Am I heading for a Burn-Out? Part 2. More and more, today’s state of mind is one of working until you drop. Feeling tired or plain unhealthy, is taboo. You’ve got to finish your work first, right? As soon as our career becomes our first priority, we start to neglect our health. No wonder that we’re fueling a burn-out driven society. Instead of easing off when we’re feeling weak, we resort to pills against headaches or fatigue. When we’re low on energy, we either snack on candy bars or pump our veins full of caffeine. Only when our health completely prohibits working, we start to take things easy –until we’re feeling even slightly better that is.
Does this sound familiar? In the coming weeks, we’ll give you five questions you can ask yourself to better understand the contemporary syndrome. Here’s the second question.
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Which patterns and incorrect presumptions feed your habits?
We gather tons of mental baggage during our life. It consists of rules, values and presumptions on how we feel the world should work. The basis for the presumptions we make, lies in our upbringing, our own experiences and principles, as well as in our friends, the environment we find ourselves living in and in our (pop) culture.
Your mental baggage is what makes you, well, you. And that’s great! Some widespread and hard to let go thinking patterns and beliefs, are however detrimental to your wellbeing. A couple examples:
- I have to be perfect and I have to do everything perfectly.
- I have to be able to manage everything, without feeling stressed or tired.
- I can’t relax before I’ve done everything I had to do.
- I can do it on my own, I don’t need help.
- I’m good at multitasking.
Does this sound familiar? Believing in yourself and being enthusiastic are good things, but keep in mind that every situation is different and that everyone has a point where they need to ask for help, take things more slowly or take a break. You’ll perform better when you’re feeling better. Keep in mind that multitasking wastes energy at an incredible rate!
Am I heading for a Burn-Out? Part 2. In the paragraphs below, you will find two tips that will help to prevent you from getting stuck in bad or wrong trains of thought.
- Use your brains and use them when you’re taking a look at yourself too. Take half an hour per week, say on Friday afternoon, to write down your stressors. By making them visible, they won’t rise to unrealistically large proportions. Try to get rid of them in the next week, or accept them the way they are as soon as you’re writing them down.
- Start your day with a healthy cocktail. Take a very conscious look at something beautiful in your vicinity, pour a glass of lukewarm water and drink it up, fully aware of what you’re doing. Count yourself lucky that you can experience such grace at that very moment.
This way, you’ll start your day with a healthy glass full of dopamine based biochemistry. Taking the time for a little exercise on top, adds endorphins to the mixture that’ll make you feel upbeat and ready to take on the world. This cocktail certainly is much better on our empty stomachs than the mix of stress related cortisol and adrenaline we’re used to.