Preventing Burnout Before It's Too Late
Life isn’t always easy. In fact, a lot of the time stress can pile up far too quickly, making it impossible to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Between work, family responsibilities, health problems, and the everyday chores of life, many of us end up neglecting our mental and emotional well-being. Unfortunately, this can quickly lead to burnout.
It’s been said that if we don’t take time to rest, our bodies will force rest upon us, and rarely when it’s convenient. Plus recovering from burnout is actually pretty difficult. It’s easier to catch it before the stress gets too much.
Learn Your Limits
Ideally, we should engage in self-care enough that we never reach our limit, but knowing our limit is also the key to catching stress levels before they get too high. This means identifying when we need to prioritize ourselves over everything else.
This means carving out some time for ourselves to do what we need to do to feel whole. One trick is to block off a day or a weekend (if manageable) to look after ourselves and treat it with the same severity as we would any other appointment. Use a PTO day off work to recoup some of the physical, mental, and emotional energy. You don’t need to tell anyone what you are doing - just take the day. You’ll be glad you did.
Take a Spa Day
Yes, physical care is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to self care. But physical relaxation is also an easy way to open up the brain, get it unstuck, and get into the mode of accepting all forms of care. One of the classic ways to relax is to take a spa day. At the spa, there are a number of treatments that can help the body and mind to relax and let go of any tension. Plus, phones have to stay off in the spa, and we can get down with that.
Go to the spa by alone or with friends or family. Spa treatments are all relaxing, although there’s nothing quite like a massage to soothe aching muscles, they can also help improve circulation, rejuvenating skin as well as the body.
Go For a Walk or Run
Exercise is known to be fantastic for relieving stress. Even if the last thing we want to do is to get up and move around, it’s an important part of self-care as it helps mental health and physical health.
Exercise increases endorphins, which reduce pain and boost the mood. If frustrated about something, then exercise can help to release all that anxious energy into something productive.
Exercising outside is especially beneficial, as we also benefit from fresh air, natural sunlight, and plant life. All of which have been proven to make a huge difference in mental health. We also love walking barefoot, but that definitely depends on where one lives. But going for a walk, run, or bike ride gives the best of both worlds.
Relax Before Bed
Sleep is a hugely important part of our life, but many people struggle to sleep when they’re stressed. This only compounds on the stress in their lives. One way to help get some quality sleep is to wind down before bed. Some herbal teas are great for this, and it also helps to spend an hour or so without screen time. We also love a good ASMR app - going for a boring tour of some random city or learning about the history of candles from the sleepiest voice ever can do major wonders. It’s kind of like when we’d try to study for history tests and wind up asleep at 8 pm, splayed over out textbooks. Just comfier - and we don’t have to retain the info.
Talk Therapy
While talk therapy isn’t the only way to work on our mental health, it is pretty fantastic for processing what’s going on in our lives. Plus, it helps to have an impartial person in our corner where we can vent without fear of repercussions of broken relationships within our actual lives.
