I Was in Mom Burnout for Five Years. This Is How God Helped Me Begin Again
Becoming After Burnout: gentle rhythms for rebuilding life and enjoying motherhood again, from a mom God met in the trenches
Hey sweet friend,
When I first started rebuilding my life after years of burnout with the gracious help of Jesus, videos of the “slow/soft living” lifestyles felt like a beautiful window I could look through but never step inside. In all the trending videos, I saw cottage-core homesteads, wistful morning routines, and moms with too-perfect messy buns reading their Bibles peacefully with their kids in their laps and an OPEN MUG OF COFFEE within reach (seriously love that for y’all and am so jealous but I haven’t been able to drink a hot beverage out of an open container in 6 years, kudos to y’all!). I always thought, “Wow, that lifestyle is lovely—for someone else.”
Then I realized something that changed everything:
I could redefine what ‘soft living’ meant to me.
What I needed wasn’t a new personality or a new house. I needed gentler patterns that honored MY real season—motherhood to highly sensitive and sensory seeking kids, chronic fatigue due to PCOS, anxiety and overwhelm from ADHD, and a heart that wanted to love God and my family well without living in survival mode. For me, soft living became less about matching an aesthetic and more about practicing intention and connection in every decision I made.
This is the premise of Becoming After Burnout.
Becoming After Burnout
This series is my simple map for living softer after motherhood burnout. I’ll share what I actually did and do—what stuck, what didn’t, and how I keep it sustainable with kids, a budget, and a busy brain. We’ll discuss faith practices that fit real mornings, cozy habits that make home feel more gentle, and practical ways to romanticize motherhood without adding more pressure. I am so excited to share this because it is a wonderful mix of studying the life and habits of Jesus, wisdom from faith-filled mentors, lived experience, and ideas from other moms who have also been in the trenches.
If you’re tired of hustling your way into exhaustion and ready to build something kinder and quieter, you’re in the right place. Your soft life won’t look like mine—and that’s the point. I’ll share the frameworks and the steps God took me through, and you’ll shape them to fit YOUR season, capacity, personality, and family.
My Burnout Origin Story
2018–2023 is the time of my life that I not-so-affectionately call my burnout era. I was 24 in 2018, working at a start-up in marketing, and got engaged—and life quickly went downhill after that.
I’m sure that last part of the sentence wasn’t quite what you were expecting to read since the first half sounded more like the beginning of a 2000s romcom and not the starting point of a hard season that ended up lasting five years—but I digress.
I started having panic attacks while planning my wedding and trying to manage my workload, and my anxiety began to skyrocket (I later found out it was due to unmanaged ADHD). My husband and I did individual and premarital counseling that unearthed some tough things I had to deal with. I left my job right after I came back from my honeymoon in fall of 2018, lost my grandmother to cancer in December of 2018, was diagnosed with PCOS and generalized anxiety disorder in spring of 2019, spent nine months looking for a full-time job, and finally got one in summer of 2019—only to find out I had gotten pregnant while having an IUD just two weeks into said job.
With no time to process the shock of finding out I was pregnant while having an IUD, I found out it was ectopic (in my fallopian tube), and not only was it not viable, it was potentially fatal unless I took methotrexate shots to help my body pass the pregnancy. It was both physically and emotionally traumatizing, and I still had a new job to settle into. Three months later, I got pregnant with my oldest in October of 2019, when I threw up constantly and was so sick for the entirety of my pregnancy. Oh yeah—and then the world shut down in March of 2020, and I gave birth in July of 2020, so that really helped my anxiety disorder (side note: it most definitely did not help).
After parenting in isolation for a year, I tried to piece myself back together in my new life as a wife and mom while dealing with the horrific PCOS flare-up that breastfeeding brought on (uncontrollable weight gain, fatigue, mood swings—you know, the fun stuff). Finally, in 2023, I was diagnosed with ADHD after I realized my mental health was at the same level as my then two-year-old’s when it came to our ability (or lack thereof) to handle overstimulation, emotional regulation, and focus.
So yeah, it’s been a ride.
What Burnout Looked Like for Me
For a long time, I didn’t think I was burned out. I thought I was just tired. Or stressed. Or failing at adulthood.
Burnout didn’t show up as a dramatic collapse. It showed up as numbness. Irritability. Brain fog. Chronic exhaustion that rest didn’t seem to touch. Spiritually, I still loved God, but Scripture felt heavy. Prayer felt scattered. I wanted to connect with Him, but I didn’t have the energy to reach for Him the way I used to.
Motherhood complicated everything. No matter how I felt, I still had to keep going. There were no days off. Even on my hardest days, little souls depended on me.
Looking back, I can see how tenderly God carried me through those years, even when I felt disconnected from Him. While I was trying to teach and parent my children, I became intensely aware of my own need to be taught and parented by God. Burnout stripped me of the illusion that I could do life on my own strength.
Why This Series Exists
When I was in the middle of burnout, I didn’t need another to-do list. I didn’t know what the next right move was, and I didn’t have the energy to research what to do. I was just trying to survive.
What I needed wasn’t pressure or perfection. I needed a starting point. I needed gentler rhythms that honored my limits while still helping me care for my faith, my family, and myself. I needed practices that worked in real life—during sick weeks, hormonal flare-ups, interrupted sleep, and seasons when my capacity was limited.
Becoming After Burnout exists because burnout taught me how to rebuild softly, to begin again with grace, and to trust that God makes beauty from ashes. This series is where I’ll share the framework and rhythms that helped me move out of survival mode and into something steadier, kinder, and more intentional—even throwing in a little whimsy along the way.
As I’ve continued praying through this series, I’ve decided to remove the initial paywall for Becoming After Burnout so that encouragement and access don’t become another barrier for moms who are already overwhelmed. Alongside the writing, I’ve also created a growing digital resource library that brings many of these tools together in one visual, one-stop place. This resource is optional, offered with pay-what-you-want pricing, and includes lifetime access as new tools are added over time. You can find it here.
You CAN have a soft and slow life, sweet friend. It will just look different (and better!) than what you see online.
I love when Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
THIS is what I believe it is like to have a sacred and soft life. One that is easy and light, but it’s because of Jesus, not us.
I can’t wait to embark on this journey of biblical motherhood and intentional living with you, sweet friend. Thank you for being here.
Much love,
Sarah
If you’ve been encouraged by this post and want to support my writing, you can “buy me a coffee” to help me keep creating gentle, faith-filled content
Thank you for this. That scripture in Matthew is a constant companion in motherhood!