book review: burnout: the secret to unlocking the stress cycle
11 Jun 2023
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski
What are the main ideas?
(these are from the conclusion chapter)
- “Just because you’ve dealt with a stressor doesn’t mean you’ve dealt with the stress. And you don’t have to wait until all your stressors are dealt with before you deal with your stress.”
- “Wellness is not a state of being but a state of action. It is the freedom to move fluidly through the cyclical, oscillating experiences of being human.”
- “Human Giver Syndrome” is the contagious false belief that you have a moral obligation to give every drop of your humanity your time, attention, energy, love, even your body in support of others, no matter the cost to you.
- “Humans are not built to function [100%] autonomously; we are built to oscillate from connection to autonomy and back again. Connection–with friends, family, pets, the divine, etc. is as necessary as food and water.” [bracketed thought mine]
If I implemented one idea from this book right now, which one would it be? remember that dealing with stress is different from dealing with the stressor(s). even if your remove the stressor, if the stress is already in your body, you still have to process the stress.
How would I describe the book to a friend? i learned a lot in this book. and it feels like it was mistitled. it’s a mostly a women’s self-help book that seems to have latched onto burnout as a marketing tactic. i think the book is mostly about how to deal with gendered and ungendered stress. the book does talk about burnout for the first few chapters. after that it takes a meandering journey through patriarchy, women’s health, and tactics for women to be well in this sexist country. i think they might not even have mentioned the word burnout past the middle of the book. given that i was looking to read a book about burnout, i feel disappointed. but if i had been a women looking to read a self-help book, i think i might have been thrilled!
reminder: book review structure
words / writing / post-processing
360w / ? min / 5min