Burnout with Somatic Movement and Nervous System Balance

Burnout isn’t just mental or emotional—it’s physical too. It lives in our bodies, manifesting as tension, fatigue, and even chronic pain.

On Day 6 of the 12 Days of Burnout Breakthrough, movement expert and chronic pain coach Jenna shared practical techniques to bring your body back into balance and reset your nervous system. Her approach focuses on somatic movement and understanding how our bodies process and release stress.

Let’s dive into Jenna’s expert insights and learn how to shake off stress—literally!

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The Nervous System’s Role in Burnout

Jenna explains that chronic stress keeps our nervous system stuck in “fight or flight” mode, also known as hyperarousal. While this response is meant to protect us in short bursts, staying in this heightened state for too long can lead to:

Fatigue and weakened immunity.
Mental fog and difficulty focusing.
Physical symptoms like tension, chronic pain, or even long-term health issues.

The antidote? Finding balance by returning to the rest and digest state, also known as the parasympathetic state. This is where our bodies heal, recover, and regain clarity.

Signs You’re in a Stress State

Not sure if your nervous system is stuck in overdrive? Jenna highlighted common symptoms, especially in the workplace:

Racing thoughts or mental fog.
Forgetfulness or overanalyzing decisions.
Physical signs like shallow breathing or tension in your shoulders, neck, or back.

The good news? You can reset your nervous system with simple, effective practices.

Quick Wins to Reset Your Nervous System

#1. Deep Breathing to Calm the Mind

When you notice shallow, fast-paced breathing, pause and take a few deep breaths:
- Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4.
- Exhale through your mouth for a count of 4.
- Repeat for at least 4-5 breaths.
Pro Tip: Use this technique before responding to a stressful email or stepping into a challenging conversation. It helps you respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.

#2. Shake It Off

Shaking is a natural way to release pent-up stress and tension. As Jenna explained, animals instinctively shake off survival stress after a chase, and humans can do the same!

Stand up and gently shake your arms, legs, and torso.
Focus on areas where you feel tension, such as your shoulders or hips.
Do this for 1-2 minutes to release stress chemicals and reset your body.

Feeling shy in the office? Step into a private space like a restroom or your home office to practice.

#3. Ask Your Body What It Needs

Sometimes, your body will tell you exactly how to release stress. Jenna suggests asking yourself,

“How does my energy want to move?”

Listen for subtle cues—a desire to stretch, sway, or even dance—and honor those instincts.

Somatic Movement: Building a Deeper Connection with Your Body

Jenna’s work focuses on somatic movement, which involves tuning into your body’s sensations and responses. Over time, these practices help you:

Recognize signs of stress before burnout sets in.
Develop a stronger relationship with your body.
Feel more grounded and in control, even during stressful moments.

Her approach combines body awareness exercises, somatic movement, and practical strategies to create lasting change.

Bonus Tips to Prevent Burnout

Micro-Movements at Work

Roll your shoulders back and forth to release tension.
Gently tilt your head side to side to ease neck stiffness.
Stretch your arms overhead to counteract hours of sitting.

Schedule Movement Breaks

Set a timer to remind yourself to stand up and move every hour. Even a short stretch can make a big difference in reducing tension.

Get Outside

A quick walk in nature helps balance your nervous system and boosts mood. If you can’t get outside, even a few minutes by a window with sunlight can help.

energy-is-meant-to-move — “Energy is meant to move!” -Jenna

Why This Matters

Burnout often feels overwhelming because it disconnects us from our bodies and our energy. By incorporating somatic movement and nervous system resets into your day, you can reclaim a sense of balance and control.

Remember, burnout isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what restores you.

As Jenna beautifully said, “Energy is meant to move.”

By shaking off stress, breathing deeply, and honoring your body’s needs, you can create space for clarity, focus, and well-being.

Connect with Jenna

Jenna is a chronic pain coach and movement expert dedicated to helping people overcome stress and tension through somatic movement. Join her Facebook community, Thrive Beyond Pain, for free resources, live classes, and tips to reduce tension and feel your best.

Find her at Thrive Beyond Pain on Facebook and explore her live streams and replays on everything from neck tension relief to workplace stress management.

About the Author:

Kathie Owen is a seasoned corporate wellness consultant, life coach, and former fitness and wellness director with over two decades of experience in creating healthier, happier workplaces. With a psychology degree from the University of Houston and a passion for motivation, Kathie has dedicated her career to ending toxic workplace cultures through holistic wellness programs that truly make a difference.

*Kathie Owen,* *Corporate Wellness Consultant since 2012 (Our Story*)

Having worked in both corporate and fitness environments, Kathie blends her expertise in employee engagement, leadership development, physical health, and mental well-being to design programs that prevent burnout and inspire thriving teams.

She’s been a certified fitness trainer since 2002 and has personally coached hundreds of individuals to reach their wellness goals. Now, she’s on a mission to share her strategies with companies that value their people.

Through her 12 Days of Burnout Breakthrough series, Kathie combines personal stories, expert insights, and practical tips to help you recognize, prevent, and heal from burnout. Her goal? To show you how a little bit of wellness can transform not only your workplace but also your life.

When she’s not leading workshops, coaching aspiring wellness professionals, or writing her next blog post, you’ll find Kathie walking her dog Rusty, diving into her favorite self-development books, or dreaming up her next big idea to inspire and uplift others.

Follow Kathie on Social Media

Transcript:

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another day of the 12 Days of Burnout Breakthrough. And today I have a special guest. It's one of my friends and colleagues. Her name is Jenna, and I'm going to let her introduce herself.

Jenna:0:14

Thank you, Kathie and thank you for having me on the podcast and the live stream. I am, really grateful to be here today. And just to tell you a little bit about myself, I'm a movement expert, a chronic pain coach. So I work with folks who are struggling with chronic pain or an injury. And this also applies to chronic stress. So that's why I'm excited to dive into this topic today. to discuss how, chronic stress and more specifically how nervous system dysregulation and imbalance can lead to overwhelm and burnout.

Kathie:0:56

Awesome. Perfect segue into what we're talking about. So we're talking about burnout this week and today, just like every other episode during these 12 days, I want to get you a quick win. And I think Jenna's going to Be right on, spot on for that. Because as we've talked about, burnout has all these different names. It's overwhelm, anxiety, I'm tired all the time, all kinds of things. And that is regulated by your nervous system. And when you're overstressed, which is burnout, which is an overstress of emotional, physical, and mental, too much stress of, All three of those. So I think Jenna is really going to touch on some really quick wins for us today. And I'm going to turn it over to her and let her explain that to us.

Jenna:1:42

So chronic stress, um, can be so damaging to us because it keeps our nervous system stuck in this fight or flight mode. When we're really meant to experience And that is how our bodies are designed, that's how our nervous systems are designed to have these short term periods of stress, and then we're meant to be able to come back to a place of balance where it's called rest and digest, so I'm sure folks have heard of that before, that's also called the parasympathetic state, that's where our body heals itself, so it's really important that we have periods of time Where we are able to find that state of relaxation, whether it's, you know, even just sitting on the couch and being able to chill with our family, having time for a walk out in nature, um, and just being able to give ourselves that of time where our body is able to realize, okay, this is a moment where I can, um, start to relax and come down off of this, what we call hyper arousal, which is that stress response state. So when we start to down regulate is when our systems can come back into that state. place of balance. And that way, some of the symptoms that we may be experiencing that go along with chronic stress could be fatigue, a weakened immune system, so if you're getting sick a lot, or if you're developing more kind of long term chronic health issues, that can all go back to the state of of your nervous system. And, when we experience burnout, I know for myself, I could share a little bit about my story with burnout, but I know that it's when, basically our system says, I just cannot keep going on like this. And that can lead to more more serious health issues. So that's why we really want to catch it before it turns into that.

Kathie:3:45

All right. Awesome. I love that. And I want to hone in on one particular thing, because almost every guest I've had on here has talked about the word balance. I talk about balance a lot, and when it comes to what they call work life balance, there's really no such thing. It's more important to get in touch with your body and where it's like feeling these symptoms of overwhelming stress and how to balance that out. And Jenna is an expert, like, I know she teaches Pilates, she teaches a lot of movement. to deal to bring our body back into balance. So Jenna, how do we, get in touch with the imbalance in our body and maybe what can we do to get that balance back?

Jenna:4:34

Yeah, well, I think the first step is just recognizing that that's happening. I think Many people know, that they're stressed, so that would be the first step, but there are also some symptoms that you could, you know, pay attention to that could go along with being in that sympathetic, um, nervous system state, which could be, I think when it's, when it comes to the workplace, um, there's a couple of really common symptoms, which maybe is like racing thoughts or the inability to focus. That's actually a nervous system state. Forgetfulness, mental fog, lack of mental clarity, and even overanalyzing or second guessing our decisions, that can also be a nervous system response. And we might find that we, if we are able to come back into that place of balance, we're able to think more clearly. And that's why this is really important. So I can share just a couple of really simple ways, that you can do that without having to take your whole day or Take a couple hours out of your day, this could be something that's really quick and simple. And the first thing I would suggest is that when you're starting to notice that you're in that heightened stress state, you may notice that your breath is kind of shallow or maybe it's more fast paced. And a really simple thing you can do is just start to notice that and begin to take a couple long deep breaths. So what I suggest doing is breathing in through the nose for four. Out the mouth for four and take a couple of those long, deep breaths. That's a really good tool. It's not always easy to remember that, but the more you practice it, it gets easier. You start to remember, oh yeah, let me just take a couple deep breaths. Let me just kind of catch myself here. Especially before I respond. So in the workplace, maybe that could look like before I respond to this email that's really triggering me, let me just catch myself and pause. So it's really about taking that momentary pause to collect ourselves, take a couple deep breaths and then see from there how we feel. But sometimes that in and of itself is not enough to actually release that stress because we're really going into a survival mode and energy is meant to move emotions or energy. And so sometimes we really want to move that energy, right? So one of the ways you could do that is, just by kind of shaking it off. That's how an animal in nature would shake off survival stress. So say a gazelle is being chased by a lion. then if it was able to escape, that's that fight or flight response. It's like, am I going to be able to fight this lion? Probably not. Okay. I'm going to run. And if it's able to then survive, the first thing it's going to do is try to release all those stress chemicals from its body. by shaking. And so this is actually a real physiological response that's wired into our nervous system, via our reptilian brain. That's like our dinosaur brain that's very primitive that is just there to keep us. It's our survival brain. So when we're able to physically release stress just by shaking, it could be something really quick. And of course, if you're, you know, working in an office, that might be kind of embarrassing. So maybe you want to go outside and do that. But I know a lot of people these days work from home. So that should be something that, you know, is easy to just move the energy through your body. And one of the things I suggest to my clients that they find really helpful when they're working with this, Especially at first, they're getting to know their body, they're getting to know their nervous system responses, is to ask yourself, how does this energy want to move? And, you know, sometimes you actually get a response. You hear, Oh, I want to shake, or I want to move my hips, or you'll actually, your body will talk to you. And that can mean, you know, developing a deeper and deeper relationship over time. with ourselves, with our body. Um, and this is why I teach this kind of work. We do somatic movement in my programs. We do a lot of, you know, body awareness exercises so that we can start to develop a deeper relationship with ourselves, with our body. And then over time, this just gets easier and easier. I know it can maybe feel a little overwhelming at first, like how does this even work? How am I going to do this? But you'll notice if you even just do that practice, that shaking practice. You'll probably feel better after doing that. So, um, you know, you can just try it out, experiment with it and, and see how it goes.

Kathie:8:59

Wow. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that because here's something I really want to point out is nobody else has mentioned that shaking process in the interviews that I've done. And I've heard of that before. And I want us to maybe practice that. And when she said, if you can't get up in the office and do it, Well, you've gotta go to the restroom and maybe you can go run in there and if you feel uncomfortable doing it in in front of everybody, because I know that that works and it helps a lot. And I myself have a tendency, I can feel myself listening to my body and I notice if I start shaking my leg a lot or something like that, that's that automatic response. But I probably need to do a little bit more, especially if I'm feeling a lot of anxiety or burnout or stress or overwhelm, all that good stuff. So we can get back into the focus and get back on there. Thank you so much for being here today, Jenna, and helping us with this quick win. I love it. And before we go, please tell us where we can find you and how we can work with you.

Jenna:10:05

Yeah, so the best way to find me is through my Facebook page. I have a Facebook community. It's called Thrive Beyond Pain, and that's my program. But I have a lot of, classes like we've been talking about on, you know, the nervous system, on movement, and we also go over various, you know, common injuries like knee pain or, you know, neck tension. I'm actually doing a live stream. This week on, um, five minutes to release neck tension. So that's really great for anyone in the workplace. So yeah, if you just search me Thrive Beyond Pain Facebook community, that's really the best way to find me on there. Join the community. It's a really great supportive group of folks and we do those live streams there every week.

Kathie:10:51

Awesome. That is perfect because, um, Jenna also, okay, let's say you're watching this much, much later because YouTube is evergreen. She also has those replays back up on her Facebook page. And one thing I really want to note, and I always say this, but if you're new to my channel, um, I write a blog post that goes with every single video I do, it will be in the show notes and description below, and it will include all of those links to Jenna's channel, her, to her, her Facebook group, and I invite you to join. I mean, it's, talk about a quick win we got today, and, uh, you'll get more quick wins with Jenna in all different aspects, because as a corporate wellness. professional that I've been for all these years, she always answers these questions like, what do I do with the tension in my back? How do I stretch when I'm just sitting down? And she talks about this in her Facebook group and then she's very active in there and she can answer your questions. So that's my episode. for today. Thank you so much, Jenna, for being here. And, um, I trust that you found today's episode helpful. If you know somebody who can benefit from this, please share it with them. And until next time, I'll see you next time. Peace out and Namaste.