The Emotional Cost of Change-Making
Navigating the weight of systemic challenges
Burnout is more than an individual issue for those working to create a better world, it has become an occupational hazard. Activists, sustainability professionals, and social entrepreneurs carry the weight of addressing entrenched systemic issues, striving for progress amidst mounting complexity. Long hours, deep emotional investment, and insufficient support create the perfect conditions for exhaustion and overwhelm.
Change work is often deeply emotional, requiring us to engage with challenges that are urgent, complex, and sometimes heartbreaking. Add to this the relentless push to “do more” amidst limited resources, and you have the perfect storm for burnout. Many practitioners report feeling stuck between escalating challenges and the lack of sufficient support to meet them. A recent report from Oxford Brookes Business School & Climate Change Coaches shows the widespread burnout within the sustainability sector, where sustainability professionals frequently navigate overwhelming responsibilities that span from influencing decision-makers to fostering cross-functional collaboration (Cripps, 2024). Professional work occurs alongside heightening anxiety relating to ineffectual organisational, local and global climate change mitigation strategies.
Burnout as a Symptom of Broader Systems
Burnout in change-making is not simply about individual exhaustion; it is also a symptom of systemic dysfunction. It’s a sign that the systems we operate within are unsustainable—not just for us but for the causes we care about. As somatic practitioners like Staci Haines emphasize in The Politics of Trauma : Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice, our collective nervous systems carry the weight of trauma perpetuated by inequitable and extractive systems. When these systems fail to value rest, reflection, or care, burnout becomes normalised (Cripps, 2024).
Reimagining Sustainability Through Rest
Burnout isn’t just about individual exhaustion—it reflects the systems we live and work within. When those systems prioritise productivity and performance over care and balance, burnout becomes normalised. Staci Haines, in her book the Politics of Trauma : Somatics, Healing and Social, Justice, highlights how the pressures we experience are often shaped by broader cultural norms and systems that prioritise output over care. To address burnout, we need to reorient ourselves toward values of connection, balance, and sustainability, both individually and collectively.
To truly address burnout, we must change not only how we work but how we think about work itself. Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry, reminds us that rest is a form of resistance against grind culture. By prioritising rest and care, we push back against the productivity-at-all-costs mentality, reclaiming our humanity in the process. Rest disrupts the cycles of extraction and exploitation that are entrenched in both our work and our world.
Building Resilience Together
Moving forward requires systemic solutions. As polyvagal theory expert Deb Dana discusses in Anchored, resilience comes not from avoiding challenges but from creating the conditions where our nervous systems can recover and re-engage. This involves building cultures that value rest and renewal as essential to effective action. Organisationally, this might look like embedding coaching, prioritising well-being initiatives, or creating spaces for collective reflection.
Recovery from burnout is about approaching work differently. adrienne maree brown emphasises the importance of creating ecosystems of care—spaces where people can support each other, learn together, and adapt to challenges collectively. School of Being’s Cultivating New Ways of Being – Inner Leadership course embodies this philosophy, providing a shared learning environment where participants explore practices to reconnect with themselves, others, and their natural surroundings.
Through somatic, nature-based, and reflective practices, the course helps individuals align their inner well-being with their external actions. It’s a space to pause, recalibrate, and discover sustainable ways to engage with the world.
Creating Islands of Sanity in a Chaotic World
Recovery from burnout is about approaching work differently. adrienne maree brown emphasises the importance of creating ecosystems of care—spaces where people can support each other, learn together, and adapt to challenges collectively.
In her work, Margaret Wheatley introduces the concept of “islands of sanity” as spaces where people come together to focus on what truly matters, despite the chaos and complexity of the world around them. These islands are places where we can pause, reflect, and reconnect with our values and each other, creating a foundation for meaningful action.
Burnout often stems from the relentless pace and complexity of modern challenges. For change-makers, the pressure to “do more” can feel like an endless tide, leaving little room to breathe. But Wheatley’s vision reminds us that we don’t have to navigate this alone. By creating intentional spaces for rest, renewal, and collaboration, we can anchor ourselves in sanity amidst the overwhelm.
The Cultivating New Ways of Being – Inner Leadership course aligns with this idea by offering a shared learning community—a modern island of sanity. It’s a space to step back, reconnect with your inner resources, and explore practices that help you navigate life’s challenges with clarity and resilience. Through somatic, nature-based, and reflective practices, the course helps individuals align their inner well-being with their external actions. It’s a space to pause, recalibrate, and discover sustainable ways to engage with the world.
By fostering connection and reflection, the course enables participants to find grounding in a chaotic world and contribute to change with renewed strength and intention. Together, we can explore new ways of being that support both personal well-being and collective impact.
REFEERENCES
- Brown, A. M. (2017). Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. AK Press
- Cripps, K. (2024). Holding back climate progress: sustainability’s critical skills gap. Oxford Brookes Business School & Climate Change Coaches.
Dana, D. (2021). Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory. Sounds True.
Haines, S. K. (2019). The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice. North Atlantic Books.
- Wheatley, M. J. (2017). Who Do We Choose to Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.