Burnout isn’t just about feeling tired—it’s a full-body crisis that too many of us ignore until it’s too late. While stress and exhaustion are often dismissed as part of a busy life, the reality is that long-term burnout and adrenal fatigue can have serious consequences for our physical and mental health.

Functional medicine practitioner Filipa Bellette, co-founder of Chris and Filipa Functional Medicine, has worked with thousands of clients facing the same struggles. What makes her approach different? Instead of treating burnout as just an energy problem, she looks at the whole picture—our hormones, gut health, nervous system, and the deep-seated beliefs that keep us stuck in overdrive.

What is Body Burnout, Really?

Burnout goes beyond mental fatigue. It’s when the body’s systems—particularly the adrenals, gut, and nervous system—become so depleted that they struggle to function. Some of the most common signs include:

• Waking up exhausted, even after a full night’s sleep.
• Mid
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2024 was a paradoxical year, both deeply challenging and incredibly transformative.

It reminded me that there cannot be light without darkness.

As a business owner, I’ve come to realize that stewarding a business is deeply intertwined with how we steward ourselves. The vision we have for our own lives inevitably shapes the way we show up in our work.

Over the past year, I’ve learned some invaluable lessons about business, leadership, and success—lessons that have not only shifted how I run my business but also how I show up in life.

Here are 7 key lessons I’m taking forward:

1. Bigger Isn’t Always Better

I used to believe that growing my business meant expanding my team, taking on more projects, and constantly chasing “bigger.” But this year, I realized that success isn’t about size—it’s about alignment. With a small, highly skilled team, we achieved incredible results, worked with dream clients, and created more spaciousness in our lives. Growth doesn’t always mean more; s...

For the past 10 years, I’ve started each year with an intentional planning session—a ritual that’s helped me realign, refine, and design a life I love. What once felt like a complete reset at the beginning of each year, is now about softening into more of what I love and making small, meaningful tweaks that align with who I am becoming.

This year, I had the privilege of guiding a group of ambitious businesswomen through this process at my Business Planning Day in January. A large part of the day was focused on getting clear on what we truly want from life—because only when we define that vision can we build businesses that support it. Too often, we find ourselves designing our lives around our work, when in reality, our businesses should be designed to enable the lives we desire.

Over the years, I’ve shifted away from traditional goal-setting and instead embraced intentions over goals. Goals can feel like another task on a never-ending to-do list, while intentions shape the way we sh...