[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Do you feel burnt out or exhausted? You do not feel like working? You have a hard time performing, concentrating or even remembering things? Let us see how to recognise the burnout syndrome, its causes and how to overcome it.
Which are the symptoms of burnout
The burnout syndrome is characterised by a gradual process of loss of interest and energy. The symptoms are those of stress that aggravate with time.
We can experience a progressive physical and mental exhaustion. We notice that we lack energy and our performance levels and motivation reduce. The decrease in performance is usually accompanied by difficulties to concentrate, remember and learn new things. We might feel inefficient and lack a feeling of achievement.
Also, we will have a harder time of facing stress situation and feel that they are beyond our capabilities. From not feeling like going to work we can progress towards a lack of interest and illusion for other areas of our life.
Progressive physical and mental #exhaustion as well as loss of interest and #motivation are signs of #burnout. #stress #stressrelief Click To Tweet
Physical and psychosomatic symptoms
The stress effects related to burnout can be muscle pains and contractions, gastrointestinal or cardiovascular problems, dizziness, headaches or even migraines. The decrease of our defences can make us more prone to illness, infections or allergies. Moreover, we can suffer from sleep disorder.
Symptoms in interpersonal relations
If we feel burnt out we can be more irritable and in a bad mood. This can lead to unnecessary conflicts, due to getting defensive or to facing situations with suspicion, cynicism and sarcasm. Our reactions can be aggressive or passive. If we tend towards indifference we might isolate ourselves and dehumanise our interaction with others.
Which are the causes of burnout
There is a series of factors that can lead to continued stress and thus to suffer burnout.
Lack of balance
On one hand, there is the lack of balance between professional and personal life. If we identify ourselves by our job or work long hours we can be prone to exhaustion. On the other hand, our values might not be aligned with those of the company and our work may not adjust to our interests and skills.
Overstimulation
Moreover, extremes of activity can have an influence, that is that our work is usually chaotic. On the side of chaos we can find a lack of definition of our job. Feeling that we have little to no control over our job causes a feeling of powerlessness. This can be a lack of control over our workload, working hours, mission and objectives, not knowing what is expected of us or which future perspective we have.
Demanding jobs
There are jobs that require a high level of resilience, attention and concentration. This can be jobs with high responsibility where a mistake may have serious consequences. Also, customer-service-related and support jobs are demanding. Dealing with a great number of requests, claims and complaints can be exhausting.
Lack of support
Another cause that can precipitate burnout is feeling alone and isolated at work and on personal level. A dysfunctional work environment and leadership can burn us out. Suffering workplace harassment and strategies that undermine our self-esteem and intend to isolate us from other colleagues, of course, contribute to burnout.
Lack of #balance between personal & professional life, a chaotic our monotonous activity, a demanding job and lack of #support can contribute to #burnout. #stress Click To Tweet
How to overcome burnout
Analyse why you feel burnt out
I suggest you make an inventory of the situations that stress, overwhelm and exhaust you. If your job did not exhaust you before, has there been a change? Have your boss, workload or responsibilities changed? Do you feel that you have learnt everything there was to learn? Maybe you feel that there are no opportunities for promotion or those available are not interesting? What incentivated you before does not motivate you anymore?
Analysing the stress factors is the first step to becoming aware and the starting point to looking for solutions.
Do you suffer from #burnout? The first step is to analyse the situations that #stress, #overhwelm and #exhaust you. Click To Tweet
Do not overload and overly demand yourself
If you suffer from burnout, your body and mind are telling you that they need to rest and disconnect. Therefore, check your obligations and limit new commitments. Consider what they contribute to your priorities, goals and well-being.
Review your level of ambition and learn to value your effort over the final result. The best sportspeople do not always win. So be grateful for the effort and for having tried, be the outcome what it may. Moreover, I suggest you take active breaks between big projects in order to allow your mind to recover.
If you usually take work home, consider what would happen if you would not. Nowadays many of us have more work than there are hours in the day. But not disconnecting and resting sufficiently will make us perform less and that we take longer to carry out tasks. So, consider if it would not be more productive to rest well and finish the task the next day with a fresh mind. Also, review your priorities and deadlines. Which of your tasks are really a priority and which may wait?
Finally consider which tasks you can delegate to others. Be it at work or at home, this will help you reduce your workload and obligations.
Improve your work situation
Now think about what you can do to reduce the stress factors and situations. What can you improve? What can you avoid? How can you solve the problems you have? It can also be helpful to make an inventory of your strengths, skills, interests and passions. Then think how you can potentiate them.
Next, define your responsibilities and look for a way to add value and get involved into new stimulating projects which potentiate your strengths and interests. If you do not have the autonomy to decide this on your own, comment your concerns and expectations with your boss.
Maybe these reflections lead you to question your job. Is it aligned with your values, skills and interests and allows you to give your best? Can you adjust it in order for it to be that way? If not, you might want to consider a change of company or job.
If you suffer from #burnout, look for #WorkLifeBalance, review your #priorities and think how you can improve your situation Click To Tweet
Relieve the stress
There is a number of things we can do to relieve stress. At work, I recommend you take short breaks several times a day. Get up and go for a walk even if just to the coffee machine. Take a moment to stretch your legs, neck and back. Also, I recommend you do not eat at your desk. Change the scenery and eat in the canteen with your colleagues or eat out and also go for a walk.
In addition to taking care of your nutrition and to doing exercise, include relaxation techniques into your daily routine. This can be stretching, yoga, pilates or mindfulness exercises. The latter help you not only pay more attention to the present moment and thus reduce the ramblings about past and future which leads to overwhelm and anxiety. They also help us get to know ourselves better and train our ability to be accepting, concentrate and be resilient.
Moreover take time for hobbies and interests you are passionate about and have fun with. Is there anything you like that you have stopped doing or never find the moment to do? Reserve time for it as you would do with a meeting. Give your personal agenda the same importance you give your work agenda. If you have a hard time keeping a balance between work and personal life, planning and scheduling the leisure activities can help you.
Also, try that your pastimes are not only digital like playing games online or using social media. Analogue activities help us disconnect and relax more effectively.
The combination of good #nutrition, #exercise, fun #leisure activities and #relaxation techniques is key to relieving #stress and overcoming #burnout Click To Tweet
Train your emotional intelligence and review your attitude
At the beginning we saw that burnout can make us irritable and hot-tempered. If we suffer stress we can tend towards aggressiveness or passiveness. Therefore, recognising our emotions and knowing how to regulate them is key to improve our mood. Managing our emotions and learning to express our concerns and desires with assertiveness will help us avoid conflicts and misunderstandings with people around us.
If we feel demotivated and listless it is difficult to get excited over our job and life. That is why I also suggest you check your attitude towards situations and people. Are there things that rile you up easily? Our expectations lead us to criticise others’ behaviours and to resist accepting things as they are. However, if we face life with an open mind, with acceptance and with a positive attitude we will stress less. So, try to focus more on, appreciate and enjoy the positive things.
Look for support and inspiration
On one hand, try to improve your relation with your work colleagues. We spend many hours at work so we rather have a good relationship with some colleague and feel supported.
On the other hand, look for support outside of work. In addition to relying on your family and friends, you can broaden your social circle. There are all kinds of networking groups which can help you get to know new people as well as find inspiration, new ideas and perspectives.
#EmotionalIntelligence, #assertiveness, #resilience, good #attitude and a #supportnetwork help to relieve #stress and overcome #burnout Click To Tweet
Recap
Burnout does not appear overnight. We get exhausted gradually due to overload and continued stress. In order to overcome burnout, it helps to analyse what stresses and exhausts us and what we can do to reduce those factors.
This analysis will provide clues on how to improve our job and personal situation. Reviewing our priorities, looking for work-life balance, including stress-relief techniques as well as looking for support are the keys to fighting against burnout.
Same as burnout does not suddenly appear, we will not overcome it immediately. You will notice the effects of the changes in your habits little by little, so do not get frustrated.
Do you feel constantly exhausted? Are you burnt out from your job? What do you do to overcome the burnout syndrome? Or, in case you ever suffered it, how did you put yourself out of the situation?[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row]
