"Burnout," by Emily Nagoski, PhD & Amelia Nagoski, DMA

Genre: Nonfiction/Self-Help

Page Count: 200+

Published: 2019 (Ballantine Books)

Potential Triggers: Occasional Cursing, Mentioning Sex Topics (mostly as examples), Discussion of the Patriarchy, Assault/Violence mentions, Sexism/Racism mentions, Body Dysmorphia & Disordered Eating mentions, Gaslighting,

Mental Health Topics: Burnout, Anxiety,

This book is one that I'm sure wouldn't normally make it onto your "to-be-read" list, but it's one that I'm going to mention all the same. Despite the audience being women, in reading this, I found myself quite curious about their reasoning behind what they were addressing. Which is to say, it's not entirely unappealing to those outside of this target audience (though enjoying psychology might be a necessary part of it).

Despite the name of the book being "burnout," they talk about a lot more than just being burnt out. In the end, it all comes back to burnout, but there's so much more in there. Some of what it goes over are:

- relationships with yourself and others

- society's view of who women should be as people (what they should look like, how much they should weigh, what they should be capable of, how they should expect to be treated, etc.)

- the impact of stress on your physical and emotional health, as well as your mental health

- the circle of emotions and how to work through stressors and burnout

It's not just a boring textbook about psychology; it goes over emotional health, physical health, mental health, and how to combine the three in today's society, as well as exposes some of the lies that society tells us about ourselves and how we "should be."

This book is full of excellent examples that paint clear and logical images of what's being addressed. There's no technical language and they even make up their own terminology for things in the name of having something simple to call what they're discussing. Names such as the madwoman inside your head that may make you even smile a bit in amusement before progressing (or at least, I smiled a bit).

Along with the science, there's real-life examples, stories of fictional characters that they based off a combination of many other people, and there is even forms you can work through yourself to try to work through your own life issues (as one can expect from a self-help book).

One of the things I loved the most about this book is how it emphasized that our problem isn't what we are incapable of doing, but it's often how much we're forcing ourselves to do, regardless of how much our body is pleading with us to just take a break. It addresses sleep deprivation, lack of rest, and how you can continue working while providing yourself with rest by means of "active" rest.

Another thing that I appreciated is that there was that it didn't discriminate. It mentioned people with anxiety, depression, it includes people of different colors, and it even mentions autistics and doesn't target them as being incapable of things.

I will say, though, that it's written from a secular point of view, so when it goes over finding meaning in life, it doesn't mention religion much at all and instead says that it's "within you." I personally have no issue with this, but it is something that I will mention for those who might have an issue with it.

This is the kind of book that helped me pull open my notebook and take so many pages of notes and I'm already excited to look back on them and just recap what I learned by reading this book. I'm do not regret anything. Despite how many times it called me out, I absolutely loved it.

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Burnout on Amazon

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Special thanks to my sister for helping me with designing and taking the picture for this post.