Let’s Talk About Burnout

🎶We don't talk about Bruno I mean

...Burnout

Anyone who has had any free time or children in their home may have hear the hit song from Disney's new animated movie Encanto called "We don't talk about Bruno" (so sorry for those who now have this stuck in your head lol)

You know what else we don't talk about? Burnout, and it is as scary as the picture above. A quick Google search can take you to a National Institute of Health article which cites up to 80% of people suffer from burnout at one point in time throughout their lives. This is an extremely high percentage especially when we think about how the knowledge and resources we have available to combat burnout is relatively low.

So let's talk about it. What causes burnout? Well, some of the main components are a lack of available social support, and feeling the need to take on more than you can actually handle whether at work, in school, or with your friends and family responsibilities. Poor self-care is also a leading cause for burnout.

Feeling like things are outside of your control like your schedule, free time, or your workload can also impact your likeliness for burnout. << Test First Name >>, you might be thinking, 'Yikes this sounds like my life right now'. If so you might choose to take a closer look at what you are feeling.

Low productivity and performance, chronic fatigue and/or exhaustion, or reduced creativity could all be signs of burnout. Burnout affects the body too (are we surprised by this?) frequent stomach aches or digestive problems, headaches, and muscle aches. The constant stress and fatigue on your nervous system dumps cortisol and adrenaline into your body which over time leads to poor sleep, weight changes, and inflammation in the body (hello if you also struggle with an autoimmune disease👋).

The double whammy comes in when we look at the physiology of self-criticism which is burnout's super side kick I'm sure you have heard of them. When we pile on criticism towards ourselves when we are in the midst of burnout we only compound the eroding effects on the body and nervous system.

Here is what we do instead 💕

Turn towards yourself with self-compassion, engage in burnout prevention methods, and create spaces where you can empty the load you are carrying.

I know this can sometimes sound like a pipe dream, especially if you are in deep burnout and fatigue. What I always like to remind myself in these mental health practices, in yoga, and in life is ONE STEP AT A TIME. It is about practice not immediate mastery.

Start small by taking linking a stress-releasing habit with another action you do often.

Some examples:

Take a full deep breath every time before you answer the phone.

Say three things you are grateful for every time you are brushing your teeth.

Or every time you pass a window look out and find something aw inspiring to gaze at.

The more practice you get implementing these small habits the stronger your resilience will be. This is just a quick dip into this topic today to keep things short, bite-sized, and manageable. However, if you want more skills and guidance through burnout recovery practices you can sign up for my Burnout Toolkit here. Some great news! There have been enough sign-ups to go ahead with the project so I will for sure be making this toolkit and delivering it to those signed up in February as planned. Thank you to those who have already supported this project and I am excited to go on this journey with you all. If you think this would ring true for another person in your life feel free to forward this to them. (it also helps me out :))

Lots of love and compassion to you as always,

Janae Kara