The Silent Epidemic: Why People Are Burning Out at Record Rates
Welcome to “From Overwhelmed to Overcoming”—Where biblical wisdom meets modern science for lasting well-being
Why I am Starting This Blog Series
Over my years as a professional coach, I have worked with hundreds of clients across diverse industries—from healthcare executives to tech entrepreneurs, from nonprofit directors to C-Suite corporate managers. While their job titles and challenges vary, one thread consistently runs through nearly every coaching conversation: the struggle with stress, burnout, and the elusive quest for work-life balance.
Time and again, I interact with capable, successful professionals who have achieved what others consider impressive careers, yet they feel like they are drowning. They have tried the typical solutions—time management apps, productivity hacks, job changes, vacation breaks—but the underlying patterns remain unchanged. They react instead of respond, carry work stress into family time, and find themselves not showing up in life as their best selves.
What makes this heartbreaking is witnessing the added layer of guilt and the lingering of the negative messages of the inner critic—“You are a failure” “You will never amount to anything” “You blew it this time, better update your resume”—and countless other inner critic negative messages people have acquired over time. The result is that people lack emotional regulation, leading to counterproductive habits in life, such as becoming defensive, proving they are right, arguing, checking out, and more. They end up sacrificing joy and happiness by retaining underlying bitterness, resentment, hurts, worry, and anger (and more), the catalyst for stress and burnout.
When it comes to clients who are Christian, they know they need to trust more in God, experience His peace, and model Christ-like character, yet they find themselves snapping at loved ones, feeling anxious despite prayer, and wondering why their faith is not translating into the calm life Jesus teaches about.
It is interesting to note that Jesus does not promise external peace in this world. For example, in John, He says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, New International Version, 1973/1997). What He does offer believers is inner peace that transcends circumstances.
After seeing the same patterns of stress, burnout, and poor work-life balance emerge repeatedly—and after discovering how biblical wisdom perfectly aligns with cutting-edge neuroscience—I realized there is a better way forward. A way that honors both our faith and the remarkable findings about how our brains actually change and heal. This is why I have written this book and blog about why people are burning out at record rates, how to move from being overwhelmed to overcoming, and where biblical wisdom meets modern science for lasting well-being.
What you are about to discover is a powerful integration of God’s eternal wisdom with today’s most effective evidence-based strategies—methods that actually rewire our neural pathways for peace, resilience, and emotional intelligence. This goes far beyond typical ‘try harder’ approaches or simplistic spiritual advice. Instead, it reveals the remarkable ways biblical truth and cutting-edge neuroscience work together, offering you practical tools that honor both your faith and your brain’s incredible capacity for transformation.”
Let me introduce you to someone who represents this struggle perfectly—and whose transformation shows what is possible when we stop fighting our design and start working with it.
Meet Sarah. She is a high-potential marketing director at a Fortune 500 company, a leader of a small group at her church, the volunteer coordinator for her kids’ school fundraiser, and, according to everyone who knows her, “has the ideal work-life balance”.
What you do not know is that Sarah’s smartphone has become her middle name: 150+ notifications a day. Alternatively, she has not slept all the way through the night in months. Last week, her anger was triggered, and she yelled at her teenage daughter for the third time that day over some dumb comment. She wakes up each morning and prays for the strength to make it through the day, all while not understanding why God’s peace seems so far away, while she has been so successful from the outside.
You are not alone, Sarah. You are part of an epidemic in America among professionals in today’s always-on culture.
Note: The personal stories and scenarios in this post are composite illustrations based on common experiences from my coaching practice. Names and specific details have been changed to protect privacy, and no story reflects any particular individual.
The Shocking Reality We Cannot Ignore
Let us look at the facts. Recent research has uncovered a hidden crisis among employees in the United States:
- 77% of all employees experience stress in the workplace over a typical month (2023 Work in America Survey-Workplaces as Engines of Psychological Health and Well-Being, 2023).
- 79% of Americans experience stress in the workplace, with additional downstream factors: 32% experience emotional exhaustion, 36% experience cognitive fatigue, and 44% experience physical fatigue (Abramson, 2022).
- 52% of employees feel burned out by their jobs, and 37% are so overwhelmed by work that they cannot perform even basic tasks at the office (The 2024 NAMI Workplace Mental Health Poll, 2024),
What makes it all even more tragic is that, as followers of Christ, we experience this crisis while having the very faith that gives us the “peace that transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7, New International Version, 1973/1997)
The Unique Stressors Facing People in the Always-On Culture
As followers of Jesus, there are specific additional sources of stress that don’t show up on regular surveys or fit in generic corporate wellness plans:
The Excellence Pressure Trap: We want to be the best employees possible, to “work heartily, as for the Lord, not for man” (Colossians 3:23, New International Version, 1973/1997). However, excellence too often becomes a mythical perfectionism that nobody can live up to without burning out.
The Servant Complex: We love to serve others, but we also have a hard time turning down requests. That openness of heart can soon become a path to resentment, and resentment soon leads to sickness.
The Guilt Factor: We struggle with stress, then get bogged down in spiritual guilt about the whole thing: “If I really trusted God, wouldn’t I have more peace?”
The Cell Phone Connection: We are hyper-connected 24/7, making the biblical rhythms of work and rest nearly impossible to maintain.
The Hidden Costs of Chronic Stress
On top of feeling sad and burned out, the real cost is immeasurable and far more devastating:
Your Physical Health: Heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, and accelerated aging are all contributors to chronic stress. Stress literally ages you.
Your Relationships: Stress makes you reactive, and can destroy marriages, parenting, and friendships, the very relationships that bring the most joy and purpose to life.
Your Spiritual Life: Stress disconnects you from the source of all joy, ironically, at the moment you need God most. Prayer becomes a “should”, Bible reading becomes a to-do-list item, and worship becomes a rote exercise.
Your Performance at Work: Stressed people make more mistakes, overlook simple creative solutions, and create the kind of workplace toxicity that holds everyone back.
Financial Impact on Organizations: Consider this: The average replacement cost of an employee who is burned out is 213% of that employee’s salary! (Somanathan, 2024). Stress-related health care costs eat up 8% of our national healthcare costs, and stress is a contributing factor to nearly 120,000 deaths in the US every year. (Goh et al., 2016).
Why Most “Stress Management” Is Missing the Mark
Most stress management approaches offer either:
- Secular techniques that ignore our spiritual design and values
- Spiritual platitudes that lack practical, evidence-based strategies
- Quick fixes that do not address the root neurological patterns driving our reactions
We need something that combines all of the above: A faith-honoring approach based on the best of modern stress research.
A Different Path Forward
What if we started framing “stress management” as Biblical wisdom meets modern science? What if we acknowledged that Biblical wisdom has provided the truth, principles, and values for leading healthy and productive lives for over 3,500 years? What if we embraced modern science, which is continuously discovering evidence aligning with Biblical wisdom, showing how to overcome stress and burnout, while improving work-life balance and emotional intelligence? What if we intentionally leveraged neuroplasticity to retrain our brains—”by taking captive every thought and being transformed by the renewing of your mind” (2 Corinthians 70:5 and Romans 72:2). Making mindfulness best practices common practice in our daily lives as a means for overcoming stress and burnout, while improving work-life balance and being our best selves.
What if the same God who designed your brain also provided the user manual for rewiring it? This isn’t about choosing between faith and science. It’s about discovering how they work together to create the abundant life Christ promised.
The Backing Science. Major studies show that mindfulness-based interventions can reduce anxiety, depression, and stress effectively (Khoury et al., 2013). When combined with biblical principles, these practices create lasting transformation that honors both our faith and our neurological design (Khoury et al., 2013).
Your Invitation to Transformation
Over the coming weeks, I will be previewing concepts from my upcoming book “From Overwhelmed to Overcoming: Biblical Wisdom Meets Modern Science for Lasting Well-being.
The book presents the CAPTURE framework, plus 12 other mindfulness tools, and 7 critical interpersonal skills for emotional intelligence. This 7-step process, grounded in neuroscience and biblical truth, weaves in real-life stories and practical tools you can use in the moment–whether you have 30 seconds or 30 minutes–or tools to practice over time to develop muscle memory for choosing healthy, productive responses over defaulting to old counterproductive reflexes.
Take the First Step
If Sarah’s story sounds anything like yours, you are not broken. You are not weak. You are not a bad Christian. You are human, living in an inhuman world, with a God who has compassion on your struggle and solutions for your transformation.
Try this simple 3-minute practice based on Psalm 46:10 before you go to sleep tonight.
“Be still and know that I am God” (A 3-minute mindful prayer meditation for stress relief rooted in Psalm 46:10).
Sit in silence or, as you lie your head on your pillow, follow this mantra for three minutes. As you inhale, quietly say to yourself, “Be still”. As you exhale, say to yourself, “and know that I am God”. If your mind wanders (it will), gently return your attention to your breath and the words. Repeat calmly for three minutes.
This practice is a simple form of what the mindfulness research calls “acceptance”, learning to relax into God’s presence and accepting things as they are, moment by moment.
When you encounter situations that trigger negative emotions throughout the day, pause and use the “Be still and know that I am God” mindful prayer meditation for a moment or two. Try it out to see how your activated emotions decrease.
Note: The personal stories and scenarios in this post are composite illustrations based on common experiences from my coaching practice. Names and specific details have been changed to protect privacy, and no story reflects any particular individual.
Is work stress affecting your relationships, health, or spiritual life? You do not have to figure this out alone. I work with Christian professionals who want to break free from reactive patterns and discover sustainable well-being rooted in both faith and science. Schedule a complimentary 30-minute discovery call to explore how coaching could help you move from overwhelmed to overcoming.
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References
Abramson, A. (2022, January 1). Burnout and stress are everywhere. American Psychological Association.
Goh, J., Pfeffer, J., & Zenios, S. A. (2016). The relationship between workplace stressors and mortality and health costs in the United States. Management Science, 62 (2), 608-628.
Khoury, B., Lecomte, T., Fortin, G., Masse, M., Therien, P., Bouchard, V., Chapleau, M.-A., Paquin, K., & Hofmann, S. G. (2013). Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 33 (6), 763-771.
Somanathan, K. (2024). The true cost of employee burnout. Forbes.
The 2024 NAMI Workplace Mental Health Poll. (2024). National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI).
2023 Work in America Survey-Workplaces as Engines of Psychological Health and Well-Being. (2023). American Psychological Association.