How To Avoid A Burnout

There’s a lot of pressure put on us by society, and ourselves to meet certain goals and expectations. Feeling overwhelmed will eventually take its toll on us and can lead to feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. Burnout is a massive problem for many people, especially for young women.

So what is a burnout?

Burnout isn’t the same as being super stressed. Whereas stress often makes you feel like your emotions are in overdrive, burnout does the opposite making you feel “empty”, “not giving a fxck” or “beyond caring,”

Our entire generation has been burdened with unreasonable cultural and societal expectations. What can we do about it? Prevention is the best way to deal with burnout, see our tips below.

1. Rest & Relax

Take a step back, relax and reboot. Do a fun hobby, catch up on sleep, pamper yourself. Put a date in your diary and stick to it. Women often put everyone before themselves, but remember – Heroes need a rest too! Don’t wait for your body to shut down for you to realise you need to take a break.

Do what makes you feel good and do it often.

2. Prioritize sleep.

Making sleep a priority is important as its easy for us to let getting a good night’s sleep slip through our hands. Late nights and early mornings eventually takes its toll on the body.

Look at it like this, your phone cannot function without being charged daily. Our bodies are similar in the fact that it too needs to be recharged daily. Don’t deprive yourself of sleep.

3.  Eating habits.

Many of us tend to turn to food when we get stressed, on the flip side some people lose their appetite resulting in them under-eating and losing weight. When on the go, running a business, going from meeting to meeting, trying to hit the targets before the designated deadline – eating a meal does not come up high on our priority list.

Not eating can affect our mood making us more unbalanced allowing stress levels to rise.

When under eating because of stress try eating smaller portions throughout the day. Throw in a few healthy snacks such as peanuts, fruits or a nutritious smoothie.

4. Exercise regularly

Avoid the build-up of stress by exercising regularly – this goes especially for people with jobs where most of their day is spent sitting at a desk glued to a computer screen. To help keep your body healthy and balanced, try some low-impact exercises/practices like Pilates, Yoga, and Meditation. Meditation and practicing mindfulness will aid you in managing stress making it an important tool for avoiding burnout. Don’t forget to add plenty of long walks into your routine too.

Please remember exercise isn’t a cure-all for burnout, it will help you feel more balanced by managing stress daily.

6. Listen to your body.

Dealing with stomach cramps, achy limbs, headaches, feeling bloated, tiredness, loss of appetite, dry skin, hair, and brittle nails. This can all be an indication that you are run down and need to listen to your body. When we are young we tend to think we have forever before making healthier lifestyle choices, we must remember our bodies are negatively affected by doing too much. Give yourself a break, don’t be so hard on yourself, you are only human. Whether at work or home, don’t feel guilty when saying no, you have to set boundaries. You are not a superwoman even though you operate as one. Make time for you, take regular breaks and treat yourself.

Learn to help yourself, then you can help others. Don’t burnout being everything for everyone.