Understanding Your Stress Cycle: How to Listen When Your Body Raises the Alarm
Burnout doesn’t arrive overnight.
It builds quietly. Through late nights, constant alertness, and the sense that rest just never feels restful enough.
Whether you’re a compassionate business leader wanting to support your people or an individual seeking greater personal wellbeing, burnout is not a sign of failure. It’s your body’s way of saying: “something needs to change”.
The Body Keeps the Score. Literally.
We often think of stress as a mental or emotional issue, but it’s actually a physiological process.
When you face pressure, whether it be a deadline, a hard conversation, or a relentless workload and constant plate spinning, your body releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These give you energy, focus, and forward momentum, which in small doses is great! It helps us get sh*t done.
BUT when that activation becomes constant, your nervous system eventually reaches capacity. Over time, this leads to chronic tension, fatigue, and eventually burnout. Your nervous system goes into collapse and you mentally and physically shut down.
What Is the Stress Cycle?
The stress cycle is your body’s natural rhythm for responding to and recovering from stress.
It has three stages:
Activation: The stress response begins.
Mobilisation: You take action to meet the challenge.
Completion and Recovery: The body releases built-up energy and returns to balance.
When the cycle completes through movement, breath, or emotional release, the body knows the stressor has passed. When it doesn’t, that energy gets trapped, stuck in our nervous system, and shows up as tension, exhaustion, or emotional detachment.
Signs Your Body Is Raising the Alarm
Your body is always speaking to you. It speaks through sensations long before your mind catches up. Common early signs of burnout include:
Persistent fatigue, even after rest
Tightness in your jaw, shoulders, or chest
Digestive discomfort or tension in the gut
Feeling irritable, foggy, or emotionally flat
Frequent illness or headaches
Loss of motivation or joy
Social disconnection. You just want to hermit away from the world
These signals aren’t random. They’re messages from your nervous system. Learning to interpret them helps you act before burnout sets in.
Why Completing the Stress Cycle Matters
When the stress cycle is incomplete, the effects ripple through every area of life and work.
For individuals: it leads to burnout, anxiety, and disconnection.
For businesses: it results in absenteeism, disengagement, and reduced performance.
A regulated nervous system supports focus, creativity, and resilience.
Somatic Tools to Complete the Stress Cycle
If you feel like you might be on the way to burnout, try these simple yet powerful somatic practices to support recovery and regulation:
1. Movement
One of my faves! Physical movement helps release stored stress energy. Walk, stretch, dance, or simply shake out your limbs. Movement tells your body, it’s safe to let go. Done with music is even better, find your favourite uplifting song, turn it up loud and MOVE!
2. Breathwork
Try slow, rhythmic breathing to assist with a biological reset. A double inhale and one slow breath out, repeated for 5-minutes will start to regulate you. Your breath is a direct signal to your nervous system that you are safe.
3. Grounding Awareness
Feel your feet on the floor. Notice your surroundings. Get out in nature. Take in through all your senses. Grounding reconnects you to the present moment and calms the body’s alarm system.
4. Emotional Expression
Laughter, tears, journaling, or doing something creative help move emotion through the body rather than store it. I’m also a big fan of a scream in my car. It really helps me express frustration or anger and get that energy out of my system.
5. Connection and Rest
Connection with others regulates the nervous system. I have a local walking group called Good Footing that has been a brilliant way for me to connect with like-minded folk and get out in nature. Also, prioritise deep rest. True rest is not laziness - it’s essential maintenance.
The Sciency bit
Somatic practices are grounded in neuroscience, they help your body shift from sympathetic “fight or flight” into parasympathetic “rest and digest.”
But they also reconnect you with your inner wisdom. When you slow down and listen, your body becomes a guide showing you what’s out of alignment and what needs attention.
Often, burnout isn’t caused by doing too much. It’s caused by doing too much of what drains you and too little of what nourishes you.
If you’re not sure what is currently out of alignment in your life and you feel stuck or unsure, 1:1 coaching can help you figure out what actually matters to you. Together, we’ll uncover your values and strengths to identify what in your life is causing the the misalignment with a plan to keep moving forward in the right direction.
For Businesses: Creating a Culture That Listens
Workplace wellbeing starts with culture. When leaders model self-care and encourage emotional literacy, employees feel safer and more engaged.
Practical steps include:
Embedding wellbeing check-ins, not just performance reviews
Having a dedicated coach who can support your people downstream, before they reach crisis point
Offering somatic-based wellbeing workshops for teams
Leading by example. Showing that boundaries and balance are strengths, not weaknesses
Listening as a Radical Act
In a world that rewards busyness, listening to your body is a radical act of self-leadership. Each pause, breath, and moment of awareness tells your system: I’m safe. I’m here. I’m listening.
From that place, you can lead, create, and connect from wholeness, not depletion.
If You’re Ready to Reconnect
I offer somatic wellbeing coaching and consultancy services for individuals and organisations who want to transform their relationship with stress.
For individuals: 1:1 Somatic Coaching for Burnout Recovery
For businesses: Tailored Wellbeing Workshops and Decompression Sessions
If you’re ready to rebuild a sustainable relationship with stress, one grounded in awareness, compassion, and science, get in touch and let’s have a conversation!