This was one of the many lessons I learned through my journey and struggles with chronic stress. But there is no need to reach burnout to learn this. In my opinion, it would make a world of difference if we integrated simple but essential self-care practices early on, like learning to listen to our bodies, setting healthy boundaries, and focusing on what works rather than what doesn’t. When we teach these skills to children or young adults, we give them a solid foundation from which to build sustainable career paths—ones that stand a much better chance of thriving, even in challenging environments like academia.

Many of us researchers are driven by curiosity—a deep, burning passion for learning new things. In academia, this passion fuels our commitment to research, teaching, and contributing to our fields. But passion alone, when not balanced with self-care, can lead to imbalance and ultimately burnout. Yet self-care is often absent from the list of skills we are taught in our academic careers. After two episodes of burnout—even after securing a permanent position as a research professor—I realized I lacked both the understanding of basic self-care principles and the skills to implement them.

If you also are struggling with unbalance and stress, know that you are not alone, and that there is a way in which to regain your balance. One of the issues that I think fuels the possibilities for us to lose our balance is that in the research environment within academia, we are mostly self-driven. It is sometimes difficult to know when to stop because our curiosity and passion drive us to keep thinking of work-related issues even when we are not at work. Over time, the limits between work and private life blur more and more—and sometimes it all gets blended into one. A life that one could call the researcher lifestyle. But we are much more than researchers. To be an academic is only one part of us. Therefore, if we only nurture the academic within us, we can end up losing our balance.