Burnout Breeds

Because burnout comes in all shapes and sizes.

When you Google ‘burnout’ you get an array of definitions that summarize feelings of being overwhelmed, exhausted and relatably, an encompassing I-can’t-even-ness. But wait, *cue game show jingle and jazz hands*, there’s more!

While burnout has become a normalized (sometimes glamorized) byproduct of a busy (often “successful”) modern life, it is most popular and typically becomes prioritized when it can uphold the very systems that create it. We acknowledge that humanity is currently struggling to emerge from the dark swamps of historically embedded colonial capitalist scarcity, fear and a socialized obsession with excess material and commodified productivity. Generally speaking. Conventionally, the pros of preventing burnout are attributed to maintaining output, ensuring bottom lines, meeting time/resource efficiency, business development and employee satisfaction and retention.

I don’t know about you but I’m pretty confident the no. 1 pro of not being burnt out, is not being burnt out. Genuine wellness begins within us, starting with the most important and longest relationship we are ever in: with ourselves. And it doesn’t stop there. When we rest up, we show up. Personally and professionally; we are who we are (and how we feel) in all spaces.

It’s typically easier for us to name burnout when we’ve hit rock bottom and are a puddle at the end; it gets tricky when our emotional and physiological responses to it are muddied and we’re occupied with managing careers, taking care of others, being an informed and responsible individual, working hard to answer our life’s calling and changing the world for the better. We can get so discombobulated in different ways depending on the context: neurophysiologically-speaking (through our nervous system) we are hypo or hyper-aroused (activated). The common Google definition speaks to hypo-arousal as we collapse, are immobilized and basically feel frickin’ depressed. It’s not a good time. There’s a distinct difference between experiencing life-affirming emotions such as sadness and grief, and being so depleted that the lens which we look at the world has broken and our brain and body don’t want much to do with anything at all. Sound familiar? Most of the time, we reach this point after dismissing the red flags, amber traffic lights and little signals along the way. Depending on the context, because we are wired for survival after all, quite often our intelligent bodies bypass these messages because we’re on a mission or it’s simply the best we can do at a given time.

Hyper-arousal is where it gets tricky. Shout-out to the Type A, go-getter, over-achievers who are living that full life! A for effort, kudos to you. The slippery slope is not in living a full life, but mistaking burnout for only being a low-energy, deflated state. (I love my full life and I’ll never stop dreaming.) We end up corroding our health in many ways over time because we’re actually stuck in the action-oriented hyperdrive and vigilance.

When we are hyper-aroused, our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is mobilized. Our heart beats quickly, we’re taking shallow breaths and the mind is actively scanning for any and all forms of danger/threat. In our modern world of information and interconnection, the possibilities are endless! These are not the expansive types of possibility but rather quite the opposite; our mind may think it’s stretching far seeking all the solutions- or all the problems- yet our bodies are likely constricted, tight, sore and tired. It feels like anxiety and it could be as obvious as a panic attack, or as subtle as an undercurrent to you feeling less patient than you typically are while you’re just trying to get shit done because, ‘why can’t anyone else see that?!’ You know the mindset I’m talking about. It’s like an extreme version of being hangry, except it’s not calories you’re craving, but some real rest.

We end up suffering from physiological and/or mental-emotional symptoms, disorders and pain from chronic burnout, flooded by stress hormones and imbalanced without rest. If your mind is simultaneously fixated on a problem you’re trying to solve or you’re emotionally charged in a personal situation, it can be so difficult to fully acknowledge this. And the body is so highly intelligent that it will endure. And then, it’s onto the next one. The task on the list or another distracting stimulus. Anything and everything but looking down a deep, black hole of feeling bad. Suddenly, weeks or months have passed and you feel like you’ve strayed too far from yourself. I ended up striking this vicious cycle in the past 10 years while I was learning how to really rest. They innocently morphed from my ambitions and best intentions, as they often do.

I remember when I was stressed in my 20’s, the advice I’d receive from loved ones would be something along the lines of them encouraging me to “just chill out”, take a break by vegging out and watching a movie/show. Because it was an activity I seldom participated in anyways and I also wanted some escape, I’d do it. With the best intentions, the impact never aligned. My brain was temporarily immersed in another world yet my nervous system was still worrying, bracing and on high alert. Post-movie? Checked off vegging that day, and I still felt antsy and tired at the same time and now I just “lost” the past 120 min. The gnawing feeling of unrest intensified again. Hello, swell of discomfort and anxiety. (A decade later, I look back and compassionately notice that what I needed was to integrate my mindfulness, self awareness, neurophysiology and energetics to maintain my holistic health and wellbeing. Nbd, right? More on that another time.)

Burnout manifests in different ways and often compounds like layers. Perhaps we can create breathing room between different forms as a more oriented and caring perspective to respond from, rather than react:

• Mental burnout — we are learning, thinking, consuming, working, processing, solving, creating and, let’s not forget, our very own living existence of autonomic systems running organs and cells, exchanging nutrients and waste, over and over again. What we do forget is that our brain is not a machine, even if it sounds like it is when we examine it scientifically.
  
  Is your mind racing at 1,000 mph (hyper-aroused) with multi-streams of thoughts or is it so foggy and slow (hypo-aroused) that you’re ready to curl up away from the world?
  
  

• Emotional burnout — a very personal and subjective form of burnout, this is deeply influenced by our self-awareness, mindfulness, social support/lack thereof, resourcing and societal systems of oppression. It can result from feeling a lot of a particular set/type of emotions without enough compassion, allowing, acknowledgement and rest. I’ve found (the very hard way) that resisting my feelings actually takes way more time, energy and stress than simply feeling them as they are. It’s important to exercise discernment and spend the time understanding and healing yourself here, whatever that means to you.
  
  What emotions are you currently embodying and what do they feel* like?
  *Feeling is more concerned with open/close, light/heavy, high/low or soft/sharp versus “good” or “bad”. Notice what it’s like to feel sensations without judgment or narrative. You don’t need a reason, either.
  
  

• Physical burnout — imbalanced nutrition, sleep, activity, posture and stress management directly impact our intricate and powerfully operating bodies. When our physical health is off, the brain and nervous system will have that much more difficulty responding to life- all they want is to survive and thrive! An active face of physical burnout is pain; this is a literal, embodied signal requesting change.
  
  Is your body trying to get your attention about something? How do you usually respond and how can you respond differently now?
  It may take time and practice, but understanding your own non-verbal needs is the most powerful form of care you can give yourself.
  
  

• Energetic burnout — a natural type of exhaustion that is elusive for the average adult due to living in a cerebral time and media-dominated world. This is a very personal realm too, that relies on intuition and honesty with yourself.
  
  What gives and takes energy from you?
  Do you need more or less energy in your body right now?
  
  

• Spiritual burnout — aka misalignment, Not Self, soul-sucked. Have you ever just felt so far away from who you are? It happens during transitional or major times in our lives. Sometimes, it’s because we’ve had an interaction with someone or something that completely challenges our cores. If our actions nor our decisions match up with our deep values, desires and needs, there is discord. This one is as tragic as it is full of potential and transformational.
  
  Disconnect from the outside and connect within. Cliché? Frankly, I’m unconcerned with the labelling.
  You’re the only expert of yourself on this planet and there’s something deep inside you that just knows— start there. It may not be clear or positive, and that’s essential.
  
  Is there something you have been hiding?
  Pay attention to what it feels like in your body to ask yourself this. Pay attention to the context that you initially encounter.
  
  

While pain, conflict and stress are inevitable in our human experience, the opportunity is to care for and flexibly practice what we need to prevent harmful burnout as best we can.

We alone must do the work and yet we never do the work alone. Let’s care for our bodies and care for each other.

On July 29th, mindfully being well x The Rested Revolution come together to bring you an accessible online 1.5 hour restorative workshop. Full details and registration here.

For embodiment and mindfulness, we practice. I warmly invite you to tune in wherever you are:

Not sure where to start or just feeling at a loss? Map it with the Route to Rest: