Do Generators and Manifesting Generators experience burnout?

July 27, 2021 Rachel Lieberman

Over the last couple of years, I’ve written about burnout a couple of times, including how Human Design can help us with burnout as well as my own experiences with burnout here.

However, I’ve never fully covered on my blog how burnout happens specifically for Generators and Manifesting Generators.

There still seems to be some confusion generally around this topic, with a lot of people believing that Sacral Beings, who have a consistent energy supply, couldn’t possibly burn out. Wouldn’t that be reserved for the Projectors, Manifestors, and Reflectors?

My Human Design colleagues and I have found that this is not true at all...and that perhaps Sacral Beings tend to experience the worst burnout of all the types!

So, let’s take a look at why this is!

HOW DO WE DEFINE BURNOUT?

There are a few ways to understand burnout. The Merriam-Webster definition that I used in my first post about this two years ago describes it as, “exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.”

This is true…but from a Human Design lens, I would more generally say that it is a misuse of energy.

So, it’s not so much about how much energy we have, since our energy levels depend a lot on what we’re doing and how much it’s activating us. For us, burnout is more about how we are using that energy.

UNDERSTANDING THE DEFINED SACRAL

In order to understand burnout, we first have to understand how we function! I go deep into the main energetic themes that we experience as Sacral Beings in my Guide to the Sacral Response for Generators and MG’s, so I highly recommend checking that out if you are at the beginning of your journey of understanding how you operate!

Generally, as Sacral Beings, we have a certain amount of energy that we show up with every day, like a full tank of gas that’s powering an engine. In order to feel satisfied, that tank has to be empty by the end of the day. It’s not something that we have a lot of control over…it’s like a motor that’s running and we cannot turn it off. So, if we don’t have outlets for that energy that feel good and act as a repository for the contents of our fuel tank, it will become frustrated, overheated, and out of sorts. This is where we experience our signal that something is out of balance - frustration.

Additionally, if we don’t have those outlets…that energy will find a way out no matter what. It can manifest as complaining, causing drama, wasting money, gambling, engaging in various addictive behaviors, eating in an unhealthy way, etc.

When the Sacral has outlets that feel good, we empty our tank, the motor hums along, and we everything flows. We can feel the life force moving through us and we feel satisfied, fulfilled, and energized by life on a deep level.

SO, BURNOUT…HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?

Burnout happens when we add together incorrect energy outlets + time. Feeling frustrated for a day or two won’t cause burnout. But being frustrated for weeks, months, or years? That is when we enter burnout territory.

When we aren’t putting our life force fuel into the right outlets that allow our motor to hum along, we become depleted instead of energized. It’s kind of like having an oil leak. We need satisfaction to live. When we don’t get it, we are drained.

The longer we live in this state of feeling drained and unsatisfied, the deeper we sink into burnout.

WHY IS BURNOUT PARTICULARLY INSIDIOUS FOR GENERATORS AND MANIFESTING GENERATORS?

As I mentioned earlier, what a lot of my fellow Human Design colleagues and I have found is that there is a misconception around burnout for Generators and MG’s. Some people think that we don’t burn out very easily because we have consistent energy. Meanwhile, we have found that Generators and MG’s often burn out worse than a non-sacral being.

Why? I would say it’s because we have the stamina to keep showing up. We have the ability to keep going, despite feeling drained. Our energy can get a little bit stubborn or can have a hard time changing course (this is particularly true of Generators). Pure rest doesn’t fully fix this because it’s having the wrong energy outlet that is causing the burnout, not just the amount of work (though that can be a factor, too!). In many ways, non-sacrals are more sensitive to the amount of work they’re doing, and not so much what they are doing. The undefined sacral is more flexible in that way. As Sacral Beings, we have the capacity to do a lot each day but it has to be the right thing, too.

Capitalism is built upon the defined sacral pushing itself in directions it actually doesn’t want to go. So, it’s easy for us to get sucked into this matrix and begin to feel that this is how life has to be.

HOW BURNOUT SHOWS UP IN MY LIFE

My body always lets me know when I’m not using my energy properly if I listen to it. When I’m energized, I feel alert, flowing, sparkly, radiant, and motivated. When I’m heading toward burnout, I feel frustrated, lethargic, heavy, and low energy. This doesn’t mean I never get tired or need rest, or that I never do anything I don’t love (I mean…emptying the dishwasher and cleaning the bathroom are not favorites of mine) but overall my life feels like it has a satisfying cadence and I go to bed feeling like I expressed myself, did/created something important to me, and did something meaningful. I feel ready to move into my relaxation activities and head towards bed.

I avoid heading all the way to burnout by taking a pause when I start to notice my personal version of being drained and see if I can switch things up, course-correct, get some help, do things differently, spend more time on something else, or eliminate the task altogether.

HOW DO WE AVOID (AND OVERCOME) BURNOUT?

I feel that the most powerful thing we can do as Generators and MG’s is to fortify ourselves with knowledge of how we operate and begin to put this into practice so we recognize frustration in ourselves. No one can do this for us! When we become attuned to the subtleties of how our energy works, we can change course before burnout saps our precious life force dry.

When we know how to recognize energy outlets that feel good and satisfying, we can avoid getting ourselves in prolonged situations that are draining because we know what we need! And if you have this feeling that you cannot live your life fully as a Generator and MG because you have to survive in capitalism, I can promise you - you enjoy life AND thrive materially! These things don’t typically happen overnight but they can happen! I cover how to do this in my Framework.

Your energy is precious and you deserve to feel good in what you do!

Love,

Rachel

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