What leads to burn out? Let’s start with the concept of perfect health and wellbeing and how stress wears that down over a lifetime. Our bodies have to cope daily with multiple internal and external variables that either contribute or erode health and wellbeing.
First, imagine your prefect body, each cell at its healthiest, thriving and growing when you are born. Now imagine this being eroded over a lifetime at the cellular level with internal and external factors.
Internal Factors
The internal psychological factors can be early childhood trauma, attachment issues or lack of unconditional love which may lead to the beliefs that you are not important, loved and worthy. Imagine every cell in your body listening to these negative messages, anxiety creeping in, building up over the years disrupting the natural balance of growth by the impact of negative emotions such as hurt, sadness, anger or guilt. To this, add the physical things you put in your body such as junk food laden with sugar and chemicals, plastic through food packaging, smoking, alcohol, or drugs.
External Factors
Then there are the external factors. Relationships, school, work, traffic, pollution and climate change. Remember, every cell in your body is responding and being corroded by all this toxic matter.
Now imagine what might have happened to your perfect body and every cell in it. No wonder that illness, tiredness, anxiety now have crept in. For some people, it happens much quicker while for others it is a slow burnout.
How do you know if you are burnt out?
These are the common signs:
· Feeling tired and exhausted
· Irritable
· Withdrawing from friends and family
· Apathy
· Lack of direction and meaning in life
· Not able to feel joy
· Overactive mind
· Losing interest in things you previously enjoyed
· Physical illness
· Excessive brooding
· Feeling numb
· Feeling of emptiness
· Feeling stuck and trapped
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What can you do about it?
The process of burnout had crept in over a period so do not expect for it to be resolved overnight. Approach it as a step-by-step journey of recovery. Making changes takes time and effort at a time when you are feeling apathetic and low in energy.
Essentially to begin your wellbeing journey, take a habit you already do every day, and pair it with a simple new one you want to change to. For example, when you have your morning cup of tea, pair it with a few breathing techniques. Once you have established this pattern you combine another new habit with an old one such as replacing vegetables with an unhealthy item of food. This way you master the art of building new habits one after the other until you fully recover.
How can therapy help?
Therapy can be invaluable in supporting you on this journey. The feeling of being listened to with the attitude of care will help you out of the stuck state that burnout may get you into. The therapy can provide you with a safe non-judgmental space to explore your difficulties and release feelings that may be bottled up inside you. This feeling of being accepted will motivate small actions that eventually lead to bigger changes that aide your recovery.
Some forms of psychodynamic therapy will help you identify childhood traumas that may have contributed to your burn out whereas others such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) will help you reframe and overcome your negative thinking and mapping out small action points that lead to a zest for life again.
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Hansa Pankhania is an acclaimed author and renowned coach and speaker on wellbeing, stress prevention and resilience. In this exclusive column, she will be presenting cost-free, simple, natural coping tips that can be integrated in a busy routine at home and at work to sustain a stress-free, joyful and successful life.