How to Beat Burnout: Use Play to Feel Like Yourself Again | Piera Gelardi | Happiness | E519

About this episode

The episode discusses how adopting a playful mindset can aid in recovering from burnout and stress.

Burnout and stress don’t just drain energy, they drain connection. If you’re in burnout, it can spike stress & anxiety and create real conflict & repair work at home. And here’s the part most people miss: sometimes burnout isn’t solved by “pushing harder” or even taking a break. Sometimes it’s about play. Not childish, silly, or irresponsible play. But a playful mindset—curiosity, experimentation, levity—that changes how you experience your real life, in real time. In this conversation, I’m joined by Piera Gelardi to talk about burnout recovery through a lens most people never consider. Piera is a creative entrepreneur, artist, and the co-founder of Refinery29 and 29Rooms, and her work is all about helping people reconnect with joy, creativity, and aliveness. Together, we explore what happens when life gets so serious, so scheduled, and so responsibility-heavy that you lose touch with the parts of yourself that feel light, open, and fully alive. We talk about “play deprivation,” the difference between having fun and living playfully, and why recovery from burnout often has less to do with escaping your life and more to do with changing your relationship to it. You’ll hear why…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby

Guest: Piera Gelardi

Topics covered

• burnout
• play
• stress recovery
• creativity
• connection
• resilience

Keywords

• burnout
• playful mindset
• stress
• creativity
• connection
• resilience
• humor
• anxiety

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Refinery29, 29Rooms

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