Burnout will affect most of us at some point, and right now it might be affecting you. Find out some of the most obvious and less obvious burnout symptoms and exactly what to do about it.
What is burnout? It’s something that plagues up to 2/3 of us and affects every aspect of our lives when it hits. It can affect your health, it can make you miserable, and it can even make you want to give up. Join Mysticsense to find out what burnout is and why it even happens. Find out the kind of negative things it can cause and what to do about it. How do you recover from burnout, though, especially when you can’t get a break from what is burning you out? Read about our simple techniques to beat burnout and make sure you don’t get burned out again. Burnout might happen, but it doesn’t have to be permanent, and we will help you find ways to beat it!
What’s Burnout?
Psychology Today says that” Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. Though it's most often caused by problems at work, it can also appear in other areas of life, such as parenting, caretaking, or romantic relationships.” Burnout doesn't happen overnight. It takes a while, it can take days, weeks, months, or even years before it catches up with you. You might not even realize it's happening, because you're so busy trying to tend to your responsibilities.
It happens when we feel overwhelmed. It can make you feel physically and emotionally exhausted, sap your motivation, and make you just not care anymore. Some people say burnout has signs that are like the signs of depression, but there is a difference. If you get time away from what's making you feel burned out, you feel better. Depression isn’t necessarily helped that easily and depression is a medical condition whereas burnout is not. Burnout can come from being overloaded, being under challenged and bored, feeling neglected and helpless, or burnout can just be from chronic stress. They say about 2/3 of people in the world will experience burnout at least one time or another Find out more about what Psychology Today has to say about burnout here: Burnout | Psychology Today
Why Does Burnout Happen?
Burnout is caused by long-term stress. It can happen because you're being overworked or mistreated on the job. It can happen because you don't have a good work life balance, and you don't get enough time away from the job. It can happen because you feel like you are stuck in a meaningless cycle, and you would rather be doing something else in life. It can happen because you take on too much and don't ask for help. It can also happen because you're a perfectionist and you do it to yourself.
You might be the only person in your family that takes care of people properly. When people constantly need you, then you can find yourself neglecting your own needs and that will create burnout. It can happen because you don't get enough sleep, don't eat properly, or don't get the right amount of exercise. It can happen when you don't have enough good relationships in your life, and you don't have the emotional support that you need. It can also happen when you're stuck doing something that exhausts you all the time and you don't get enough time for rest, relaxation, or to go and do things that you enjoy. Read about how to find the path to happiness here: The Path to Happiness
What Does Burnout Cause?
Burnout doesn't cause anything good. It causes bad things. It causes you to be miserable emotionally. It can cause you to have a negative outlook on life and lose hope that the future will be better. It can cause you to become so used to the overwhelming stress that you don't realize that it's going on. It can make you eat to soothe your emotions, and therefore eat all the least healthy foods, or it can make you lose your appetite and not eat enough at all. It can make you have emotional meltdowns, or it can make you emotionally withdraw and not communicate with people about what's going on.
Burnout causes physical problems too. It can make your blood pressure rise, which can jeopardize your cardiovascular health and shorten your lifespan. It can compromise your immune system and make you get sick more often, stay sick longer, and that can run your body down. It can give you nightmares, and burnout can keep you from sleeping. It can even exhaust you so much that you want to sleep all the time. All of these physical and emotional problems that burnout creates can raise your risk of an early death. Read some tips on how to relax and unwind here: Rest and Recharge Your Body, Mind, and Spirit
Signs of Burnout
The signs of burnout might surprise you. Some signs like headaches and reduced productivity at work are a little more obvious, however some signs of burnout are unexpected. You may find yourself feeling ashamed of lack of progress, and you might daydream about being somebody else.
Headaches and Muscle Tension
Signs that you are burned out include muscle tension and headaches. Your shoulders and neck can tense up because you can be holding your muscles rigid from all of the stress that burnout causes. These tense muscles will start to hurt if you don't relax soon. Neck and shoulder pain can create pain that can go from the base of your skull all the way down your spine, and it can give you headaches.
Trouble Sleeping
Burnout exhausts you, and you would think that it would make you want to sleep more, right? Well, it can actually make you lose sleep. When you're exceptionally worried about things that are stressing you, you might stay up all night thinking about the things that you worry about instead of resting and sleeping. Read about spiritual dream interpretation here: How to Interpret Dreams Spiritually
Self-Neglect
When you're burned out, you quite often neglect your physical and emotional needs. You'll be too busy tending to whatever is stressing you to take care of yourself properly. Instead of cooking healthy food for yourself you may find yourself eating out of boxes, cans, bags, and vending machines as you run to the next task. You will also ignore your body's warning signs to stop and rest if you feel like you don't have time for yourself.
Your Relationships Suffer
Emotional stress can make you irritable. It can also make you emotionally unavailable even if you're in the room with someone. You might become short tempered when you're burned out and say things that hurt people's feelings. You might stop talking to people because you're too pressed for time to take care of whatever has you burned out. When you are not emotionally present in your relationships, people might think that you don't want to be involved with them. Read about using boundaries to improve relationships here: Setting Boundaries in Your Life and Relationships
Reduced Productivity
You would think that working longer hours means you get more accomplished, but that's not necessarily the case. When you're burned out and exhausted, you're less capable than when you're well rested. Your ability to concentrate is compromised, and that means that you won't be able to come up with ideas and solutions as easily as when you're not burned out. You make more mistakes and get less done when you are burned out.
You Question the Meaning of Life
When you're burned out it can give you a dismal outlook on life. It can make you question what life is all about. It can also make you feel like your life is meaningless. For a lot of people, life is about enjoyment, and when you're burned out you don't get a lot of enjoyment out of life. You may wonder why you bother to get out of bed in the morning and why you bother to do anything at all when you're burned out. Read about the meaning of life here: What is the Meaning of Life
You Feel Ashamed of Your Progress
When you're burned out, especially if you are what they call a “workaholic," your decreased productivity levels can make you feel like you're not getting as much accomplished as you want to. Most especially if you're working very very hard, and there doesn't seem to be much progress, you can feel bad about yourself when you're burned out.
You Want to Be Someone Else
Being burned out can make you hate your life and think that you would be better off if you were somebody else. This can especially be true when you see other people who have the kind of life that you wish you had. If you feel this way, know that you don’t have to be somebody else. You can change your own life for the better and you can find out how here: How to Make Positive Changes
You Want to Give Up
Burnout can stress and exhaust you to the point that you just want to give up. This can be most especially true when you have worked very hard, and it doesn't feel like your hard work is paying off. You might need to give up what is stressing you and burning you out, but that doesn't mean that you have to give up everything. Every morning when you wake up, you have a chance to make good decisions and do good things, so go ahead and give up the things that are making you feel burned out, but don't give up on making a better life for yourself.
How to Recover from Burnout
Recovering from burnout can be achieved with one decision- to make the burnout stop. You can recover and keep from being burned out again. There are four simple ways to combat burnout, but not all of these ways work in every situation. Sometimes all you have to do is take a break and the burnout goes away. Sometimes you can quit the situation that is causing the burnout. Other times you can ask for some help and the burnout goes away. Then, there are times that you can't do any of these things, but you can plan for the future.
Take a Break
When you're feeling tired, overwhelmed, and burned out, take a break from whatever it is that's burning you out. Sometimes you just need a few minutes to take a breather, but other times she needed vacation. Other times you need a longer break, more like a sabbatical. The good thing about taking a break is it helps you to shift your focus away from whatever is burning you out and focus on something else. Sometimes being away from something is the only thing that you need to make burnout go away. So, take a break.
Quit
Other times, a break isn't going to get it, and you need to completely step away from a situation forever. So go ahead and quit. You can't necessarily quit working today, but you can get another job. You can't quit taking care of your kids, but you can quit taking their disrespect. You can't necessarily quit having a roommate, but you can quit doing all the housework and make your messy roommate pick up their share. Quitting is sometimes the best thing that you can do for yourself and it's what needs to happen when you have grown past an experience. There is only one way to move in life- forward. Find out how here: Move Forward or Get Back Together With Someone?
Get Help
Sometimes you can't take a break, and quitting isn't an option. So, reach out to people and get some help. If you are the only one doing cleanup in the community garden and it's too much, recruit the help of other volunteers. If you are a middle manager, and your workload is too heavy, delegate some tasks to employees who have been asking you to teach them how to do things. If the housework is overwhelming you, pay the kids an allowance in exchange for them doing chores. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we have to do everything, but that's not true. Most of the time we can get help, so ask.
Make Plans
Maybe you can’t get a break or quit what’s burning you out today- but someday you can. In the meantime, make plans to do just that. If the new house you bought is too expensive and just too much yard work, then work with a realtor to sell it. If you can’t quit your dead-end job today, start looking for a new one, and in time you can. If you’re a single parent and the kids are a handful, make plans to get your family to pitch in and help when they have time in a few months. We can’t escape from the things in our lives, and we can’t always make quick changes, but in time we can. Just hang in there and make plans until you can combat the burnout. Find out how to manifest success is love and your career here: Manifesting Your Destiny with Love and Careers
When burnout hits, it can hit hard. It can make you feel helpless and leave you cursing the fate that brought you to the situation that burned you out. Don’t think that all is lost, though. Knowing signs of burnout is important and it’s not the only step to combating it. Taking a break, quitting when it’s time, reaching out for help, and making plans to change things in the near future when you can’t make changes immediately are surefire ways to recover from burnout. May you never be burned out, but if you are, you can beat it. Yes you can!
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