Dr. Arelia Johnson on Burnout, Boundaries, and the Cost of Constant Availability
Black women are often praised for being resilient, dependable, and capable of carrying extraordinary responsibilities. But Dr. Arelia Johnson encourages people to look more closely at what that praise can conceal. As a nationally recognized strategist, scholar-practitioner, and public servant, Dr. Johnson has spent nearly three decades engaged in community organizing and nearly two decades…
Black News 
Black women are often praised for being resilient, dependable, and capable of carrying extraordinary responsibilities. But Dr. Arelia Johnson encourages people to look more closely at what that praise can conceal.
As a nationally recognized strategist, scholar-practitioner, and public servant, Dr. Johnson has spent nearly three decades engaged in community organizing and nearly two decades facilitating leadership development. Her work examines how systems, language, and cultural expectations shape the lives of individuals and communities.
The founder of Arelia Johnson, LLC, Dr. Johnson created Joy Is Strategy
and Language Matters by Arelia Johnson to help organizations and leaders approach justice, leadership, and transformation with greater clarity. Her experience includes serving as Harris County’s first Chief Equity Officer and designing collaborative structures that bring communities and institutions together.
Through her work, Dr. Johnson makes space for a difficult but necessary conversation: what happens when dependability becomes an expectation, and when strength requires Black women to sacrifice their mental health and well-being?
What does burnout look like for Black women who are often expected to be resilient, dependable, and constantly available?
Dr. Arelia Johnson: This is a complicated question that deserves nuance. Black women are consciously aware of what I’d call a triple consciousness. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about double consciousness, the way the world views Black folks and how Black folks then come to view themselves through that same lens. Black women carry an additional layer. They have to navigate both racialized space and gendered space simultaneously, which means constantly mapping how perception- racial and gendered- is going to affect their standing and their productivity.
For Black women, burnout looks like being constantly available. It looks like overperforming and normalized overachievement. It looks like protecting themselves from the compounded weight of both race and gender bias by positioning themselves as indispensable.
Dependability, for Black women, is something inherited rather than chosen. She has to show up in spaces in a way that reads as non-threatening. She has to sacrifice her mental health, her psychological safety, and her well-being in order to be seen as a valuable asset to an organization, whether that organization sits in the private or public sector. That sacrifice is often invisible, and that invisibility is precisely what makes it burnout rather than simply hard work.
Do you believe in work-life balance? If so, how do you maintain it?
Dr. Arelia Johnson: I have to be honest; I don’t know if I even believe in the term work-life balance anymore. What I have done is decide to prioritize myself. I have made the decision that I have to come first in every situation, meaning that whatever I commit to has to actually benefit me.
I am no longer subscribing to situations that exploit my talents, my education, or my expertise. Either we are in a mutually beneficial relationship, or I am walking away with my dignity intact.
Prioritizing myself has meant committing to things that are in alignment with my passion, my purpose, my skills, and my expertise. I no longer engage in things that don’t benefit me as a whole human being. I don’t know if that’s work-life balance in the traditional sense, or if it’s simply self-prioritization.
But in prioritizing myself, I have made room to be present with my family, present with my friends, and present in my community.
What is one boundary every professional should consider setting?
Dr. Arelia Johnson: Time. When you are at work, you are at work. When you are done, you are done for the day. If your shift runs from seven to three, start at seven and stop at three.
Do not take work home with you, whether that means physically bringing tasks home or carrying the emotional weight of the day with you. Separate what happens in your professional setting from what happens in your personal life and hold that line for real.
I’d add two more things. First, “no” is a complete answer. It doesn’t require justification or apology. Second, document everything. Always cover yourself accordingly.
What is one reminder you want to give Black women who are feeling overwhelmed?
Dr. Arelia Johnson: You are enough. Everything already inside you is waiting on you to activate it, to align with what you have been called and designed to do. You are smart enough, brave enough, courageous enough, joyful enough, happy enough. You are enough.
You are the thing you’ve been waiting on. You get to define the standard, not live up to someone else’s. You are everything you believe yourself to be, and you are an unrepeatable gift to history.
The laundry can wait. The dishes can wait. It’s okay that you ate a sandwich for dinner instead of cooking a three-course meal. It’s okay that you decided to just lie in bed, breathe, and be still. That is okay too.
It is okay to rest, to restore, and to recenter yourself. And it is okay to know, all the way down, that you are enough.
How can our readers connect with you?
Dr. Arelia Johnson:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/areliajohnsonphd?stkn=M2czdmszYnVpN3Fo
