This reflective essay explores burnout as a feminist and political condition rather than a personal problem to be solved through individual resilience. Drawing on experiences within development and social justice institutions, we argue that burnout emerges from the ongoing fragmentation required to survive contradictory systems that reward compliance, productivity, and self-silencing while often undermining the very values they claim to advance. We examine how the suppression of anger, desire, grief, and other forms of embodied knowledge contributes to exhaustion, self-betrayal, and disconnection from self and community.Examining burnout within broader patriarchal and bureaucratic structures, we suggest that many practitioners experience not only overwork but also heartbreak: the emotional toll of witnessing the gap between transformative aspirations and institutional realities. Against this backdrop, we explore the role of feminist principles, friendships, intergenerational relationships, and collective care in creating spaces where fragmentation can be acknowledged and authenticity celebrated rather than hidden.The essay proposes that recovering from burnout requires more than individual resilience. It calls for a conscious refusal of assimilation and urgency, and for practices that center creativity, anger, vulnerability, repair, and rest. We argue that rest becomes a feminist practice when it is collectively supported and understood as a form of resistance to extractive systems. Ultimately, we contend that sustaining feminist work requires cultivating relationships and communities that allow us to remain whole, embrace our humanity, and build forms of care capable of supporting both personal and political transformation.
Vazquez et al. (Thu,) studied this question.