Is Your Nervous System Still Running from a Tiger?

Emails, bills, and to-do lists aren’t tigers but your body doesn’t know that.

Some mornings you wake up already running. Before coffee, your mind is scrolling through lists: groceries, appointments, work deadlines, birthdays you should text about, bills you need to pay. By the time you’re brushing your teeth, it feels like the whole day is already stacked on your shoulders.

On the outside, you look like you’re keeping it together. On the inside, it feels like you’re running in circles, dizzy from trying to hold too many things at once.

That’s the invisible load at work.

It’s not just tasks on a list. It’s the mental ledger: remembering, coordinating, anticipating, juggling timelines. This can look like work projects, bills, birthdays, groceries, family needs, the email you forgot to answer. Some days it feels like too many pots bubbling on the stove.

You’re constantly stirring and adjusting, but rarely stepping back to see the whole kitchen.

We can laugh at it, but we also know the weight is real. Both things can exist at once; the chaos and the compassion.

The Stress Cycle: From Tigers to Texts

Emily Nagoski, in her book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, explains that stressors (the things that trigger stress) are different from stress (your body’s physiological response).Thousands of years ago, that looked like a tiger chasing us. Our bodies pumped out adrenaline and cortisol so we could run or fight. When we reached safety, we shook, breathed, and settled. The cycle was complete.

But today’s “tigers” aren’t wild animals. They’re voice calls, emails, party invitations, bills, soccer schedules, unanswered texts. And unlike a tiger, they never fully go away. There’s always another notification, another deadline, another task waiting.

That’s why you can finish your to-do list and still feel restless or bone-deep exhausted: your body never got the message that it’s safe now. Completing the cycle means finding ways to give your nervous system that signal of safety, even when the inbox is still full.

How the Invisible Load and Burnout Connect

The invisible load and burnout aren’t the same thing but they are deeply related.

The invisible load is the unseen, constant work of managing life: the mental lists, the remembering, the anticipating. It’s the “background hum” that never switches off.

Burnout is what happens when that hum gets too loud for too long. It’s the emotional exhaustion, the sense of being drained and detached, the feeling that no matter how much you do, it’s never enough.

The invisible load is the weight you’re carrying. Burnout is what happens when you carry that weight without ever putting it down. When there’s no pause, no release, no chance to complete the stress cycle, the system eventually says, enough.

Gentle Ways to Begin Completing the Stress Cycle

Here are some simple ways you can begin to practice this on your own:

• Movement — go for a brisk walk, stretch, dance to one song.

• Breath — try an inhale to 4, exhale to 6, repeating a few times.

• Connection — hug someone you love, pet your dog, call a friend.

• Creative release — write, doodle, sing in the car.

• Tears or laughter — both are natural ways the body finishes the cycle.

None of these erase the stressors, but they help your body close the loop so the stress doesn’t keep buzzing in the background.

Setting the Load Down

It’s hard to take time to notice all that’s on our minds when we’re so immersed in it. Therapy can be the pause. It’s the space where you can take off the heavy backpack, and finally see what’s inside. Together we can sort through: what belongs to you, what can be delegated, what can be removed altogether.

It’s about making the load feel manageable, not something you have to muscle through on your own.

If the invisible load feels unrelenting, if burnout feels close, if your nervous system never gets a moment’s rest, please know you don’t have to carry it alone. I see the weight you’ve been holding. My work at Maple Mindset is about making space for you to set it down, to complete the stress cycles that keep you stuck, and to gently reduce the pressure so life doesn’t feel so loud.

If this spoke to you, I would love to be there with you. You don’t have to carry the weight alone, therapy can be the space where you set it down, take a breath, and begin to sort through what’s really yours to hold.

You’re welcome to book a free discovery call if you’d like a chance to talk about what your load feels like right now, and to imagine what it might feel like to breathe a little easier, one shift at a time. If you already know you’re ready to begin, you can book your first session directly, I’d be honoured to walk with you as you start lightening the load.

You don’t have to muscle through anymore. Together, we can create a little more space, a little more quiet, and a little more relief so the weight you carry finally feels lighter.

Your guide to taming modern day tigers,

Danielle Field, RN Psychotherapist.