About a month ago, I sat on the floor and began crying and my dog was there licking at my tears. I think he thought I was playing? It was a sad site. Months had gone by of feeling like I could never do enough at my job. My motivation was low and I didn't know how to fix it. I kept blaming myself for feeling like I couldn't accomplish what I knew I could accomplish. I was exhausted mentally and emotionally. It was 10am and I had already reached my capacity for the day. I realized my mental state had me paralyzed, and I could not work diligently. I didn't know how long I needed to recover, so I just took off the rest of the week. I was BURNT OUT.
When I was suffering from burnout, I didn't even realize there was a problem until I had hit rock bottom mentally. It was a sudden realization that I had been spinning my wheels for months. My boss was asking more of me, and I wanted to help, AND MORE. It wasn't enough for me to just do what was asked of me. That's what so many of us do. This is a beautifully written article, Recovering from burnout, that helped me recognize the symptoms of burnout. "The best definition of burnout I've come across is a chronic state of being out of sync with one or more aspects of your life." And then the light bulb went off.
One of the major causes of burnout is an imbalance in values conflict, lack of control, work overload, insufficient reward, and unfairness. It doesn't always relate to simply being overworked. For me, the answer was to pursue a career that I am passionate about, while simultaneously maintaining a healthy lifestyle and encourage overall well-being of our collective humanity.
Yoga and meditation can be a preventative action and also can be a cure from burnout. An article in the Yoga Journal offers these 5 poses to overcome burnout. This includes crescent lunge, a yogi squat, standing forward fold, cat/cow, and child's pose. Meditation is also effective in preventing and curing burnout. One of the easiest ways to begin meditation if you are new to it, is to focus on the breath. If you need a quick break and need to quickly press the reset button, you can listen to one of these breathing exercises below. Meditation and breathing exercises have many long term benefits and can assist you on your journey to recover from burnout.
In closure, I'll leave you with this. Burnout is a very real, very hard thing to work through and come back from. It has take some folks months or even years to come back from severe burnout. If you feel as though you are currently battling against burnout, don't wait. Address it immediately. And if you need a helping hand to help with your journey back to you being you, there are so many resources out there for you to apply to your practice. Wishing you peace, love, and health.
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