What I’m Actually Spending Money On To Recover From Burnout

If you’d told me 8 years ago that I could recover from burnout simply from quitting my job, I would’ve believed you.

Turns out, that piece of advice is a complete and utter lie.

I did quit, but it took me a good few years to heal.

And it didn’t come from handing in my notice, booking a one-way ticket to Bali, or spending an unhealthy $10k solo traveling.

It came down to understanding what actually mattered to me.

Because without that clarity of knowing what I truly stood for, I kept spending time, money, and energy on things that didn’t actually serve me.

Once I got clear on my values, I started building a few simple, sustainable habits around them.

P.S. If you’re new here, hey! I’m Thalia. I help 30-something girlies beat burnout through 1:1 coaching and self-paced tools. Every week(ish), I share content on burnout recovery, self-development, finding joy, and career growth. Subscribe here so you never miss a debrief.

The anti-burnout habits I swear by

There’s so much wellness advice out there that it can be hard to sift through it all and choose what’s actually worth your time.

I definitely got sucked into it myself, buying things I didn’t need and chasing routines that were never going to fit me or my life.

When I first got into self-care, I was extremely quick to wake up at 5 am and following a 2-hour morning routine because that’s what every other female biz owner was doing online at the time.

I started tracking every single thing I ate like my worth depended on it, forced myself to go running even though I hated it, and bought overpriced collagen supplements because my fave influencer at the time was taking them too.

But these things never made me feel better (or happier if I’m being totally honest).

They just made me feel more overwhelmed and fed up, like my health had become yet another thing to succeed at.

Another standard to meet.

And when I inevitably couldn’t keep up, I didn’t blame the standard. I blamed myself.

It was only when I stripped everything back that things really changed for me.

I stopped chasing the next wellness trend and started asking what actually made me feel good.

The anti-burnout habits that keep me sane daily are:

• Practising gratitude
• Reading fiction or self-help
• Movement I actually enjoy (aka yoga)
• Bloom scrolling
• Working on my mindset

None of these habits are particularly groundbreaking, but together, they keep me grounded, aligned, and free from burnout, even when shit gets messy.

I encourage you to make your own version of this list. It doesn’t have to be fancy, expensive, or take hours. What are those 3-5 rituals you can’t live without?

Those are your non-negotiables. The only things that actually matter.

5 Things I’m actually spending money on to recover from burnout

Everything on this list supports one of the habits I just mentioned.

None of them are essential, you could absolutely do all five of these things for free. But for me, these are the things that make sticking to my habits easier, more enjoyable, and a lot more likely to happen.

And let’s be honest, when you’ve spent money on something, you’re far more likely to actually use it.

Nothing motivates me more to get on the mat quite like knowing I’ve already paid for the class. Call it financial accountability, call it being too tight to waste my money, either way it works.

P.S. I encourage you to save this post (like now!!) so you can come back to it whenever you need to.

1 | The Five Minute Journal

Journaling is the thing I come back to again and again, especially when my mind feels scatty or I’m stuck in a loop of overthinking.

It gives me space to slow down, make sense of what’s going on in my head, and just be for a moment.

Some days, I brain dump for 30 minutes and fill 10 pages. Other days, it’s a list of small wins or things I’m grateful for.

This is the exact journal I use to check in with myself and clear some mental space when things get messy. I love using The Five Minute Journal as it’s simple, low-effort, and not overwhelming, which, let’s be honest, is key when you’re already feeling a little rundown.

I usually keep it on my desk and write in it before doing anything else work-related.

It’s a small thing, but starting the day checking in with myself rather than my inbox makes a real difference.

2 | Headway

If you’ve been on this blog since the beginning, you’ll know that I’ve always been a fiction girlie.

Because let’s face it, self-help isn’t always the most digestible.

That’s why I’m obsessed with Headway — it gives you book summaries in just 15 minutes, so I can still get the good bits from books without committing to the whole thing.

(Apart from the ones I actually do read for my book reviews. And you.)

Anyway, I’m now slowly getting into the habit of swapping my very unhealthy morning (doom) scroll on Instagram for Headway so I’m not wasting the first half an hour of the day watching another Zara spring haul.

I’m actually doing something worthwhile.

Honestly, it’s the perfect way to feel like I’ve done something for myself, even if I’m short on time or still half asleep.

3 | Yoga

This is by far the most expensive thing on my list. But it’s also the one I’d protect with my life.

I do yoga 3-5 times a week and it’s become my non-negotiable.

It’s where I switch off, get out of my head, and move my body in a way that doesn’t feel like punishment. (Unlike the running I forced myself to do in my twenties and secretly hated.)

Now, full disclosure, I live in Vietnam, so my membership costs a fraction of what it would back home.

I know an in-person studio isn’t realistic for everyone, especially with US or UK prices. So find your own version. Maybe it’s a class pass, a YouTube channel you love (10/10 recommend Yoga With Kassandra), or a cheaper studio a bit further out.

The point is, sometimes the thing that actually works is worth paying for. And I’d rather spend my money here than on another supplement I’ll forget to take.

4 | Activations™

I’m a practical girlie at heart, so I’ve always been a bit sceptical about meditation as a whole.

I much preferred doing something tangible like journaling or reading, where I could actually see the point, whereas sitting still and clearing my mind never seemed to work for me.

Probably because I was too impatient or would zone out half way through and start doing something else.

Anyway, my yoga practice slowly opened me up to a different kind of meditation. The kind where it’s just you, the mat, and your breath. And once I got comfortable with that, I thought, why not take it a step further?

That’s where Activations™ comes in.

These guided meditations have slowly become part of my daily routine, even when I’m just doing the most basic chore around the house.

And they’re way less woo-woo than you’d think.

They actually help me reframe the unhelpful beliefs and thoughts holding me back, upgrade my mindset, and step into the version of myself I’m working towards.

It’s basically like Chicken Soup for the Soul but for us modern, millennial (and burnt out) girlies.

5 | Brick

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m a massive doom scroller.

And no matter how much I try, I’m still stupidly addicted to Instagram. It’s basically my kryptonite.

I tell myself I’ll just check what my bestie has been up to today, and suddenly it’s 10 pm and I’ve accidentally watched 100 GRWM vlogs, obsessed over Grace Beverley’s feed and have somehow convinced myself that I’m five years behind everyone else.

For a while, I thought the only solution was going cold turkey — aka deleting apps, doing a digital detox, and even going as far as asking my husband to hide my phone like it was a bottle of gin and I had a drinking problem.

But none of it ever worked. I’d just reinstall everything within 48 hours.

So in my never-ending quest to ditch doom scrolling, I started using Brick (alongside bloom scrolling, my OG lazy-girl hack).

It’s a physical tool (finally not an app!!) that makes your phone boring AF by hiding your most addictive apps. You tap your phone against it to switch them off, and the only way back in is to physically tap it again.

And because I’m too lazy to keep tapping it, I just don’t bother scrolling. Works every time.

Final thoughts

Recovering from burnout didn’t come from spending a shit tonne of money.

Yes, this coming from the gal who dropped an unhealthy $10k on a 5-month trip around Southeast Asia trying to heal her burnout.

Turns out, the answer was a lot more simple than that.

It came from building a set of simple and sustainable habits that align with my values, and intentionally spending money on the things that quietly support those habits.

Because at a time when there’s an overwhelming amount of advice telling you to do more, buy more, and be more, the real flex is figuring out what actually works for you and ignoring the rest.

That’s why everything I do (and buy) always comes back to the same three pillars:

• Alignment
• Mindset
• Self-care

This is what burnout recovery comes down to.

Alignment helps you find clarity on what you truly want. Mindset helps you believe in it. Self-care helps you sustain it.

And once you start living by these 3 pillars, things change fast. You stop feeling behind, you stop questioning yourself, and you finally start building a career (and life) that you absolutely love.

You’ve got this.

Thalia xx