Because burnout was not the dream

What would you change about modern society?

There comes a moment — somewhere between your second anxiety spiral of the day and your third oat milk latte — when a quiet voice inside asks:

“Wait… is this really it?!

Is this the dream they sold us?
• Endless screens, aching backs, and pretending to be busy means important?
• A life measured in clicks, likes, and unread notifications?
• Hustling to afford moments we’re too exhausted to enjoy?
• Healing only when it’s convenient — and profitable?
• Rest as rebellion, softness as suspicion?
• Connection replaced with scrolling and truth silenced by urgency?
• Crying in private, smiling in public, burning out in silence?
• Calendars full, hearts half-empty?
• Rewarding collapse with applause?
• Doing more, feeling less — and calling that success, while our nervous systems wave little white flags from deep inside our fascia.

We were told to dream big — but somewhere along the way, “dreaming big” got hijacked by productivity spreadsheets, toxic positivity, and a whole lot of pretending we’re fine when we’re falling apart.

Let’s be honest: Burnout was not the dream.
Nobody came to Earth thinking, “You know what sounds great? Chronic stress and disconnection masked as success.”

Let’s name it: Modern society is weird.

We measure worth in output.
We confuse busyness for value.
We swipe for intimacy.
We monetize rest.
We take trauma and wrap it in a filtered quote card that says “just trust the universe” while forgetting that trusting requires nervous system capacity, not just good vibes.
It’s bizarre. And also… we’re in it.
So now what?

What if we cracked the shell?

What if, instead of endlessly trying to fit into a system that was never designed for wholeness, we asked:

“What would it look like to live in a way that doesn’t cost me myself?”

What if spaciousness wasn’t a reward for surviving burnout but the baseline?
What if we built communities where emotional honesty was normal and crying in public didn’t feel like failure?
What if success felt like a calm body, a connected heart, a life that made sense in your bones — not just on your CV?

Here’s what I want, raw and unfiltered:

• I want slow living to be the standard, not the subculture. Not a luxury. Not a weekend treat. The norm.
• I want people to stop applauding “resilience” when what they actually mean is, “Wow, you kept functioning while silently breaking.”
• I want softness to stop being mistaken for weakness — and speed for success.
• I want slowness baked into our days like bread rising on a warm windowsill — expected, natural, nourishing.
• I want healing to be spacious and cyclical, not just another checkbox on your spiritual to-do list.
• I want more sitting around doing “nothing” — which is, of course, everything.
• I want real rest — not the collapse-after-burnout kind, but the daily, deliberate exhale that says, I matter even when I’m not producing.
• I want connection to be more valued than convenience.
• I want our systems to prioritize presence over performance, regulation over re-traumatization, and community over competition.

And I want you to want things, too.

So let’s try something…
Sit with this:
If society could start again — what would you put at the center?
Not the fancy, filtered answer — the true one.
Would it be care? Creativity? Rest? Communal meals? Laughter that snorts? Rites of passage? Land back? Love without performance?
Let the answers be raw. Let them be ridiculous. Let them be sacred. Let them contradict each other. This is not about solving everything — it’s about remembering what matters.

Because here’s the thing:

You’re not broken for feeling like this system doesn’t fit.
You’re not “too sensitive” or “too much” or “not resilient enough.”
You’re just awake.
And that? That’s a powerful beginning.
So I ask you again, beautifully human soul — what would you change?
And what small act today could honor that vision?
Because the dream — the real one — is still alive.
It’s beneath the noise.
It’s pulsing in you.

Love, Stefanie Anna