From Burnout to Breakthrough: Why Pretending You’re Fine is Making It Worse
- Aug 15, 2025
- 2 min read
By Elizabeth Meigs | Founder of Elizabeth Inspires, Creator of the Roadmap to Resilience- & The Pathway to PEACE- Method
There comes a point when pretending no longer works.
You know the moment I’m talking about—when you’ve given everything you have, but still feel empty. When you smile through the meetings, manage the kids, keep the house together, show up for others… and inside, you’re silently unraveling. Burnout isn’t always loud. Sometimes it shows up as numbness. Disconnection. The feeling that you’re going through the motions of a life you no longer recognize.
I know, because I lived it.
Years ago, after a traumatic brain injury flipped my world upside down, I did what most of us do: I pushed through. I made the world believe I was healing. On the outside, I was the comeback story—attending therapy, going school, showing “strength.”
But inside, I was collapsing.
And then one afternoon, I did.
I found myself on the floor—fists clenched, tears streaming, asking God why He let this happen. Why did I feel so alone? So broken?
That moment—the breakdown—was actually the breakthrough.
Because instead of giving me answers, God gave me something better: His presence.
He didn’t fix everything right away. But He whispered something I’ll never forge, it was the voice of Hope on my heartt:
“I have a plan for you. You can’t stop.”
It was in that raw, honest place of surrender that the real healing began.
That’s what I want to tell you today—burnout is not a badge of honor. And pretending you're fine is not strength—it’s silence.
And silence will steal your peace, your joy, your identity.
When you’re holding it all together for everyone else, there’s no room left for you.
But here’s the truth I’ve discovered both in my own journey and in the lives of those I have been working with for over a decade:
Vulnerability isn’t weakness—it’s the doorway to your freedom.
The world has trained us to perform, to hide, to stay busy so we don’t have to feel. But healing doesn’t come from hiding. It comes from getting honest. From asking for help. From trusting that God can do more with your brokenness than you ever could with your perfection.
You don’t have to live in survival mode. You don’t have to hold it all in. You don’t have to wear the mask anymore.
The first step? Let go.
You don’t have to collapse on the floor like I did to start your breakthrough.
You just have to decide that pretending isn’t working—and choose something different.
That’s why I created the 5-Day Inner Awakening Challenge—to help women like you rediscover who you really are beneath the burnout.
It’s simple. Just 5 minutes a day. For 5 days.
You’ll learn how to quiet the chaos, reconnect with your soul, and begin the shift from surviving to truly living—with peace, purpose, and presence.
This isn’t another thing to do. It’s your invitation to be.
Ready to begin your breakthrough
Join the 5-Day Inner Awakening Challenge today and start rediscovering the real you.
You don’t need to hold it all together anymore.
You just need to be willing to be seen—and let God do the rest.
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