When rest is not enough: Energy activation for burnt-out South Africans -

International transformational facilitator Irena Kovaljukova brings her Safe Energy Activation work to South Africa this September, with sessions across Johannesburg, Pretoria, Centurion, Cape Town, Hout Bay and the Garden Route.

Johannesburg, South Africa – August 2026: For many South Africans, burnout no longer looks like complete collapse. It looks like functioning while exhausted.

You go to work. You answer the messages. You meet the deadlines. You keep showing up for everyone around you. Yet underneath the productivity sits a persistent exhaustion that a good night’s sleep, a weekend away or another attempt at “self-care” does not seem to touch.

What happens when rest is no longer enough?

This is the conversation at the centre of international transformational facilitator Irena Kovaljukova’s first South African tour, taking place this September, as she brings her Safe Energy Activation (SEA) work to studios and wellness spaces around the country.

Kovaljukova’s work explores what can happen when people are given an opportunity to move away from the constant thinking, performing and responding of everyday life and instead bring their attention back to the body, breath, sensation and internal experience.

The kind of tiredness sleep does not fix

Burnout can be remarkably functional.

People continue working, parenting, socialising and getting things done, while feeling increasingly depleted, mentally overloaded or disconnected from themselves.

For Kovaljukova, this is an important distinction.

“We have become incredibly good at functioning,” she says. “We work, take care of people, meet deadlines and keep moving. But being able to function does not necessarily mean that we feel connected, energised or fulfilled.”

Before moving into transformational work, Kovaljukova built an international corporate career, holding senior leadership positions and managing teams of more than 200 people.

Despite outward professional success, she began experiencing an increasing sense of internal disconnection — eventually leading her into years of studying human behaviour, body awareness, consciousness, emotional patterns and energetic practices.

Today, after more than five years of professional facilitation and thousands of individual experiences, her work centres on helping people create space to slow down and reconnect with what may have been drowned out by the demands of everyday life.

What happens during an energy activation session?

Safe Energy Activation is a facilitated, body-based wellbeing experience.

During a group session, participants lie comfortably while music forms part of the experience and Kovaljukova facilitates the room, working individually with participants throughout the session.

There is no sequence of yoga poses to follow, no requirement to know how to meditate and no previous experience of energy work is necessary.

Instead, participants are encouraged to relax and notice what arises naturally.

Some people may remain completely still. Others may notice shifts in breathing, sensations of warmth or tingling, spontaneous stretching or gentle movement. Emotion may surface. Others may simply experience an unusual depth of stillness or relaxation.

There is no particular response participants are expected to produce.

“Your body may move. Your emotions may surface. You may experience profound stillness. You may notice sensations you would normally pass over,” says Kovaljukova. “There is no performance and there is no right experience.”

Creating space instead of simply pushing through

The South African tour comes at a time when conversations around burnout are beginning to move beyond simply telling exhausted people to get more sleep, take a holiday or become better at managing their time.

For people who have spent months — or years — operating under sustained pressure, even slowing down can feel difficult.

Kovaljukova’s sessions create a defined period in which there is nothing to achieve, produce or perform.

Her approach is not positioned as a medical or psychological treatment for burnout, anxiety or any other health condition. Rather, it is a facilitated wellbeing practice intended to create an opportunity for participants to slow down, direct attention inward and become more aware of their physical and emotional experience.

For South Africans who have spent much of the year running on empty, perhaps the starting point is not another strategy for doing more.

Perhaps it is creating enough space to notice what has been happening while you have been busy getting everything done.

Irena Kovaljukova South Africa tour – September 2026

Group sessions: R1,350 per person
A 50% deposit is required to secure a booking.

Johannesburg

Attune Studio – North Riding
7, 10 and 13 September 2026
Morning and afternoon sessions
282A Honeydew Road West, North Riding AH, Johannesburg

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Alchemy Studio – Dunkeld West
7, 9, 10, 12 and 13 September 2026
Morning, afternoon and evening sessions
First Floor, Dunkeld West Shopping Centre, Johannesburg

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Fairlawns Boutique – Sandton
9 September 2026
One outdoor session
1 Alma Road, Morningside, Sandton

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Pretoria East

Yoga Connection – Brooklyn
8 and 11 September 2026
Morning, afternoon and evening sessions
Unit 1, 243 Brooks Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria East

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Centurion

Women’s Wellness Centre – InsideOut Village
8 and 12 September 2026
Afternoon and evening sessions
InsideOut Village, Rockfields, Centurion

Cape Town

Lighthouse Holistic – Bree Street
14, 15, 16 and 17 September 2026
Morning, afternoon and evening sessions
6th Floor, The Barracks, 50 Bree Street, Roggebaai, Cape Town

Book Lighthouse Holistic sessions