Your Body Is Not Lazy: Burnout, Freeze, and the Cost of Pushing Through

In this Wellness Wednesday episode, Andrew DeGroat explores why burnout, freeze, and chronic exhaustion are so often misnamed as laziness or lack of motivation. Drawing from trauma physiology, polyvagal theory, and The Body Worth Doctrine, this conversation reframes shutdown as an intelligent survival response; not a personal or moral failure.

Designed for clinicians, bodyworkers, wellness professionals, and clients, the episode offers an ethical, embodied approach to care that prioritizes safety, agency, and regulation over discipline and shame. With practical supports for working with burnout and nervous system overwhelm, this episode invites listeners to listen to the body rather than push it past its limits.

Regulate, Don’t Just Relax

w/ Special Guest Shawnti Refuge 

As we enter 2026, wellness is shifting away from hustle, forced calm, and “just push through” mentalities and toward nervous system regulation.

In the Season 6 premiere of Wellness Wednesday, host Andrew DeGroat, N.D.  explores why true wellness isn’t about forcing relaxation, but helping the body feel safe enough to return to balance. Grounded in The Body Worth Doctrine and informed by the work of Dr. Peter Levine, this episode reframes stress and chronic symptoms as adaptive biological responses not personal failures.

You’ll learn how stress impacts the nervous system, why symptoms are signals rather than weaknesses, and three simple, evidence-informed tools you can use today to support regulation.

The episode also features returning guest Shawnti Refuge, founder of Shawnti Refuge Journals, on how journaling can support nervous system safety, clarity, and healing.

✨ Healing doesn’t begin with force. It begins with listening.