REBUILDING | Burnout and back again.

In collaboration with the fantastic Tom Gulson of Critical Exposure Films this is my story of Rebuilding after burnout: In 2022 after only 2 EDR races I took the biggest risk of my career and pulled out of racing for the remainder of the season. It was a terrifying and isolating time, very few people understood - me being one of them. I’m extremely driven by nature, but I had nothing left, who was this??! This was a really hard experience to share, I felt ashamed of myself and perceived as “weak” despite this taking the most courage and strength I’ve ever had to muster. Making that decision, and using the time to take a break and make space to: reflect; work closely with my mental performance coach; to do a lot of reading, learning and talking with people in order to realise where I was, how I got there and what I needed in order to avoid this in future. It allowed me to level up not only as an athlete but as a person. I hope by sharing this we can better understand that burnout is a result of pushing way too hard for way too long. Like any physical over-use injury I hope we can start treating mental health injuries with the same respect. I hope this sparks conversations so we can try to better understand the human experience and become more compassionate toward one another and allow us to better support each other. Cheers to that! Thank you to GT Factory Racing and all our team partners who supported me through this journey back! More from Tom: