Grace Over Grind: Why Hustle Culture is Hurting Your Health (Especially Your Adrenal System)
What is Hustle Culture?
Today, I’m tackling quite a topic. Hustle culture has taken over the world, and when it comes to your health, it’s doing more harm than good. We need to talk about how to live in a world that craves efficiency, success, and overworking. Hustling is built into the structure of our entire society, and without this conversation, we will inevitably be swept downstream with the rest of the culture.
As someone pursuing a healthy lifestyle, how do you view hustle culture? How do you interact with it? Quite frankly, how can you co-exist with it without it taking your peace, your health, and your balance in life? Let’s talk about what hustle culture is, why it’s bad for you, and how you can take practical steps to say “no” to it.
Hustle culture is more than just a physical issue—it is an issue of the heart. Honestly, hustle culture is generally accepted as a negative thing in society. There are countless articles about its damaging effects on humans. But addressing this topic purely from a physical or mental perspective doesn’t go deep enough.
So, what is hustle culture?
Hustle culture is generally defined as:
And that’s what it is on the surface. What we don’t talk about enough is what hustle culture does on a soul level. At its core, hustle culture is built upon the unhealthy belief that identity, purpose, and productivity are based on how much you accomplish. The heart of hustle culture says:
“Without excess achievement, I’m not okay—socially, financially, or personally.”
I know that reading those definitions already has your alarm bells going off. Most of us know that placing our worth and identity in work isn’t good for us. But we need to tackle this issue a little further. Are you with me? Let’s go.
Your Body Wasn’t Made to Hustle
That’s right. Your body was not made to hustle—at least, not all the time. Hustle culture keeps the body in an almost constant state of stress. The human body was designed to handle short bursts of extra stress (hello, adrenal system!), but the chronic stress that hustle culture promotes undermines the body's natural design.
Now, let’s talk about the adrenal system for a moment.
When discussing the bodily effects of hustle culture, the adrenal system is the star player. It is designed to help us process and handle stress. When the body senses stress, the adrenal glands release cortisol to help us respond. Then, the adrenal system is responsible for bringing the body back to homeostasis. However, when the body is under constant stress, the adrenal system begins to malfunction.
Here’s what that process looks like:
The Alarm Stage – Symptoms include anxiety, panic attacks, and insomnia. This occurs when you’ve just begun staying in a prolonged state of stress.
The Resistance Stage – At this point, you may experience low DHEA hormone levels. DHEA and cortisol work together to maintain balance, so when cortisol remains high for too long, DHEA becomes depleted. As a result, cortisol stays elevated, and your body’s balance mechanisms begin to break down.
The Exhaustion Stage – Symptoms include difficulty falling asleep and waking up, overall exhaustion, sugar and salt cravings, weight gain, brain fog, and poor digestion.
Considering the effects of high stress (or hustle culture) on the body, it’s clear that we were not designed to sustain this level of stress long-term.
So, how can you be proactive in saying no to hustle culture? Great question—and one I’d love to answer.
5 Practical Steps to Say No to Hustling
1. Set your phone on airplane mode two hours before bed.
When you read this, do you instantly panic? What if someone needs to reach me? What if, what if, what if? This is a sign that your stress response needs some love. Turn that phone off two hours before bed, be present with the people around you, and trust that everything (and everyone) will be taken care of. (And that it doesn’t all depend on you.)
2. Choose a day of the week for pure rest.
Maybe this sounds impossible. You have kids with crazy schedules, or you work so much that weekends are your only time to catch up. But humanity has been practicing a day of rest for all of history.
In the Christian tradition, we understand the concept of sabbath—a practice that has been around since God created the world. If you make rest a priority, I know you’ll find ways to make it work. If it feels too impossible, start with one afternoon of rest per month and gradually increase it as you build the habit into your schedule.
3. Eat three meals a day while sitting undistracted.
This might sound overly simple, but think about it—when was the last time you sat and ate a meal without scrolling on your phone, driving to an event, or cleaning the kitchen? Sitting and eating in a calm state signals safety to your body. Try it and see how it feels!
4. Take three five-minute breaks throughout your day.
I got this idea from Sarah Therese, a YouTube creator who inspires me. Split your day into three segments—morning (7 AM–12 PM), afternoon (1 PM–4 PM), and evening (5 PM–7 PM). Set an alarm during each segment and take deep breaths, pray, drink some water, and sit in the sunshine. No phone, no distractions (that are within your control). Just sit, recenter, and remind yourself that the Lord is caring for you.
5. Prioritize your water and electrolyte intake.
Are you rolling your eyes? Maybe. But we all know we could drink more water. What’s less commonly known is that balancing electrolytes is just as important. Find an electrolyte supplement with clean, real-food ingredients. One of my favorites is Just Ingredients—I love their raspberry lemonade flavor. It’s delicious, and I feel so good drinking it!
You can do this. I know you can. Today can be the day you start bringing more balance into your life by saying no to hustle culture.
I want to hear from you! Visit my Instagram page and comment on the post about this article. Tell me one way you’re choosing to say no to hustle culture this month.
