Nurse Challenges the “Burnout Culture” With New Book and Wellness Event
A North East nurse is using her new book to challenge what she sees as a culture that celebrates exhaustion while offering little space for genuine recovery.
Timed to launch alongside a wellness and healing event to commemorate International Women’s Day, the book positions women’s wellbeing not as a luxury conversation but as an urgent one — particularly for those juggling careers, caregiving, motherhood and the often invisible mental workload.
The Tolicious Way: A Nurse’s Guide to Healing From the Inside Out, by Cassandra Sonma Ukaobi — otherwise known as Cass UK — draws on both clinical insight and lived experience, reflecting a growing shift within the wellness space towards prevention and sustainability rather than quick-fix solutions.
Cass UK said: “Burnout has become normalised, especially for women. We wear exhaustion like a badge of honour. As I write in The Tolicious Way, I remember sitting on my bed after a double nursing shift, still in my scrubs, completely empty, healing everyone else but neglecting myself.
“I saw a gap between ‘coping’ and truly healing… very little speaks to the emotional, mental and spiritual weight women carry. We need to slow down, set boundaries, and reconnect with ourselves.”
Reflecting on her clinical experience, she says nursing shaped her belief that symptoms are signals rather than inconveniences.
“In Chapter 1, I talk about how we silence our body’s ‘emails’ instead of reading them. So the philosophy behind the book blends science and soul.
“The book further explains how our body works in relation to cortisol, gut health and nervous system regulation,” she added.
For Cass UK, the book is also deeply personal.
“I recall a defining moment of exhaustion that became both my breaking point and my breakthrough. The night I came home after a double shift and cried because I was simply empty. Nothing dramatic had happened. I was just exhausted in every way — physically, emotionally, spiritually.
“Later, postpartum, I experienced another layer of disconnection. I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise myself. I had lost my identity.
“The book is deeply personal because I lived every chapter before I wrote it.”
The 34-year-old author emphasised that healing is rooted in everyday habits rather than extremes.
“It’s not green juice for every meal or waking up at 5am to meditate for an hour that makes the difference. It’s small, intentional rituals such as drinking warm lemon water before coffee, journalling one honest sentence at night, turning your phone off 30 minutes earlier and saying ‘no’ without guilt.
“The book outlines five pillars: Nourish, Hydrate, Move, Rest and Reflect.”
Its themes tap into a broader movement among healthcare professionals who argue that long-term health outcomes are shaped as much by lifestyle rhythms and emotional resilience as by medical intervention.
She calls on overwhelmed readers to remember: “Your body is not your enemy, it is your messenger… Healing begins when you stop treating yourself like a problem to fix and start treating yourself like someone to care for.”
Cass said the North East shaped her both personally and professionally, describing the launch as “not just a book event but a wellness conversation for our community.”
She added that while the message is rooted locally, the pressures it addresses are universal and hopes the book helps redefine self-care as “survival, not selfishness.
“You are not broken. You are overwhelmed. And that can be healed.”
Event Details
The book launch and accompanying wellness event will take place at Crowne Plaza Newcastle from 5:30pm to 8:00pm, with women from across the North East invited to attend.
Organisers say the evening is designed as both a celebration and a conversation around burnout, recovery and sustainable wellbeing.
The event is being held in collaboration with Mind (Tyneside and Northumberland).
Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-wellness-experience-and-book-launching-event-tickets-1982673152772?aff=oddtdtcreator
