Body After Burnout: Healing Somatically From Hustle Culture

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Entrepreneurship can be beautiful—but let’s be honest, it can also break you.

We don’t talk enough about what happens after the grind, when your body begins to carry the weight of every deadline, every missed meal, every sleepless night spent chasing a dream. Hustle culture told us to keep pushing. But it never taught us how to pause—or how to recover once our bodies hit that invisible wall.

Burnout isn’t just mental. It’s stored in the body. The clenched jaw. The tight chest. The fatigue that no nap can fix. I know, because I lived it. And like many entrepreneurs—especially Black women—I had to learn how to heal somatically. That means listening to my body before my to-do list.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Somatic healing reminds us: we are more than our output. We are allowed to stretch, to rest, to breathe without guilt. Whether it’s morning body scans, movement therapy, breathwork, or simply placing a hand over your heart and saying “I’m safe”—these are radical acts of self-preservation in a world that glorifies burnout.

Entrepreneurs endure so much:

– Financial pressure

– Self-doubt

– Inconsistent income

– Isolation

– Overextension

– Fear of slowing down

– Guilt for needing help

Photo Credit: Getty Images

But we deserve peace, too.

We deserve softness.

We deserve to come home to ourselves—not just our brands.

Now, I build rest into my business plan. I teach my students to honor their limits as much as their goals. Because success should feel good, not just look good on paper.

Healing somatically is not a trend—it’s a revolution. And for those of us rising from the ashes of hustle culture, our bodies deserve to lead the way.