With the COVID 19 crisis going on, we are all too afraid of losing our jobs, so even if it is not healthy and we are burnout, we feel we need to keep going.
Is this healthy? Is this good for our long-term mental and physical wellbeing? Probably not. Still, we have bills to pay at the end of the month, so what can we do to manage ourselves and stay as productive as possible?
This is my top 5 ways of coping with a burnout
- Stretch and breathe. If you are going through a burnout, it is very likely that you are feeling A LOT of compression all over your body, including your thorax and lungs. Stretch your upper body, breathe deep and consciously, expand your thorax and your lungs to the max. You may want to try and do some yoga.
- Cut your coffee intake drink more water. Might sound counter-intuitive, you are SO tired and you feel you depend on it to stay awake… but it triggers your anxiety and anxiety fucks with your head making everything worse. Coffee also dehydrates you. I am not talking about going cold turkey, just drink fewer cups of coffee. Start drinking more water. Dehydration can make you feel extremely tired.
- Take short and frequent breaks throughout the day. Working from home helps with this one. Your day doesn’t really need to feel like a marathon. You will see, you will be able to focus if you organize yourself and approach your day and your work in small chunks, making short and frequent breaks in between. Set reminders and make sure to take those breaks.
- Log off at the end of the day. You served your time for today, log off, go for a walk or do anything else you enjoy to tell yourself you are off for today.
- Connection. First, connect with yourself, try to understand how much of this burnout is frustration and disconnection from your work (do you even give a fuck about it?). Reconnect with yourself, and if possible, with your work. There might be something about it you enjoy. Be curious. What do dislike? What do you like? ...or is at least tolerable…
You might reach the point where you realize you need to seek professional help, or you might manage to keep going and things might get better.
