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Burnout isn’t a personal failure to be fixed with more grit; it’s a signal from your environment that something is misaligned. Dr Sunil Kumar breaks down why the strongest people often break first, how systems quietly reward overextension, and what to do when self-care starts to feel like self-blame. We draw a clear line between stress, burnout, and moral injury, and explain why no amount of yoga can solve a values conflict or a chronic workload without recovery.

We unpack the hidden vulnerabilities of high performers' conscientiousness, empathy, duty, and perfectionism reframed as high standards and show how those strengths turn risky in under-resourced, target-driven contexts. Instead of telling you to “cope better,” we walk through a practical shift from survival to sustainability: boundary repair, role clarity, permission to say no, and courageous conversations about workload and values. You’ll hear how lifestyle medicine still matters—sleep, movement, nutrition, stress regulation but only works when paired with system-aware choices that restore control and protect energy.

The core takeaway is agency. Burnout is information, not a sentence; it points to what must change so you can stay well where you are. We share a simple decision lens—what is mine to carry, and what belongs to the system—along with prompts to redesign your work rhythms, redistribute responsibility, and move from reacting to observing. If you’ve ever thought, “others seem fine, what’s wrong with me,” this reframing will help you swap shame for clarity and turn pain into leadership.

If the message lands, share the episode with someone who needs the reframe, subscribe for more grounded conversations on sustainable performance, and leave a review with one change you’ll make this week.

Thank you for listening to The Long View with Dr Sunil Kumar.

If this episode resonated, take a moment to follow the podcast, leave a review, or share it with someone who might benefit from a longer perspective.

New episodes are released regularly.
Until next time, take the long view.

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Forget the myth that stress is the enemy. We dig into the physiology behind high performance and show why the real threat is chronic activation without recovery. Stress is a normal, adaptive response that helps us mobilise energy and focus when it matters. Burnout, by contrast, emerges when recovery is repeatedly postponed and the body never stands down. That distinction changes everything about how we work, lead, and care for ourselves.

We unpack what the nervous system needs to thrive: oscillation between activation and restoration. When cortisol stays elevated, sleep becomes lighter, inflammation rises, and emotional regulation falters. You might still deliver on deadlines, but decision quality drops, creativity narrows, empathy erodes, and errors multiply. This isn’t a mindset flaw—it’s physiology. Modern workplaces that reward speed, availability, and constant responsiveness often push us into chronic activation, making recovery seem optional. We turn that logic on its head: recovery is the foundation of sustainable performance.

From there, we redefine resilience as the capacity to move deliberately between stress and recovery. We translate that idea into practical steps rooted in lifestyle medicine: treat sleep as active recovery, use movement to regulate rather than punish, choose nutrition that stabilises energy, set boundaries that protect the nervous system, and build meaning and connection as biological buffers. We share simple prompts to design recovery into ordinary days, not just holidays: small, repeatable rhythms that you can actually keep.

If you’re functioning but don’t feel like yourself, this conversation offers a clear, humane path forward. Subscribe for future episodes, share this with someone who needs a reset, and leave a review to tell us where you’ll build recovery into your day.

Thank you for listening to The Long View with Dr Sunil Kumar.

If this episode resonated, take a moment to follow the podcast, leave a review, or share it with someone who might benefit from a longer perspective.

New episodes are released regularly.
Until next time, take the long view.

Send us a text

New Year hype meets real-life biology, and the sparks don’t last. We pull back the curtain on why motivation fades so quickly and show how to build habits that survive stress, poor sleep, and messy schedules. Instead of blaming yourself for slipping after a strong start, learn the neuroscience that explains why your brain defaults to comfort and immediate relief when the day runs hot.

We unpack the habit loop trigger, action, reward—and explain why the habit you hate is often your brain’s best available solution to an unmet need. That insight changes everything: remove a habit without keeping the reward and the brain resists; redesign the reward and behaviour shifts with less friction. From there, we contrast goals with systems and demonstrate how environment, energy, and stress load quietly decide what actually happens on your hardest days. If the unhealthy option is easier, your brain will choose it. So we make the healthy path easy by default.

You’ll hear practical, science-backed tools for 2026: identity before intensity; environment design that puts trainers in sight and phones out of bedrooms; starting smaller than feels sensible so consistency compounds; and regulating sleep, stress, movement, nutrition, and connection before chasing optimisation. We round it out with better questions—What system am I operating in? What is this habit trying to help me with? What one small change makes the right choice easier?—so you can build routines that last.

Ready to trade white-knuckle willpower for a smarter system? Listen now, subscribe for the long view on behaviour change, and share this episode with someone who needs a gentler, more effective path. If it helped, leave a quick review and tell us the one small change you’ll make today.

Thank you for listening to The Long View with Dr Sunil Kumar.

If this episode resonated, take a moment to follow the podcast, leave a review, or share it with someone who might benefit from a longer perspective.

New episodes are released regularly.
Until next time, take the long view.