So, what is burnout? Researchers defined burnout as, “a unique type of stress syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment.”
Burnout is a form of exhaustion caused by constantly feeling swamped. It’s a result of excessive and prolonged emotional, physical, and mental stress. This usually is caused by one’s job and/or repetitive patterns in life. Do you ever feel like you’ve been there? Or maybe you’re struggling to deal with it?
To help you identify a massive burnout, here are stages Seth Simonds established to know how it manifests in your life:
- Shame and doubt
- Helplessness and crisis
- Excessive drive/ambition
- Pushing yourself to work harder
- Neglecting your own needs
- Displacement of conflict (blaming others for the stress you’re under)
- No time for nonwork-related needs
It’s best to identify burnout in the early stages so that you can take preventive measures and get yourself back into a healthier routine for the long term.
Burnout is rampant because of the situation brought by the pandemic. The travel restrictions and physical distancing protocols might be making your struggles feel worse. So, here are some of the home activities to help you deal with burnout better:
Lending A 30-minute Exercise
If you find yourself having a hard time waking up, dragging yourself to work, and making it a repetitive cycle on a daily basis, exercise might prompt you to get active.
One study looking at the effects of physical activity found that it results in “an overall beneficial effect consisting of reduced stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and improved psychological well-being and sleep quality”. This is the same for doing mindful meditations and heart rate variability feedback. And so, it’s best to assert reasons for you to start making a habit of exercising.
Incorporating exercise into your daily routine improves your overall mood. On top of that, it also boosts your physical health to combat different types of diseases. In times where health risks are prevalent in the environment, the best thing to do is to protect yourself with healthy practices such as this.
Getting Adequate Sleep
Reduced stress and anxiety are directly connected to holding off burnout, but don’t underestimate the power of a healthy sleeping habit either. Better quality of sleep can also improve well-being, enhance your focus and memory, and improve your overall mood. These are all key to learning how to avoid burnout.
Perhaps you may use Saturdays to catch up on chores, run errands, or work on professional development. On Sundays, you can feel good about laying in bed for an extra hour as you may. You deserve a rest after all the daily grind at the end of the day.
You can choose whichever schedule works best for you, but either way, you’ll be able to wake up on workdays without feeling restless if you get sufficient sleep. This also helps you to feel recharged and ready to face another day at work which can lead to better productivity.
Catching Up With Friends; Plan A Social Activity
It can be tempting to resist activities in your free time and maybe recluse to catch up with someone especially when you’re dealing with a lot of people constantly. But, investing in relationships is a worthy use of your time.
Fulfilling interactions are key components to overall happiness in life. If you’re in a place without many close friends or you have limited social interactions, even a phone call at home might do the trick to help rejuvenate yourself over the weekend. On top of that, zoom parties have become a helpful way to connect friends and family in the comforts of everyone’s home. All you need is a good internet connection and you can enjoy a fun time away from work.
The point of this exercise is to expand your social horizon and crush the feeling that you’re stuck doing the same things every day. It can also help to have people listen to your frustrations and help you find useful solutions to get back on track.
It is most likely your friends who are feeling the same way as you. So, you can share some reassuring ideas to creatively avoid burnout through their experience. It’s like having a support system that you can count on in times of stress. The best thing is that they can also be your regular those of motivation.
Spend Time Alone, Recharge, and Develop a Hobby
Different “happy places” can either be being curled up in a chair with a book or sitting at a coffee shop to attempt creative writing. Relaxation and leisure come in different shapes and forms. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or unmotivated at work, revisit your happy places to spark inspiration.
If you feel a little adventurous, try learning a new recipe or a new instrument to play, explore creative workouts to do at home, discover DIY ideas, or learn your favorite K-Pop group’s new choreography.
Developing a hobby that uses an entirely different skill set can provide your heart and mind with a satisfying break from the weekly grind and set you on a good path for increased productivity. By finding a new hobby, you don’t only get to keep yourself entertained but you can also learn and improve on yourself without putting in too much work.
Key Takeaway
Acknowledging your burnout is difficult and it takes time to fully realize how detrimental it is to your physical and mental well-being. To be able to face burnout gracefully, you need to find what works for you and understand your situation.
Burnout can happen to anyone. And so, even if your job is enjoyable and stimulating, you may still reach a point where you feel that you aren’t moving forward and feel frustrated with your life. It might be counterproductive to say that “it’s okay”. But in reality, it is a common occurrence in many people’s lives and has been successfully battled by many. All you have to do is raise your chin up and deal with it with mindfulness and motivation.
Self-care can be simple and practiced in a variety of ways. Taking care of yourself over the weekend helps you pour your best efforts into your work week and give you an improved outlook in life. At the end of the day, you only live once, and being defeated by burnout is not the way to live it to the fullest.
