The Burnout Recovery Podcast

We're halfway through 2026. And if your year has been relentless with very little genuine recovery built in — this episode is your reset.
The most downloaded episode of this podcast ever is "How to Recover from Burnout" — over 2,100 listens. That question never stops being relevant. So today we go deeper.
I share the four signals your mind and body send before you crash, and one concrete reset for each. No grand overhaul. Just tools you can use this week.
📸 Screenshot this:
SIGNAL 1 — "I'm tired even after I sleep"
RESET: 5 minutes of intentional rest before you leave work. No phone. No to-do list. Just stop.
SIGNAL 2 — "My brain feels like it's running too many tabs"
RESET: 3-minute brain dump. Everything unfinished out of your head and onto the page.
SIGNAL 3 — "I'm doing everything and resenting all of it"
RESET: One boundary this week. You know which one.
SIGNAL 4 — "I don't remember why I chose this"
RESET: Write down one moment this week where you made a difference. Just one.
Start with the signal that made you uncomfortable when I named it.
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Supported by MIGA: www.miga.com.au
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High performers are exceptional at supporting others. They are often much less exceptional at being supported themselves.
In this episode, Dr Jo Braid unpacks why professional isolation is so common in healthcare — and what to actually do about it.
You'll hear: Why medical culture trains us to see help-seeking as weakness - The neuroscience of social connection and what chronic isolation does to your decision-making - The difference between a mentor, a coach, and a peer — and why you need all three - The three-column support audit tool - The debrief walk and why movement + connection is a different thing to either alone
Research referenced: - Dr Matthew Lieberman (UCLA) — the social brain and reward pathways - Dr Amy Edmondson (Harvard) — psychological safety and team performance - JAMA research — one trusted person and burnout outcomes in physicians Action step this week: Do the support audit. Three columns: Mentor / Coach / Peer. Five minutes. Honest answers. Pick the most depleted column and identify one name.
This podcast is supported by MIGA: www.miga.com.au
Connect with Jo: 🎙 Newsletter — The Sunday Long Game: https://drjobraid.com/subscribe 📞 Free 25-min coaching consultation: https://drjobraid.com/coaching 📲 Instagram/Facebook: @TheBurnoutRecoveryDr 💼 LinkedIn: Dr Jo Braid
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You've been told that high performance means giving everything you've got. But what if that's exactly what's burning you out?
In this episode — part two of the four-part series The High Performer's Paradox — Dr Jo Braid unpacks the 80% rule: the counterintuitive idea that deliberately leaving something in the tank isn't a sign of weakness or laziness. It's one of the most strategic things a high performer can do.
Drawing on sports science, neuroscience, and real-world clinical examples, Jo explores why chronically running at full capacity quietly destroys the very cognitive resources that make you exceptional at your job — and what to do instead.
Whether you're in the emergency department, the boardroom, or building your own business, this episode will change how you think about capacity, reserve, and what sustainable high performance actually looks like.
In This Episode:
The Japanese concept of hara hachi bu — and why a 2,500-year-old eating principle has everything to do with burnout recovery
Why operating at "100%" is often not 100% at all — and the patient safety implications that follow
The neuroscience behind why cognitive decline under chronic overload is gradual, insidious, and easy to miss
The Yerkes-Dodson performance curve — what it tells us about effort, output, and the ceiling we refuse to acknowledge
How elite athletes use the 80/20 training split — and how it directly applies to your professional life
Practical tools across all four pillars: Sleep, Support, Mindset, and Movement
Thanks to MIGA for sponsoring this episode: www.miga.com.au
Connect with Dr Jo:
Instagram / Facebook: @TheBurnoutRecoveryDoctor
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drjobraid
Newsletter: The Sunday Long Game — weekly evidence-based strategies for burnout recovery → drjobraid.com/subscribe
Free 25-minute coaching consultation → drjobraid.com/coaching
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In this episode, Dr. Jo Braid kicks off a special four-part series exploring the patterns that drive high performers toward burnout - starting with one of the most confronting realisations in high performance: the qualities that make you exceptional can also be the ones that exhaust you.
Drawing on personal experience in medicine and coaching, Jo shares how strengths like reliability, analytical thinking, and empathy each carry a shadow version that emerges under pressure - rigidity, emotional absence, and avoidance.
The episode explores the neuroscience and psychology behind why this happens, referencing research from Dr. Ryan Niemiec, Dr. Thomas Curran, and Dr. Amy Arnsten. You'll walk away with a practical Strength-Shadow Mapping Exercise to identify where your own strengths are sitting right now - and the early warning signals that tell you when you're sliding past your optimal zone.
This is the foundation episode of the series - don't skip it.
Resources mentioned in this episode: VIA Character Strengths Free Assessment – www.viacharacter.org Dr. Ryan Niemiec – VIA Institute on Character, research on character strengths and the golden mean Dr. Thomas Curran – London School of Economics, research on perfectionism and burnout Dr. Amy Arnsten – Yale University, research on stress and the prefrontal cortex Connect with Dr. Jo Braid – @burnoutrecoverydr on socials Weekly Newsletter – https://drjobraid.com
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When Dr. Jo received news that her podcast reached the top 3% globally, her first instinct was to credit grit and optimization—but the real truth was much more profound.
In this heartfelt finale to our 10-episode block, we explore how healthcare workers become so focused on improving themselves that they lose connection to their own humanity. Discover why reconnecting with yourself as a human being—not just a healthcare provider—might be the missing piece in your burnout recovery.
Learn practical tools for self-connection using the four pillars of Sleep, Support, Mindset, and Movement, and give yourself permission to matter beyond what you do for others.
Resources: Dr. Kristin Neff's Self-Compassion research: self-compassion.org "The Body Keeps the Score" by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk Center for Mindful Self-Compassion: centerformsc.org Join Dr. Jo's newsletter for more burnout recovery insights https://drjobraid.com www.instagram.com/burnoutrecoverydr www.linkedin.com/in/drjobraid
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.