05/10/2026
Eight years ago, I walked through one of the darkest seasons of my life and on this final day of Nurses Week, I want to share the beauty that came from it.
When I first experienced burnout, I thought I just needed to take better care of myself. I needed to be more resilient, set stronger boundaries and look at things differently; and while personal wellbeing absolutely mattered (and still does)… looking back now, I can see what caused my burnout was much bigger than that.
At the time, I was giving 150% to a team I had just begun leading. I was pouring everything I had into supporting incredible people who had spent years doing the absolute best they could in systems that made their work harder than it needed to be.
Working with frustrating, duplicative, inefficient processes had simply become “the way we do things” - and layered on top of that was something even heavier: A toxic culture where lateral violence, dismissal, emotional hardness, and disregard for their own humanity wasn’t just present… it was normalized.
In this team I quickly learned that survival meant suppressing emotion; asking for support could be perceived as weakness, and where performing mattered more than people.
It took me years to understand how these things (that existed outside of me) contributed to the darkness that took over inside of me, especially given I had endured devastating life experiences before and never felt this bad. I had survived divorce, I survived the unimaginable loss of my son, and I had survived other seasons in life that should have completely shattered me. Yet even then, I had never experienced darkness this profound.
As I asked my self why, I realized it was because in those situations, I was supported. During those times people rallied around me, helping me carry the weight. In those times there was connection, compassion, humanity, and no one expected me to suffer alone while continuing to perform at full capacity.
Now, 8 years later and working in an amazing organization that puts the well-being of their people at the forefront, breaking down barriers, fixing workflows and processes, and building supportive cultures through the work of their office of wellbeing - I was able to look back at my experience through a new lens, realizing that burnout is not simply a resilience problem - it wasn’t my fault - instead, I realize that burnout lives at the intersection of three domains:
- Personal wellbeing & resilience
- The nature of the work itself (workflow, inefficiency, cognitive burden)
- The culture surrounding the work (psychological safety, support, humanity)
When all three are misaligned, even the strongest people can break - even I could break. Thankfully, over the last eight years, I found my way back - Back to the human beneath the title, back to the woman beneath the role, and back to my own source of infinite bliss.
And now, through my business - Infinite Bliss Wellness - my mission is helping others do the same. I teach individuals how to recognize what depletion looks like in their own body before it becomes devastation. I teach practical tools to regulate stress in real time. I help leaders redesign frustrating workflows that fuel mental fatigue and I help teams build cultures founded in psychological safety, humanity, and support because emotional exhaustion left unchecked can become something far more dangerous.
So on this final day of Nurses Week, I want to gift every nurse something simple that helped shape my own healing and something I have embedded in my own daily work to not let myself slip into the darkness again:
My PACT Promise Framework 💛
P — Presence
Pause and come into the present moment, even if just for one breath between patients while you wash your hands.
A — Activation
Activate your body’s calming response by taking a deep centering breath. Relax your shoulders and give yourself permission to acknowledge the human inside you too.
C — Connection
Ask your body what it needs. Does it need Water, Food, Rest, Maybe a moment of stillness, or a kind word?
T — Thankfulness
Thank yourself - for showing up, for caring, for the lives you touch, and for the extraordinary work you do every single day.
To every nurse reading this: You are not a machine, you are not invincible, and you do not have to sacrifice your own self in the name of service.
You are human first and you matter, too. 💛
Happy Nurses Week and thank you for everything you do!
