According to recent studies, the burnout rate in the US was as high as 59%, increased by 13.5% by 2021. This alarming number is forcing people to pay attention to work-life balance and, most importantly, the toxic overworking culture that has prevailed in the US.
This article will explain how to know if you’re burnt out while providing a few great strategies for faster recovery from burnout.
What Causes a Burnout
The main culprit behind burnout is prolonged stress. Stress caused by work, caregiving, parenting, or depression can all lead to physical and mental exhaustion: burnout.
Some common reasons people feel burnt out include
- Overworking: You may feel overwhelmed by constantly working or having too many things on your plate.
- Lack of control: Burnouts happen when life keeps throwing curve balls at you, and everything seems to fall apart.
- Under compensation: Lack of recognition and reward can make you feel unvalidated and slowly lose motivation.
- Lack of support: An unsupportive environment, whether at work or at home, can lead to burnout and quitting.
- Personal conflicts: Nobody loves yelling and getting yelled at. Relationship problems, fighting with friends, and friction in the family can affect other aspects of your life.
Common Symptoms of a Burnout
Am I burnt out? Check to see if you experience any of the following burnout symptoms:
- Emotional exhaustion: Feeling emotionally drained and unmotivated to fulfill your day-to-day tasks. Similar to early-stage depression.
- Negativity and detachment: Developing negative or cynical attitudes towards work, colleagues, or your environment and feeling dissociated.
- Reduced productivity: Losing focus, less work efficiency. You may find yourself taking longer to complete usual tasks.
- Physical ailment: Burnout can cause headaches, nausea, palpitations, fatigue, and other physical symptoms.
- Reduced self-esteem: Feeling incompetent or worthless.
- Mood swing: Burnout makes you more irritable and short-tempered.
As a telltale sign, if you start asking yourself: “Am I burnt out?” Then, you might need to take a break from everything.
Ways to Recover from a Burnout
Maintaining distress and avoiding burnout is about knowing yourself and keeping a good pace. While life is unpredictable, we can keep the peace by caring for ourselves and changing our reactions.
Below are some great ways to recover from burnout:
- Meditate and practice mindfulness
- Taking yourself out on a date (mental health days)
- Ease back into your normal routine
- Adjust your diet to eat healthier
- Go to a spa or get a massage.
Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness can be a game changer. If you’re new to the definition, start by doing some research and build a meditation space at home. After all, having a comfortable, safe space is your first step toward inner peace.
Mindfulness isn’t for those with spiritual beliefs, either. Anybody can become more mindful by reflecting on their day, reactions, and emotions. Understanding why you do and feel the way you do will help you recover from burnout faster.
Give Yourself Some Downtime
Maintaining a good work-life balance can help prevent and recover from burnout, but also help reduce anxiety from work.
There are many ways to give yourself downtime. For example, you can take yourself out on a date, or assign a mental health day each week to relax and do nothing. We also recommend doing offline cleanse regularly to save your sanity from all the social media drama.
Ease Back In
Ease back into your regular workflow slowly. We understand the sentiment of wanting to go right back in after taking time to recover from burnout, but that will only push you right back to that mental exhaustion.
Also, take burnouts as a sign that you need to adjust how you work. Assign short breaks throughout the day, or, if you work from home, set strict business hours so your work doesn’t invade your private time.
Eat Healing Food
We are what we eat, and having a healthy diet can improve your physical and mental strength. Also, we all have our healing food list. Maybe it’s Southern comfort food or a hot bowl of ramen — fried chicken, even!
If you feel burnt out, indulge in your healing food: that will make you feel a lot better. Consider today a cheat day. :)
Get a Massage
Finally, add massage into your self-care routines. It doesn’t have to be a full-body reflexology session. Frankly, we prefer sitting down for 10 to 15 minutes after work and getting a foot massage from our shiatsu foot massager. It’s a one-time investment and lasts for years, and the benefits are totally worth it!
By the way, you can also incorporate stress relieving essential oils into your massage routine.
