😮💨 5 Ways To Navigate Burnout
One of them is to put your legs up in the air
Burnout
/ˈbərnaʊt/
noun.
Burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job. - World Health Organisation
Unenergised, demotivated, unfulfilled.
I would say these are the three key emotions that would sum up how one might experience a ‘burnout’, in a way that is much deeper than a general sense of tiredness or physical / mental fatigue.
Last week, I attended a workshop on - you guessed it! - navigating burnout and becoming more resilient to it. For this week’s Matcha Monday, I’m compiling a list of takeaways I gathered from this session and my little personal takes on each. None of these were hailed to be ‘the one’ to fix everything, but rather, different strategies that can help us find our feet again.
Matcha Musings 🍵
1️⃣ BREATHE IN. BREATHE OUT. Taking three deep breaths throughout the day (whenever you remember) is a mini, effortless reset you can do for your mind and body.
My personal take: Some people might be skeptical, but I actually love this because whilst it doesn’t solve my problem, it gives me a moment of calm & clarity, even if for a brief moment. I actually took a course on breath-work a few years back, and I’ll admit I would need to bring up my notes again to remember the principles, but I do recall feeling very good after it. And that speaks for itself. Also, it’s so easy to do. If you’re reading this, do it now :).
2️⃣ Create a better AM and PM routine. The way you start and end your day drastically influences how you show up for it.
My personal take: Love this one, not that I do it myself LOL. But here’s what I’m trying to do at the start of each morning before I pick up any form of technology (writing it down to keep myself accountable):
drink a cup of warm water,
stretch/move the body, go for a brisk 10 minute walk in the morning sun,
be present for five mins
I’m always rushing in the morning so let me try this for a month and see how I feel !! I challenge you to join me, or create your own and we can do it together 😛. It can’t be that hard… right? :|
3️⃣ Celebrate small wins (HIGH FIVES)
My personal take: It’s easy to overlook small wins when there seems to be much bigger problems at stake. I thought this was a nice reminder to give ourselves (and others) a little boost throughout the day - anything from celebrating having a good hair day to finally giving that presentation you’ve been nervous about for weeks. I put high five in brackets there because the speaker was kinda like: “If you can physically celebrate the win and spread the good energy, why not?” So, that day I was high five-ing and fist bumping everybody whenever I heard good news 😆
4️⃣ Perspective shifting from “I have to'“ to “I get to”
My personal take: Some of you may remember I touched on this briefly in my I ran a marathon post. In that post, I talk about shifting my perspective from ‘running is really painful’ to ‘I love the challenge ahahhaha my body loves it I swear’. And it actually kinda worked.
In a similar vein, sometimes a simple switch in our mindset from thinking: we have to do something, to: we get to do it, is just the jumpstart we need to do it. Again, this doesn’t solve the problem, but it changes the approach we take to tackle it.
Here’s a practical example of this application in real life:
5️⃣ Put your legs up against the wall for 15 minutes
Bit of a wacky fun one - I do not have a personal take because I have not tried this LOL. The speaker said word for word that her body feels completely new every time and that this one exercise changed her life.
So, what are the benefits exactly? After a whole day of being upright, putting your legs up against the wall allows the blood to travel out of your feet and reverse the energy flow into other areas. Beyond physical benefits like reduced swelling, improved circulation and digestion etc., it also helps relieve tension and stress. You can read more about it here.
I liked the way another podcaster / blogger talked about this topic and categorised his strategies into hardware and software tweaks.
The first two points (and the last one, too, I suppose) are broadly hardware tweaks. Things that we can physically do to help us through times of demotivation or stress. Other things like getting decent sleep or exercise fall into this category too, and whilst they may seem basic, it all contributes massively to mood, energy and motivation.
The third and fourth points are software tweaks. Habits that we can internally create within ourselves to approach stressors in a healthier manner. Celebrating small wins gives us a moment to appreciate what we have been able to achieve, no matter how messy things get. Approaching tasks with a “I get to” rather than a “I have to” mindset encourages autonomy and drives intrinsic motivation.
No matter how much we do or how many of these ‘strategies’ we take on though, life will always hit us with curveballs we don’t expect. We will always have phases of increased fatigue, and I think it’s totally okay to acknowledge that and - this sounds weird but - sit in that feeling of being a little more stressed than usual. What’s important is that we don’t let it linger for too long, and to actually find ways to adapt to it. That’s resilience in a nutshell - and humans are a lot more resilient than we give ourselves credit for :).
Hopefully, you took away something valuable in this week’s Matcha newsletter! I challenge you to think about what hardware and/or software tweaks you can implement in your own life 😎
Stay warm and cosy friends, and have a great week!
Matcha love,
Ange