There’s a reason burnout can be so confusing. On paper, everything looks fine. You’re doing the right things, following the advice, analysing the causes, yet something still feels off.
That’s because burnout isn’t a problem you can think your way out of.
It’s not a logic error. It’s a body state.
You might have read my earlier piece on How to Overcome Burnout, where we explored how burnout isn’t cured, but unlearned. The nervous system gets stuck in survival mode, and logic alone can’t override that. This next layer goes deeper into why that happens, and how to find balance between reason and feeling.
The Split Between Logic and Emotion
Psychologist Marsha Linehan, creator of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), describes something called Wise Mind.
It’s the meeting point between two mental states:
- Reasonable Mind — the part that analyses, plans, and organises.
- Emotional Mind — the part that feels, reacts, and senses.
Most people in burnout spend years living almost entirely in Reasonable Mind. It’s the same prefrontal cortex that took us to the moon, built empires, and solved complex problems. Logic is powerful, but it’s not enough to heal what’s happening in your body.
Because burnout doesn’t start in the mind. It starts in the nervous system.
Emotion, energy in motion, lives in the body. It moves through sensations, impulses, heart rate, breath, posture. Logic can observe these things, but it can’t fully feel them.
When you try to recover from burnout through reasoning alone, it’s like trying to fix a broken bone by giving a speech about it. The words might make sense, but the body still needs to mend.
Why Logic Alone Doesn’t Heal
In therapy, I often see clients who’ve read every book, watched every talk, and know exactly why they’re burned out, yet their body still feels stuck in high alert.
That’s because logic is a top-down process. It starts in the brain and tries to influence the body. But in states of chronic stress or trauma, the bottom-up signals from the body (heart rate, muscle tension, gut sensations) are louder.
Your body isn’t ignoring logic, it’s just too busy surviving to listen.
This is why so many people feel like they’re “doing all the right things” yet remain anxious, depleted, or detached. Their body hasn’t received the message that it’s safe yet.
To send that message, we need both directions working together: top-down and bottom-up.
Key Points to Consider:
1.) Do you use logic to fix all your issues? This can lead to intellectualisation.
2.) Do your emotions feel overwhelming often?
3.) You’re not doing something wrong, you are just processing yourself the only way you learnt how to!
The Power of Wise Mind
Wise Mind is that balance.
It’s not about silencing logic or drowning in emotion. It’s about integration, letting reason and feeling speak the same language.
When you’re in Wise Mind, you don’t overanalyse sensations; you notice them. You don’t suppress emotions; you listen to what they’re trying to say.
For example:
- Logic says, I need to rest more.
- Emotion says, I feel guilty when I stop.
- Wise Mind says, Both are true, I can rest and feel the guilt, and neither means I’m failing.
That’s the dialectic, two truths held at once.
If you’ve read my piece on How to Process Feelings (and Why RAIN Still Works), this might sound familiar. RAIN teaches us to Recognise, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture our emotions, which is exactly how we start building Wise Mind. We stop arguing with our feelings and start understanding them.
From Thinking to Feeling: Bottom-Up Work
Bottom-up processing means using the body to influence the mind.
It could be as simple as:
- Breathwork: slowing your exhale to cue safety to the nervous system.
- Movement: walking, stretching, or gentle shaking to discharge tension.
- Grounding: feeling your feet on the floor, noticing the weight of your body.
- Sound or touch: humming, placing a hand on your chest, reconnecting with sensation.
These aren’t “soft” practices, they’re physiological interventions. Each one tells your body: It’s safe enough to feel again.
Over time, the body’s messages shift from threat to curiosity. That’s when logic can come back online, not as a dictator but as a translator, helping you make sense of what your body’s saying.
How to Use Wise Mind in Daily Life
- Pause Before You Problem-Solve
When you notice stress rising, resist the urge to jump straight into analysis. Take a few slow breaths. Feel where tension sits in your body. That’s the emotional data your logic needs to consider. - Name the State, Not the Story
Instead of “I’m overwhelmed,” try “I notice my chest feels tight and my breath is shallow.” This grounds logic in direct experience, the foundation of integration. - Alternate Top-Down and Bottom-Up
After journaling or planning (top-down), do something physical — a short walk, stretch, or moment of stillness (bottom-up). Burnout recovery thrives on that rhythm. - Build a Daily RAIN Practice
If you haven’t read it yet, revisit How to Process Feelings (and Why RAIN Still Works). RAIN is Wise Mind in motion, it helps you recognise and allow emotions before the prefrontal cortex tries to override them. - Anchor in Compassion
Wise Mind isn’t neutral; it’s kind. When you respond to yourself with understanding instead of judgment, you signal safety, and safety is the soil where healing happens.
The Payoff: A New Kind of Intelligence
When logic and emotion start working together, life begins to feel different.
Decisions become clearer. Rest starts to feel restorative again. You stop needing everything to make perfect sense before you allow yourself to feel okay.
This is the paradox at the heart of recovery:
You can’t think your way back to balance, but you can think more clearly once your body feels balanced.
Wise Mind isn’t a concept to memorise. It’s a relationship to practice, a daily conversation between your brain and your body.
Logic got you this far. Emotion will take you home.
And if you’re still somewhere in the middle, burnt out, thinking, feeling, trying to bridge the two, that’s exactly where Wise Mind begins.
