Signs Your Wellness Habits Might Be Leading to Burnout

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If you're into wellness, odds are you've been inundated with various wellness practices that you could, should, or must do on a daily basis. Drink an intimidating amount of water, drop straight from bed onto your yoga mat, don’t leave your room before your morning journaling and skincare is complete. Once you make it to the kitchen, chase a fistful of personalized supplements with 32 ounces of fresh vegetable juice. But your to-do list isn’t done! You still need to reach 10,000 steps, meditate before your candlelit bubble bath, and you can’t go to sleep until your 17-step evening skincare routine is finished, complete with one of those scary LED masks.

Does this exhaustive wellness routine cut into your sleep schedule? Do you wake up feeling a sense of dread and obligation to check each item off the list? Do you still not look like that TikTok wellness influencer who convinced you to buy the supplements? Your wellness routine might actually be burning you out.

Though it seems illogical, the idea of “wellness burnout” is something psychotherapist Amy Morin, LCSW, is quite familiar with. “The idea that we should be rigid with wellness is a popular one that I encounter,” Morin told us. “Sometimes people confuse rigidity with self-discipline, and their routines can inadvertently become stressors themselves.”

At Shape, we support and fully encourage healthy habits, but when does it become too much? “Turning self-care into a source of pressure rather than relief may cause someone to burn out and give up altogether,” she says. “Burnout often creeps in slowly and causes fatigue, irritability, and loss of motivation. Those signs can be interpreted as 'weakness,' and some people think the solution is to just push through and work harder.”

Once you become aware of those signs, it can be easy to adjust your routine and reduce pressure while increasing flexibility and being kind to yourself. “Wellness is about what feels good right now,” says Fatemeh Farahan, LMFT, psychotherapist and author of Wired for Happiness. “I encourage my clients to ask themselves, What does my body need today, instead of rigidly sticking to a plan.” We’ve compiled some signs of wellness burnout below, and as we simplify our habits, we’ve also included six back-to-basic products to further reduce the pressure of a complicated routine.

Waking up with a sense of dread in the morning knowing what lies ahead means your wellness routine is backfiring. This can be attributed both to the volume of wellness obligations as well as the types of tasks you’ve committing to. Switching up your routine is key, and there’s no one-size-fits-all. Pick and choose the elements of a wellness routine that will make you excited and feel energized. If you don’t enjoy chugging a pulp-filled vat of freshly squeezed juice, eat fresh fruit instead. Can’t get into a running routine? Give yourself permission to take a no-pressure walk instead. And if you don’t want to do any of it that day? Allow yourself the grace to simply take a day off.

“Wellness routines are designed to help us, but when they become rigid or start feeling like a chore, they can actually become another source of stress,” says Farahan. “I’ve had clients who feel they have to check off every task on their wellness list—meditation, workouts, specific diets, and sleep goals—or else they’ve 'failed' for the day.’”

Wellness means listening to your mind and body, and this is also reflected in how you treat yourself. If your inner monologue is criticizing you for “failing” a routine that was supposed to make you feel better, it’s having the wrong effect and becoming a catalyst for stress and guilt.

When your wellness routine takes up too much time—causing you to wake up early and go to sleep later to complete all the obligations—you’re missing out on one of the most important elements: sleep.

Farahen stresses that sleep should be a top priority in any wellness routine. “So often, we focus on exercise and nutrition, but without good, restorative sleep, those efforts can be undone,” she says. “A lack of sleep zaps your motivation, makes it harder to keep up with routines, and impacts your decision-making, not to mention the way it raises stress hormones like cortisol—paving the way for burnout.”

Farahen says to think of sleep as the foundation that supports everything else and helps you tackle everything (including a wellness habit!) with a clear, calm mind.

Tune in (and listen) to yourself. While it can be hard to quiet the noise of the 'shoulds' on your list, really focusing in on how you're feeling in the moment can help you to fill your cup and help you to listen to your body's innate signals.

“If you become rigid with your schedule and any slight obstacle or challenge becomes a major source of irritability or anxiety, it's another sign that you might be going overboard with your wellness routine,” Morin tells us. She says to also look for other signs of your life becoming off balance. This can happen in sneaky ways, like trouble focusing at work, weariness and low energy throughout the day, or even muscle fatigue from too much exercise and insufficient rest days.

Seeing your social life suffer can come from compound sources, including time management as well as avoiding social events that don’t fit into a strict wellness paradigm. Someone with an overly involved routine may avoid social events because they have to squeeze in more time at the gym, or they might skip activities like dining out because they don’t want to eat restaurant food.

“While a healthy wellness routine is going to require some social sacrifices, an overly involved routine will sacrifice almost all social activities,” says Morin. “It may make you less available for phone calls, in-person meetings, and spontaneous get-togethers. It may also affect vacations. While everyone else is enjoying the beach, you might feel pressured to hit the gym.” And while it’s great to stay active on vacation, you probably aren’t traveling to hang out in a stuffy hotel fitness center.

Goal-setting isn’t a requirement for a wellness routine, but many of us start with goals in mind—whether or not these come with measurable metrics. Goals might include feeling more calm and focused, better energy and health, more restful sleep, or even defined abs. But if your routine is too time-consuming and strict and is adding stress to your life, seeing better mental and physical health results becomes harder.

Adding extra stress can even impact your immune system, leading to getting sick more often and having trouble kicking seasonal illnesses. And if you’re sick, you’re probably not going to stick to that highly involved wellness routine. So, instead of just not seeing results, you risk actually feeling worse.

Multi-use products can help eliminate extra steps and encourage a simplified routine. Here are our top picks for streamlining your wellness habits, from skincare to better sleep to immune health.

Manduka’s GPR Adapt mat has some of the best stability and grippiness of any yoga mat we’ve tested this year. This five-millimeter mat has enough cushioning without feeling too squishy, and it rolls up tight to store in the corner or under your bed, making it easy to grab for a chill morning stretch session.

Did you know that drinking through a straw can actually encourage you to drink more? This bottle combines YETI’s classic Rambler dimensions and insulation with a convenient straw lid. Thanks to the double-wall stainless steel insulation, water stays ice cold for 48 hours, and it comes in plenty of fun new colors for this season. We like the 26-ounce capacity that fits in most cup holders, and it comes in a few other sizes as well.

Like multivitamins, green powders are not an all-in-one magic solution, and we should all be eating whole foods for most of our vitamins and minerals. But for an extra boost, dietitian-recommended AG One is vegan-friendly, mixes well, and has a mellow, sweet taste that doesn’t leave a gritty residue. Plus, the ingredient list is packed with probiotics, adaptogens, and digestive enzymes. For more options, check out our other favorite green powders from this year.

If you want to streamline your evening skincare routine without compromising overnight moisturizing, this deceptively simple CeraVe PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion has you covered. It brings moisture to the surface with the combo of glycerin and hyaluronic acid and uses three different ceramides to keep your skin barrier healthy. Plus, this is an absolute steal compared to the bonkers price of many other moisturizers.

While bedding might not seem like an active part of your wellness routine, the right sheets can make or break your sleep quality. Carihola’s bamboo blend sheets fall in the middle of the category price range but feel top-of-the-line luxurious. Bamboo is a natural body temperature regulator, pulling heat away from your body on hot nights but trapping it in the fibers to provide more insulation on cold nights. These have a tight weave and a soft, brushed surface that feels unbelievably cozy to slip into.

ICYMI, we're a bit obsessed with protein around here. Collagen powders are among our top picks when it comes to supplements, as they generally have little to no taste and can be mixed easily into a variety of beverages and foods. This grass-fed collagen powder from Garden of Life provides 18 grams of protein per serving and dissolves quickly in coffee or a smoothie.