A Survivor’s Story
Nivi’s Corporate Rise
Fresh out of business school, Nivi Jaswal-Wirtjes embraced the life of a corporate foot soldier. Her dedication was rewarded with success and upward mobility as she traveled the world in her work for medical device, food and beverage, media and research companies, and consumer mega- brands.
Nivi was so consumed by her work, she was willing to sacrifice her health to the demands of the job, while the Food Systems Industrial Complex wrapped her in a culture that blinded her to the mounting climate crisis.
Eleven years later, she had grown into a corporate general – large and in charge as an executive managing 28 countries for a multinational consumer goods company.
The punishing lifestyle was breaking her down, but she was bound by the unspoken corporate code. Nivi could only grab fleeting relief in the form of a quick laugh at a comedy clip before pushing herself back into the grind.
To Nivi, rebelling against the status quo way of doing business was inconceivable, much less producing a documentary that would shine a light on what needs to change!
Nivi’s Collapse and Diagnoses
One day, while in Hong Kong on a work trip, Nivi passed out and fell to the floor. When she awoke, her head ached, her eyes hurt, her heart was beating very, very fast, there were a ton of missed messages on her phone, and she had no idea what had happened.
Collapsed on the plush carpet, she had a new view of her luxurious hotel room that she had never seen before. Unable to move, she asked herself, How did I get here?
As she contemplated this question, she also gained a new perspective on her life: she could no longer ignore her health burnout.
Later that week, she received a series of startling diagnoses.
Ironically, all her hard work for wellness brands and medical companies had severely undermined her own health.
Nivi’s Recovery
Realizing it was a matter of life and death, Nivi requested a six-month work sabbatical.
Once free of the “corporate machine”, she was eager to take control of her health. She meditated, read books, watched health documentaries, and became inspired by the Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine.
Following Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. 's protocol, she and her husband both embraced a 100% whole-food, plant-based, oil-free diet, and enjoyed significant benefits within three months.
The result? Nivi completely reversed her medical diagnoses – through lifestyle changes alone!
COVID-19 and Making Larger Connections
Her father’s COVID-19 death broke Nivi’s heart, and revealed a stark contrast with her mother’s health: her mom had made the switch to a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle with Nivi, and had reversed her hypertension, obesity, early arthritis, and enlarged liver before the pandemic hit.
Nivi was starting to see that the Food Systems Industrial Complex itself is burning us out – physically, mentally, emotionally – and burning up the planet alongside us.
Nivi Launches Her Nonprofit
Nivi was now physically healed, but a new sensitivity towards others and Mother Earth helped her recognize that unprecedented climate disasters, the global pandemic, and the resulting socioeconomic uncertainty had formed the “perfect storm” for large-scale personal and planetary burnout.
She wanted to explore how all of this impacted individual mental and physical health, through the lens of dietary preferences, lifestyle attitudes and personal motivations.
Nivi formed the nonprofit The Virsa Foundation Inc., with its JIVINITI Research and Communications Advocacy Program. In partnership with Ipsos Global Affairs, she launched the GAIA Study: the largest U.S. nonprofit consumer research study to investigate burnout, lifestyle and plant-based diets during the pandemic.
With responses from over 14,000 Americans, the study showed that burnout and resiliency are deeply connected with our lifestyle choices and, in particular, our dietary habits. This study was a first step, helping Nivi connect the dots between personal burnout and the Food Systems Industrial Complex.
A Thousand Gentle Nudges
Even more motivated to make a positive difference, Nivi set out to educate and inspire others by creating a hybrid documentary for this hybrid crisis.
In her corporate career, she had been a consumer behavior expert. Her understanding of behavioral science now helped her see that telling people what to do and what to eat rarely works. She also recognized that people perceive the climate emergency as too large a crisis for an ordinary person to influence.
To have a real impact, her documentary would need to be built on “a thousand gentle nudges.” She sought to offer audiences choices around how to develop more agency in their health and their lives – one meal at a time, one day at a time – with ways to begin putting their arms around the seemingly remote and impossible issue of planetary burnout.
The documentary was completed on Nivi’s birthday, December 30, 2024.
Building a Coalition
Nivi is now seeking to form a coalition of open-hearted leaders to help raise awareness of the documentary and the Beyond Burnout movement.
She wants to bring together diverse demographics to facilitate dialogue and reframe the concept of “burnout” as more than an individual or workplace phenomenon – based on our lived experiences, earned wisdom, and the personal voices of everyone involved.
More than a film, Third Degree Burnout – A Survivor’s Guide can be a springboard for change.
Please join the Beyond Burnout Coalition: together we can catalyze a new cultural conversation and help bridge the gap with meaningful action for personal and planetary burnout recovery.
