neuroscience of things like learning, development, and stress. Our nervous systems were not designed to process this much chaos, injustice, and emotional contradiction without pause.

Repeated trauma, gaslighting, and societal overwhelm literally change our minds and bodies

Shrinking of the Pre-frontal cortex - the center of decision-making, empathy, and planning.
Hypes up the Amygdala - reactive and survival mode thinking
Blocks access to the Hippocampus - messes with memory and learning

And that is basic, basic.

"Chronic stress creates excessive wear and tear on the brain and body, and it can alter brain chemistry, impair memory, and reduce cognition. Students and adults exposed to prolonged stress are literally in survival mode — not learning mode."— Eric Jensen, Teaching with Poverty in Mind

Here's the kicker: You can't logic your way out of burnout (believe me I tried). When your brain is flooded and exhausted, survival modes takes over. ALERT: Turn it all off and reset.

The misinformation, denial, and dismissal of trauma in the world right now isn't just harmful, it's biologically damaging. How we learn, grow, connect, and survive are all affected by this. Ignoring trauma doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it permanent.

Reset