Are you experiencing burnout?
Are you experiencing weeks of feeling stuck, confused, drained, driving myself up the wall with plans and timelines and deadlinesuntil they all came tumbling down?
There is always more for us to do, to accomplish, to obtain, before we could consider giving up. We end up feeling mentally exhausted, drained, and continually questioning everything we’re doing and it’s impact.
But why though? Let’s dig deeper.
Why do we resist resting so much?
I went for days without getting a satisfactory answer to the question. The obvious ones were:
– we are over stimulated
– juggling too many tasks/goals
– external pressures and deadlines
– society’s expectations and norms
But it wasn’t it. The further I sat down with the question I realised that 3 things were happening simultaneously and they were all interlinked:
- Being “mindlessly busy” day in and day out. We spend most of our days being mindlessly busy flitting from one task to another. We have no clarity why we are doing what we are doing or it’s possible impact.
- Dismissing our being and pretending we can compartmentalise issues. We believe work is work and personal life is personal. But we are not machines. We are human beings. We can’t afford to keep the foot on the gas pedal at the same intensity on the work front if something is impacting us personally. We cannot compartmentalise emotions and stressors and shun it a corner to pretend all is well. We need to pause and process, before we can move on.
- The notion that we must deserve rest. We believe that rest must be earned. It needs to be deserved. We need to get somewhere, become something, have a meaningful impact before I\we “deserved” to rest. This came from a belief that we are not enough. We are enough only if we did certain things or achieved certain things. But that’s not true.
Resting is as important as doing. Resting is the time when we reflect and integrate the lessons learned from our doing. Resting is what helps us re-assess, re-calibrate, and re-align what we do daily and make our efforts more meaningful and impactful.
To know if you’re experiencing burnout and whether you need to rest, ask yourself:
- What are your energy levels at the start and end of the day? Are they your best? Or is something impacting your energy levels
- Do you enjoy doing the things you love?
- Do you get emotionally trigged more often than normal? What are the triggers?
- What are the thoughts draining you of your energy?
- Are you dreaming more often? What kind of dreams are you having? If it’s more restless and anxiety-driven, signs are you need to pause and reflect.
- How present are you in your interactions with others, relationships and conversations?
Burnout is a symptom of a misalignment between our beliefs/value systems, feelings, and actions. Unless we identify the root cause of burnout, addressing the symptoms would be like putting a band aid on a gaping wound.
Practices like journaling, reflection, and meditation can help us draw patterns, understand our triggers, and narrow down the root cause of burnout. So along with mindfulness practices, adopt reflection and journaling to look within and identify the root cause before going into solutioning.