Episode 22
Ep 22: 4 Hidden Signs of Burnout You’re Missing as a Women Wellness Entrepreneur (and How to Reset) | EmpowerHER Wave
Burnout doesn’t always look like late nights or endless to-do lists. For women wellness entrepreneurs, it often hides in places we least expect—unresolved trauma, perfectionism, or the invisible weight of being both the nurturer and the CEO.
In this episode of Heart-Led CEO, I’m sharing the hidden triggers of burnout and breaking down the 4 types you need to know:
- The Over-Giver
- The Perfectionist
- The Invisible Burnout
- The Trauma Mask Burnout
You’ll also learn a simple, one-minute Nervous System Reset Ritual to help you ground, breathe, and reset before stress takes over.
Because here’s the truth: burnout isn’t a personal failure—it’s feedback. And you deserve a business that supports you, not one that drains you.
🌊 Next Step for You
💡 Take the quiz: Are You Secretly Burnt Out?
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Transcript
What if I told you the real thing burning you out in your business isn't the late nights, the endless to do list, or even your lack of time?
Speaker A:What if the truth is it's something sneakier?
Speaker A:Something you've been carrying without even realizing it.
Speaker A:And until you stop it, no planner, no strategy, no caffeine drip is going to save you.
Speaker A:But here's the twist.
Speaker A:The signals of burnout don't always look like burnout at all.
Speaker A:They hide in your habits, your nervous system, and even in the way you breathe.
Speaker A:And today I'm going to share show you how to finally see them for what they are.
Speaker A:Grab your coffee, your tea, whatever is keeping you grounded.
Speaker A:And let's get started.
Speaker A:Welcome to Heart Led CEO, the podcast for women wellness entrepreneurs who are ready to build, scale and automate their businesses without sacrificing their soul, sanity or authenticity.
Speaker A:I'm Anakani Walters, a nurse turned entrepreneur, military spouse, first time mama in my 40s, and a recovering burnout survivor whose making it a mission to help Heart led women just like you create thriving businesses that really feel good, do good and give you the freedom that we all deserve.
Speaker A:Because here's the thing.
Speaker A:You don't have to hustle harder to succeed.
Speaker A:You don't have to drown in tech overwhelm or try to do everything alone.
Speaker A:And I'm here to give you the strategies, automation, tools and mindset shifts that will help you step fully into that leader, CEO and impact maker that you are meant to be.
Speaker A:If you're ready to grow your your business in a way that aligns with your values and your life, you are in the right place.
Speaker A:Let's get into today's episode.
Speaker A:Hello my beautiful friend.
Speaker A:Omg.
Speaker A:Another week, another episode.
Speaker A:I want to welcome you.
Speaker A:I hope you're doing great as you're listening today.
Speaker A:And I want to talk about the signals of burnout because they do not always look like burnout.
Speaker A:Sometimes they truly do hide in our habits and sometimes they're unresolved trauma that we have convinced ourselves that we've dealt with them.
Speaker A:And just because you can talk about it without crying anymore doesn't mean that that is true.
Speaker A:The body remembers what the mind tries to bury and it is going to show up in the tension that you carry, the health symptoms that she's trying to dismiss and the way that you stay endlessly busy so you don't have to feel.
Speaker A:I know because I did it for years and my answer to everything was to work harder to stay busy because that helped me feel safe and it was safer than slowing down long enough to hear what my body and my heart were really trying to tell me.
Speaker A:In.
Speaker A:In reality, I want us to really start with honesty.
Speaker A:Because if you've ever heard me, you know that I'm true believer that awareness is power.
Speaker A:And in this case, honesty and awareness is freedom.
Speaker A:Because you've been told that burnout comes from doing too much.
Speaker A:But my friend, here's the beautiful truth.
Speaker A:For heart led women in wellness, burnout usually comes from carrying the invisible weight of two identities.
Speaker A:You are the nurturer and the CEO.
Speaker A:You are the one holding space for your clients, your family, your community.
Speaker A:You're the one remembering your best friend's birthdays and their kids birthdays and all of your families.
Speaker A:You're sending reminders, you're showing up for everyone else.
Speaker A:And then somehow in the middle of that, you're also supposed to run your marketing, Master Tech and AI post on 10 platforms.
Speaker A:Map out your next launch, that double life that is the recipe for burnout that nobody talks about.
Speaker A:And I want to bust another myth.
Speaker A:If I had just more time, everything would feel better.
Speaker A:Have you ever told yourself that?
Speaker A:Or heard somebody else say that more time won't save you if you're still in the same cycle?
Speaker A:Think about it.
Speaker A:Have you ever finally had a free day, but instead of resting, you ended up feeling it with more work?
Speaker A:That just helped you keep busy in the long run?
Speaker A:That's because burnout isn't just about hours.
Speaker A:It's about energy leaks.
Speaker A:And here's another layer that doesn't get talked about enough.
Speaker A:Unresolved trauma.
Speaker A:A lot of us convince ourselves that we've dealt with it just because we can talk about it.
Speaker A:We tell people, oh, that was years ago and I'm fine now.
Speaker A:But being able to speak about trauma isn't the same as actually releasing it.
Speaker A:Because the body keeps scores and unprocessed pain still sits in your nervous system and it can stay there for decades, quietly shaping your habits.
Speaker A:And for me, it showed up as workaholicism.
Speaker A:Staying busier was safer than slowing down.
Speaker A:And feeling for me, I didn't realize it until like my 40s that I was really obsessed with productivity.
Speaker A:But it wasn't because I was ambitious.
Speaker A:It was because I was dealing with avoidance.
Speaker A:Now, I wasn't dealing with avoidance in my 40s.
Speaker A:I dealt with a lot of my trauma in my 30s, but I didn't match.
Speaker A:I didn't connect the dots until I was 40 and realized like, OMG, I was a workaholic.
Speaker A:I had so Many instances.
Speaker A:And I see it when I'm looking at my memories in my Facebook feed of these evidences of workaholicism where I was having like three jobs and had no business doing that.
Speaker A:Like, I didn't need those three jobs and I was lying to myself by telling myself that I was doing it for the experiences or whatever.
Speaker A:But what I was really doing was staying busy to avoid what I didn't want to feel.
Speaker A:So when we talk about these types of burnout, it's not just overwork.
Speaker A:It's like these deeper patterns that fall underneath the surface.
Speaker A:And there's basically four different types of burnouts that I typically tend to see.
Speaker A:The over giver burnout, when you're literally pouring into everyone else's cup but never pausing to refill your own.
Speaker A:And to be honest, there's so many people that are actually like a victim to that.
Speaker A:The perfectionist burnout, when you keep raising the bar on yourself so nothing ever feels like enough.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:And let me say this before I continue to the last two that I have been in all of the shoes of these four different burnouts that I've seen.
Speaker A:I've seen it within myself, especially as.
Speaker A:As I self reflect on my, like, versions of myself that I've outgrown and.
Speaker A:And become better.
Speaker A:A better version of myself.
Speaker A:But when I see those versions of myself in the past, I can see all of these different types of burnouts happening.
Speaker A:And again, it's about the awareness and knowing what triggered me to become those things and what can I do to, like, move beyond them and build better habits or build better boundaries.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:For the perfectionist burnout, gratitude is a huge, huge part of helping you get beyond that perfectionist.
Speaker A:You're happy in the moment.
Speaker A:You're happy as you, like, climb the mountain.
Speaker A:You're enjoying the view as you climb the mountain.
Speaker A:And when you get to the top, you think, even if I didn't make it to the top, I still would have been happy.
Speaker A:I still would have felt fulfilled, I still would have felt accomplished.
Speaker A:The invisible burnout, when you look fine on the outside, but inside you're exhausted.
Speaker A:You're super irritable.
Speaker A:You're secretly fantasizing about walking away from it all.
Speaker A:Like, you haven't said it out loud, but you're like, I'm just gonna check out.
Speaker A:Like, this is too much.
Speaker A:That one is deadly.
Speaker A:If you're not care.
Speaker A:That was me like, for a while.
Speaker A:And it's like that Mona Lisa.
Speaker A:Like, she's smiling in the picture, but is she happy?
Speaker A:And Then you have the trauma mask burnout.
Speaker A:When your busyness is actually a shield, you're working to literally outrun feelings that you've never given yourself permission to process.
Speaker A:And it can be grief, it can be anger, it can be childhood trauma, it can be adult trauma, like all kinds of stuff, separation anxiety, whatever.
Speaker A:And I think recognizing your type is crazy powerful because awareness is the first step to pretty much anything.
Speaker A:So let me give you a quick nervous system reset ritual that you can use in those moments where you really feel that edge of burnout creeping in.
Speaker A:And it literally only takes like a minute.
Speaker A:So you're gonna either sit up tall, if you're in a sitting position, or if you're standing, I want you to come into that really strong tadasana frame.
Speaker A:Drop your shoulders down away from your ears.
Speaker A:You're inhaling through your nose from the belly, ribs and chest, and then exhaling from the chest, the ribs, then the belly.
Speaker A:And I want you to inhale to the count of four.
Speaker A:One, two, three, four.
Speaker A:Hold four, three, two, one.
Speaker A:Exhale for six.
Speaker A:Five, four, three, two, one dot Pause for four.
Speaker A:One, two, Three, four.
Speaker A:And then you're just going to repeat that for a whole minute.
Speaker A:Inhale to the count of four.
Speaker A:Hold at the top, kind of like box breathing.
Speaker A:And then you're going to hold at the four before you exhale.
Speaker A:But then they want to exhale to the count of six and then you're going to hold for the count of four and then you're going to continue the cycle.
Speaker A:That longer exhale tells your nervous system, I am safe and I can soften.
Speaker A:You don't need some hour long yoga class to reset.
Speaker A:What you really need is 60 intentional seconds.
Speaker A:And I think we get caught up.
Speaker A:Oh, I can't do this or I can't de stress because I don't have a 60 minute vlog.
Speaker A:I barely have time to basically shower and brush my teeth.
Speaker A:Some days that's okay.
Speaker A:You don't need no hour long yoga class.
Speaker A:You need 60 seconds.
Speaker A:And you can spare a it several times a day.
Speaker A:I know you can.
Speaker A:Because burnout isn't a personal failure.
Speaker A:It is feedback.
Speaker A:And feedback that something in your business, your boundaries or your healing is not aligned.
Speaker A:And if this is hitting home at all, I created a tool just for you.
Speaker A:It's a free quiz.
Speaker A:Are you secretly burnt out?
Speaker A:And it might help you spot which type of burnout is creeping in, whether it's in your business or your personal life.
Speaker A:And it will kind of help you figure out how to move forward and if you're really ready for more clarity, because it is really in your business that you're feeling the burnout, where we can really look at your systems, your offers, and then start to look at your energy leaks.
Speaker A:And I can help you map this way forward.
Speaker A:Once we've identified all of that, then I invite you to book a 90 minute power strategy call with me.
Speaker A:It's not just a coaching call.
Speaker A:It is truly this reset button for your whole business and possibly your life.
Speaker A:So I want to recap.
Speaker A:Burnout isn't just about time.
Speaker A:It's about invisible weight.
Speaker A:It shows up in different forms.
Speaker A:You can be the over giver, the perfectionist, the invisible mask, and yes, the trauma mask.
Speaker A:You could wear all four of them.
Speaker A:You could be primarily wearing just that one mask.
Speaker A:And the fastest path to shifting it isn't pushing harder, it's pausing, it's resetting.
Speaker A:It's choosing truly alignment over adrenaline.
Speaker A:And I know that if you're specifically in either those last two categories, it's hard and it's super uncomfortable when you slow down to that pace.
Speaker A:But it is only in those spaces where we are silent and it feels uncomfortable that if we can learn to push through and let whatever comes come and work through whatever it is that's holding us back, that we truly make change, that we truly grow as a person.
Speaker A:Your nervous system doesn't lie and neither does your body.
Speaker A:You can tell yourself you are fine all day and night and you can even talk about the trauma that you've lived through as if it is behind you.
Speaker A:But if you're never actually giving yourself the space to process and release, any of will keep showing up as fatigue, as busyness, and it will eventually lead you to burnout.
Speaker A:And let me tell you, the grass is never going to be greener on that side.
Speaker A:I have lived it.
Speaker A:I have been through it, I have survived it.
Speaker A:And I would never wish it on anybody.
Speaker A:I just got lucky that I truly survived it by chance, by miracle.
Speaker A:Some people are not that lucky.
Speaker A:Do not treat burnout as just some like badge of honor, because it is not, it is not a badge of honor to be burnt out and to say that that's how you got your success, because that is not sustainable.
Speaker A:Nobody wants to have to go through burnout to be successful, if that's what it is.
Speaker A:And for some people, they physically don't make it.
Speaker A:Your body will give you signs and signs and signs, but if you continue to ignore them, eventually your body's going to give out.
Speaker A:So your action step today is crazy simple.
Speaker A:Try that 1 min nervous system reset and notice how it changes your energy.
Speaker A:Before you answer another email, jump into another client call, go spend time with your family or scroll for your next inspiration on social or wherever it is you go to.
Speaker A:That one intentional pause is the opposite of avoidance.
Speaker A:It's telling your body, I hear you.
Speaker A:I'm safe now and I'm going to make a change.
Speaker A:My beautiful friend.
Speaker A:You deserve a business that feels like support and not a second job.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And you deserve to release what's been weighing you down, even if you didn't realize you were still carrying it.
Speaker A:If today's that first step, congratulations.
Speaker A:I am cheering you on and I'm holding space for you.
Speaker A:And as always, continue to be you.
Speaker A:Continue to be beautiful.
Speaker A:Continue leading from the heart.
Speaker A:I will catch you in another episode.
Speaker A:All right, beautiful.
Speaker A:That's a wrap on today's episode.
Speaker A:But before you go, let's talk about something really important.
Speaker A:You are not just another entrepreneur trying to figure things out alone.
Speaker A:You are a wave leader.
Speaker A:Someone whose work is meant to create real impact, touch the lives of others and make this world better.
Speaker A:And I want you to know you don't have to do it alone.
Speaker A:If today's conversation resonated with you, I'd love to keep this energy going inside of my free Facebook community.
Speaker A:Empower Her Biz Collective.
Speaker A:It's where we take these conversations deeper with live trainings, tech walkthroughs and real heart centered stuff.
Speaker A:Support from other women wellness entrepreneurs who really get it.
Speaker A:So if you're ready for community, clarity and support as you build your own business with heart and ease, I'd invite you to come and join us.
Speaker A:You'll find the link in the show notes.
Speaker A:And hey, if you love today's episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review if you feel inclined and share this with a fellow heart led women entrepreneur so that we can build this movement together.
Speaker A:Until next time, keep leading with heart.
