Why You Feel Exhausted All The Time (It’s Not What You Think) | Pippa Grange
Stop letting your mind override your body's signals. When you feel parched or flagging, pause—don't push through to the next scheduled break. Ask yourself midday: 'How am I doing? What's my nervous system telling me right now?' Place one hand on your heart, one on your belly, and check in for just 6
1h 34mKey Takeaway
Stop letting your mind override your body's signals. When you feel parched or flagging, pause—don't push through to the next scheduled break. Ask yourself midday: 'How am I doing? What's my nervous system telling me right now?' Place one hand on your heart, one on your belly, and check in for just 60 seconds. What do you feel? What do you need? This simple practice of tuning into your body's wisdom, rather than living purely from the neck up, is the first step toward reclaiming your energy and preventing burnout before it happens.
Episode Overview
In this conversation, psychologist Pippa Grange discusses her new book 'Life Reclaimed,' exploring why chronic overperformance has become a cultural epidemic and how we can shift from extractive performance to regenerative performance. She introduces the concept of the regenerative triangle (perform, rest, renew) and explains how reconnecting with natural rhythms and our body's intelligence can prevent burnout and restore wholeness to our lives.
Key Insights
We're Living in a Way That No Longer Suits Human Beings
Burnout isn't just affecting isolated individuals—it's a collective cultural phenomenon. We're overperforming in too many areas of our lives at a pace that's too fast and requires constant mental activity. We've forgotten how to rest and regenerate our energy, creating a mismatch between our industrial performance methods and the strain of our current moment in history.
Disconnection from Nature Creates Disconnection from Self
When we see ourselves as separate from nature, we assume we can override all signals from our bodies and the natural world. We live from the neck up, presuming our minds can push through all obstacles through willpower alone. Reconnecting with nature's intelligence—both externally and within our own bodies—is essential for sustainable performance and wholeness.
Homogeneous Expectations Lead to Chronic Strain
We expect the same performance from ourselves every day, but nature operates in diverse rhythms and seasons. Just as winter looks like rest but involves purposeful activity beneath the surface, humans need diverse inputs, different speeds, and adaptability. The problem isn't occasional intensity—it's the chronic, unvarying demand for peak performance that depletes us.
Overperformance Often Masks a Search for Worth
In individualistic cultures where we've moved away from tribe and community, our value is less obvious to us. In hunter-gatherer societies, your contribution was immediately visible and celebrated. Today, we may overperform—especially at work—because it's the place where we most clearly see our value being recognized, compensating for the lack of obvious worth in other areas of life.
You're Not Broken—You're Just Overrevving
The narrative that we need to 'fix' ourselves when feeling off-kilter is often wrong. Many people aren't broken; they're simply operating at an unsustainable pace. The solution isn't always adding new practices or tools—it's giving yourself permission to reclaim what's already right and to recognize when you're straining rather than thriving.
Notable Quotes
"We are living in a way that no longer suits a human being. It's too fast. It's too revved. It requires too much mental activity from us at all times. We've forgotten how to rest and renew our energy to regenerate."
"When we see ourselves as separate from all else, we also have this idea that we can override all of the signals from the natural world, all of the signals from our own natural landscape in our bodies, in our minds."
"Nature's not it might be at rest in some ways but it's not inactive through that whole time. It's purposeful rest you know and then it comes to renewal."
"The hardest part of shifting from overperformance to regenerative performance may well be giving yourself permission not to try and immediately diagnose, fix, and get back in the saddle."
"Sometimes we're just overrevving rather than broken. Not all sunk cost is buried treasure you know sometimes we actually need to have another look at that."
Action Items
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1
Practice the Hara Check-In
Place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly (hara—the Japanese word for belly, believed to be where meaning is made). Pause for just one minute and ask: 'What do I feel? What do I need?' This simple practice reconnects you with your body's wisdom rather than living purely from your head.
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2
Request a Midday Nervous System Status Report
Around midday each day, pause and ask your nervous system for a status report. Check in: How am I doing? What is my physiology telling me right now? How much time have I spent 'up in my head' rather than being whole? This prevents you from only checking in at the end of the day when you're already depleted.
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3
Stop Overriding Your Body's Signals
When you feel parched, flagging, or notice your energy dropping, respond immediately rather than pushing through to the next scheduled break. Honor your body's clock instead of only the mechanical clock on the wall. If you're in a meeting and feeling the CO2 levels rising, advocate for a break rather than powering through.
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4
Build in Renewal Time, Not Just Rest
Renewal is different from rest—it includes play, laughter, and creative activities where you're not performing at all. Make renewal as intentional as you make rest time or bedtime. Schedule activities that restore your energy through joy and creativity, not just recovery from exhaustion.