This week, I hit pause on my usual routine and took a mini-vacation to Cambodia.
To catch you up, I’ve been living in Hội An, Vietnam, for the past 3 months, and needed to leave the country to renew my visa, so I decided to make a trip out of it.
And wow. Being back there again hit different.
The last time I was in Cambodia was in March 2018. I was 27, had just quit my toxic AF job, was totally burnt out, and honestly thought a solo trip around Southeast Asia would “fix me.”
(Spoiler: it didn’t)
I did all the usual backpacker stuff… beer pong, pub crawls, clubbing, full moon parties, all the “fun” things you think will make you feel better.
But no amount of cheap cocktails and late nights could solve the real problem.
My burnout wasn’t caused just by work.
It was also the way I was living.
I had zero boundaries, no real self-care, and I wasn’t listening to what I actually needed. Instead, I was constantly pushing myself to do more, be more, and achieve more.
It’d take me a few more years to figure out that burnout recovery doesn’t just come from quitting your job or booking a one-way flight to Bali.
It goes so much deeper than that. It’s about getting radically honest with yourself and letting go of who you think you “should” be.
It’s taken me 7 years to learn these lessons. I’m sharing them with you now over the next 5 minutes.
Let’s dive in…
Prefer to watch and listen? I’ve got you!
Hit play on my latest YouTube video where I share my real burnout story, all the “solutions” I tried (and why they didn’t work), plus what finally helped me break the burnout cycle for good.
1 | Taking yet another vacation
A few months before I quit my job, I took a trip to Dubai in a last-ditch attempt to feel better about my life. I thought a couple of weeks off, lying by the beach, sipping cocktails with my BFF, would be the cure.
You know, “self-care,” right?
For a moment, I thought this was the answer. I thought if I could just live somewhere sunnier, somewhere better, I wouldn’t feel so trapped, so tired, or so empty all the time.
I left Dubai feeling like a different person—lighter, tanned, happier, like maybe I had figured it all out.
But honestly? It was probably just a dopamine hit. Because when I went back to work the following Monday, nothing had changed.
I was still overwhelmed, disconnected, and feeling just as stuck as before.
And as I stared into the abyss of my draining AF inbox, it felt like I’d never even left.
What actually worked: making self-care a part of daily life
Recovering from burnout isn’t about hopping on a plane every time life feels heavy.
Taking a vacation is a bit like slapping a plaster on a wound. It might protect it for a while, but it doesn’t actually help you heal.
Healing from burnout starts when you choose yourself every single day. Because self-care isn’t what you reach for once everything’s falling apart—it’s the foundation that stops you from getting there in the first place.
When I quit my job, I hadn’t fully recovered from burnout. I didn’t have the habits or the mindset yet. I just knew I couldn’t keep living the way I was. My recovery came much later, when I started to rebuild my career and life in a completely new way.
This now looks like:
- Getting a non-negotiable 8 hours of sleep a night
- Starting my day with movement (usually yoga), reading fiction, journaling, and staying hydrated with a coconut
- Allowing myself to rest without guilt (not as a reward for being productive)
- Respecting my own work-life boundaries (and not making exceptions)
- Scheduling proper downtime into my week, not just squeezing it in when I’m running on empty
2 | Boozy brunches and partying
When I think back to this time in my life, it’s honestly no surprise I was burnt out.
It wasn’t just my job that was the problem. It was my entire lifestyle.
If I wasn’t working, I was out drinking. If I wasn’t out drinking, I was rotting in bed. Partying had basically become my coping mechanism, fuelled by boozy brunches and hungover Domino’s orders.
Escapism at its finest, right?
And for a while, it actually felt like it was working. I wasn’t thinking about work. I wasn’t thinking about my life. I wasn’t thinking about how unhappy I actually was.
It was the perfect distraction.
But what I would go back and tell my 20-something-year-old self would be that, “Numbing the pain isn’t the same as healing.”
Sure, you can escape into the party scene, but at some point, you have to come back to yourself. And when I did, I realised I was still just as exhausted, disconnected, and unfulfilled as before, if not more.
What actually worked: prioritising a healthy lifestyle
Burnout doesn’t happen overnight.
It builds slowly: when you skip meals, ignore your needs, live off fast food and hangovers, and keep pushing through like it’s normal.
The real solution wasn’t partying harder. It was finally learning how to take care of myself properly, intentionally, and consistently.
It meant adopting a healthier lifestyle that actually supported me, instead of one that slowly drained me.
Now, my self-care looks a lot less like bottomless brunch on a Saturday and a lot more like:
- Eating proper homemade meals that actually nourish me
- Moving my body in ways that feel good (not just running as a form of anger management)
- Getting outside in nature every day, even if it’s just a short walk
- Saying “no” to plans when my body or mind needs rest
- Building a life full of hobbies, like-minded people, and routines that make me feel grounded
Because when you actually enjoy the life you’re living, you don’t need to escape from it every weekend.
And honestly? That’s the real glow-up.
3 | Bed rotting at the weekends
At the height of my burnout, my idea of “self-care” was locking myself in my room all weekend and binge-watching Sex and the City.
It felt comforting at first. Like maybe if I stayed in bed long enough, the exhaustion and overwhelm would magically fix itself.
What I’ve learnt since then is that bed rotting isn’t really rest.
It’s just another way of avoiding your life.
The more time you spend hiding, the worse you’ll actually feel. Because bed rotting doesn’t actually help boost your mood, energy, or mindset. It just distracts you from doing the things that truly matter (like setting goals, staying healthy or spending quality time with your friends and family).
And over time, it leaves you feeling even more drained, disconnected, and stuck.
Seriously, take it from me… I still woke up every Monday hating my job, no matter how much bed rotting I did.
What actually worked: building a meaningful life outside of work
You don’t need to bed rot or even quit your job to start enjoying your life.
But you do need to stop letting it take over every part of you.
Even though I don’t have a 9-to-5 anymore, I still know how easy it is to let work become your entire vibe. Especially when you’re exhausted.
That’s why I started making the most out of my downtime. Instead of spending every evening and weekend hiding in bed, I started creating a life I actually wanted to be awake for.
That looks like:
- Travelling the world as a digital nomad
- Making plans that actually light me up, not just mindless scrolling or another Netflix binge
- Putting myself out there to meet and hang out with like-minded people
- Filling my time with feel-good hobbies that energise me, not drain me
- Trying new things (without an agenda or the need to be perfect) just to reconnect with myself
4 | Naked quitting (aka leaving my job with no backup plan)
I used to live in a constant state of overwhelm. Always hustling, always pushing, always telling myself, “It’s a lot right now, but I’ll get through it.”
One night, after yet another meltdown in the office toilets, I realised I couldn’t do it anymore.
I was tired of pretending I had it all together. Tired of feeling like I was failing at everything, even though I was doing the most. That slow build-up finally caught up with me to the point where I felt lost, broken, and ashamed that I couldn’t “handle it.”
So I quit.
No backup plan, no new job lined up—just a one-way flight to Southeast Asia, hoping that somehow, I’d figure things out. (Spoiler: I didn’t figure things out.)
My job was toxic. I knew I couldn’t stay. But honestly? I didn’t quit because I had a plan. I quit because I was drowning, and I didn’t know what else to do.
Here’s what I wish someone had told me back then:
You don’t have to hit rock bottom.
You don’t have to walk away from everything you’ve built.
You don’t have to burn it all down just to feel better.
What actually worked: realigning with my values
I hate to break it to you, but burnout isn’t just about a messy work-life balance. It’s a sign of something deeper.
If your job doesn’t align with who you are and what you value, it will always feel like a grind.
The truth is, it wasn’t just that I hated my job. It was the fact that I’d outgrown the fashion industry.
I was no longer vibing with the work I was doing. Maybe I never had. Maybe I was just trying to look cool and fit myself into a box to please others. Ultimately, I didn’t respect the people I was working with anymore, and I didn’t respect the person I’d become.
Quitting gave me space, but it didn’t give me direction.
I knew what I didn’t want, but I had no idea what I actually wanted.
So I did the messy inner work: figuring out what mattered to me, what I was naturally good at, what kind of career (and life) I actually wanted to build. Not the one that would impress people. The one that would finally feel like mine.
This looked like:
- Redefining my own version of success
- Mapping out my core values
- Identifying the sweet spot between my passions and interests, strengths and skills, what the world needs, and what I can be paid for
- Designing my job around my lifestyle, not the other way around
- Spending time with like-minded people who shared similar values to mine
5 | Travelling solo
After five months backpacking solo through Southeast Asia (and dropping an unhealthy $10k in the process), I flew home feeling more lost than ever.
Yes, it was the trip of a lifetime.
Yes, I made memories I’ll never forget.
But no—it didn’t fix me or my burnout. I didn’t come back with a five-year plan, a dream career, or some magical sense of clarity either.
What that trip did teach me, though, was something I’d been avoiding for years: I needed to slow the fuck down.
Up until that point, I tied my worth to how much I was doing: how busy I was, how many sick days I didn’t take, how much I was going out.
I wore exhaustion like a badge of honour, convincing myself it just meant I was “working hard” or “doing what it takes.” But underneath it, I was burnt TF out, insecure, and stuck in a cycle I couldn’t get out of.
Travel didn’t fix that, but it did give me the space to do the deep inner work.
What actually worked: shifting my mindset
Shifting my mindset wasn’t about thinking positively or forcing myself to love my life overnight.
It was about getting brutally honest with myself—about the beliefs that were keeping me stuck, the patterns I kept repeating, and the ways I was sabotaging my own peace.
It was slow. It was messy. It was uncomfortable as hell.
But it was the only way I could stop living life like I was always one step behind, trying to “earn” my right to rest.
Because real growth doesn’t happen when you’re running on empty, or running away for that matter. It happens when you finally give yourself permission to stop, to feel, and to glow up from the inside out.
This looked like:
- Breaking through limiting beliefs that told me, “I’m not good enough unless I’m achieving”
- Learning to separate my self-worth from my productivity
- Practising self-love and becoming my own best friend
- Building emotional resilience instead of just running away when things get hard
- Adopting a slower-paced lifestyle without guilt
Final thoughts
Being back in Cambodia felt like a full-circle moment. Only this time, I’m doing work I love, I’m no longer burnt out, and I’m living life for me.
Sure, that 2018 trip didn’t “fix” my burnout, but it was the start of everything.
It was the start of choosing a completely different way of living. One that was rooted in my values, aligned with my version of success, and prioritised my needs.
If you’re feeling disconnected, drained, or stuck in a job that doesn’t feel like you anymore, just know you’re not alone. I’ve been there and I’ve helped other corporate gals like you recover from burnout and fall back in love with their career.
So trust me when I say this—you can 100% turn it around too.
You’ve got this.
Thalia xx
