How to Avoid Burnout

Feeling burnt out is something we have all experienced. Whether it’s questioning your ability to continue to pursue a dream you’ve been working on, or feeling emotionally drained. This feeling is created when we are stuck in a feeling for too long, therefore, leading us to feel drained. “Stuck in a feeling” means you have an emotion inside of your body (emotions live in the body!) that has not yet released itself. Luckily there are ways to avoid burnout and prolong your work ethic. Let’s get into some of these “hacks” to shield against burnout.

shake it off (literally):

Whenever you feel emotions building up inside of your body do this one exercise to complete the stress cycle. Laying down or standing up, breathe in, clinch all of the muscles in your body, from your nose to your feet, and hold for a few seconds then let a giant exhale. So the next time you get frustrated with work at your desk, use this exercise to reset. Incorporating little actions like this one will help to release emotions as they come up, instead of pushing them aside.

Are you listening to your body?

When we get busy, it is easy to drift away in the noise and lose the connection with our inner voice. Your body is constantly telling you its needs. From “I am hungry” or “I need sleep” these mental cues are important to listen to. The moment you start ignoring them or ‘overriding’ the system, is the moment you lose sight of self-care. Don’t wait until you feel burnt out to begin to listen to your body. Each day, give yourself little check-ins. Ask yourself, what do I need at this moment? Is there any emotion that needs to be released?

Self-care

We have, unfortunately, been programmed to be ‘human givers’. Especially as Women, we have an unspoken expectation to look the best, do the best, and after all of that, give the most we can. You might be a people pleaser without even releasing it. Men can also 100% struggle with people-pleasing or being “the nice guy.” You are a human BEING, and you should focus on giving as much attention to yourself as you do to others. The more you fill up your cup, the more energy you will have to give others. Helping others is NOT the problem. The problem is having no boundaries. It is okay to put yourself first. Constantly putting other people’s needs before our own can easily lead to a major drain of energy.

Where is your energy going towards?

Put your energy towards what you are passionate about. It will change your life. Energy draining tasks, or even people, can zap the life right out of you. There are some things in life that we have no choice but to suck it up and do. I didn’t love Algebra, yet I still had to spend hours in high school doing painful math problems every night (glad that’s over!). If you are not able to do your passion full time then at least make it a priority in your life. Your passion will give you energy and make you feel more alive! Start the day out by doing something that makes you excited and energized. Whether that be writing for 10 minutes before school or filming a YouTube video before work. You have to get started somewhere right? Don’t wait for your dream life to come to you, create it now.

My personal experience with burnout

Okay, time to get personal. I want to share with you a recent time in my life where I felt extremely burnt out, emotionally drained, and just over it all. I don’t give advice because I think I am some spiritual guru who can heal the planet, I do because I have genuinely struggled with these things and want to share what I have learned with people who might understand. The one positive aspect of struggle and pain is there is always a lesson at the end. Around February, I woke up one day feeling hopeless. I had let the negative thoughts entirely run the ship. I usually can keep the ‘negative thoughts’ at ease, but not that day. I had this outlook on my life that was so rooted in lack, hopelessness, and fear. I felt like I was working so hard towards my goals and not seeing any payoff. I am an extremely hard worker but often it gets in the way of me ever feeling satisfied with what I have achieved. I tend to drive myself towards a wall at full speed and never feel like I have truly reached where I want to be. That is an odd analogy but that’s what it feels like. I was on the phone with my mom hysterically crying. I felt like I could not physically manage the stress of college and my job in social media. My once passion was not giving me any joy because I was so focused on the outcome. I was convinced I could not get out of bed that day. My mom convinced me to get myself dressed and go to a coffee shop. I ended up finding a coffee shop/ book store about 20 minutes away from me. Was I okay? Not at all. I still felt drained and ‘numb’ to feeling any emotion, BUT I did show up for myself and get out of my apartment. Sometimes that’s all we can do. Break down, go get coffee, and try again the next day. This quarter I have made a promise to myself to work on self-love every day and never let myself think such negative things about myself or my life. Continuing to implement gratitude, self-care, and mindfulness in my day has helped me. Also, keeping the mindset of working towards things out of love and passion. Not depending on the outcome or external validation for happiness. We all have bad days, but it is what we do to help turn it around that counts.