Are You Feeling Burnt Out – Read On:

If you are feeling burnt out, it may be time to review what your day too day routine is, and work out a way to make it better.

Okay, so before we go on, I am absolutely not a life or wellness coach, or any other type of coach for that matter. But the one thing I can absolutely relate to, is the feeling of being burnt out and over it all.

And in-fact, I have no doubt most of the population on the entire planet, also know exactly what being burnt out feels like. So although I am no expert on the matter, I can easily chat about the feeling of being burnt out and how I get myself out of those moment, to help me get on with life easier.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I’ll chat about what being burnt out is like and how I deal with it. And yes, meditation is going to be a hot topic here.

According to a US survey of around 7,500 working people, a quarter of them felt burnt out. In Australia last year, it was found almost one in three workers suffered from a form of mental health issue at the result of being burnt out.

Just to be clear, though these studies were conducted on people who had full-time job. There have also been research papers showing even those with full time jobs, and who have full time carer responsibilities for loved ones, or a part time job and then part time home care duties, all show a similar result of being burnt out, with their health suffering.

I haven’t provided any links here to back my statements, as a simple google search will show you the amount of studies taken around the world proving the human race is burnt out.

But what is it exactly and what causes it. Well, in a variety of other mental health issues, many specialist claim it is us. Most of the time, we create our own issues of being burnt out. With most of us either taking on too much responsibility and carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, or not knowing when too much is too much.

But of course, these stats were also linked to full-time workers, where their employers are demanding way too much from them physically and emotionally. In those cases, no matter how much you think you might like your job. If that’s the case, it might be time to look elsewhere for a job, where the company use a different set of work ethics, which doesn’t require your blood, sweat and tears. And yes, those job absolutely do exist.

However, other professionals in the field of these life studies have also advise that even in those full-time positions where employers demand too much of you, there are ways of setting boundaries and knowing when and how to tell them enough is enough and you can’t provide the service they need, due to being unfit mentally to be able to deal with it.

As always, it comes down to you, or rather us, as the individual to have the confidence to know when enough is enough and learn how to set up those boundaries. Yes, even for us freelancers, who are always at the phone ready, when a client calls.

Reducing the pressure on yourself, which most of the time is of self-creation is key to ensuring you can find more balance and the key to protecting your mental health to prevent yourself from burning out.

Prior to me being a freelance writer and content creator, I was actually a full time personal assistance, secretary, logistics coordinator. I even worked for the Police as an administrator for more than two years. So, believe when I say, I have worked some incredibly stressful, high management roles, which depended more than I could give.

Most of the time in these roles, I would end up crying myself at sleep at night from the exhaustion and thinking to m myself, surely this isn’t how everyone is living, and assuming there was something wrong with me. This would more often than not result in me quitting in the end, before moving onto the next job, where after a year or two, I would still end up in the same position. Crying myself to sleep and then quitting not too long after that.

The cycle was vicious, until I gathered enough strength and power within myself to say, enough was enough. If I couldn’t find a job that was going to support me, then I would need to be the one to make the changes necessary at a job. This meant, lay the rules down before I started. And if a company still wanted to hire me after making those demands, well good for them.

Demands I often made were, I do have holidays planned at the end of the year for a month. Sorry they can’t be changed. Even if I didn’t have any. It would secure it for the long run, knowing I wouldn’t have to work for a month and could have a break to either travel or do nothing.

Other demands, were, what requirements are there for me to work overtime, as I can only do this on Tuesday and Wednesdays, as I have prior commitments other days.

By setting these boundaries, I was allowed a lot more freedom in the roles I was working in. So much so, that when a day came and I was needed to work overtime, they would be hesitate to ask me, as they knew I would have commitments. Even if I didn’t (shh! they aren’t to know). This way, the decisions was left to me on whether I wanted to work overtime, not them. If I had nothing on and though, yeah why not, I could. If I absolutely didn’t want to work overtime, they would be okay with, as they would think I had something on that couldn’t be change.

The idea is to shift the power back to you, without being consumed by the power, where you were then taking advantage of the job or your employer.

If you are feeling burnt out, you might be suffering from insomnia, have chest pain, shortness of breath, over tired with a weakened immune system, feelings of exhaustion are also common and your either drastically losing weight, or putting weight on.

Here’s where meditation is key to balancing life, as well as setting up boundaries at work.

Mediation give you the space you need to think through your issues. I do some of best thinking when I meditate. And it doesn’t have to be long meditation periods either. you can learn a lot about yourself and your situation, sitting in solitude for thirty minutes.

Whilst mediating, as, yourself why you are feeling burnt out and what you think the cause is. Life will always be stressful, so it is important to accept that. As more likely than not, there are some circumstances you can’t change. So making the change in other areas of your life, means you can deal with the other situations better.

If meditation isn’t your thing, here is a list of other ways you can self-reflect and spend some time on yourself to help get through being burnt out:

• Control access to social media – reducing the hours run other words.
• Say no to taking on any other responsibilities and set boundaries (as discussed).
• Write down what’s causing your stress and then troubleshoot ways to deal with the stress.
• Spend more time with friends or family (if you are carer for a family member, then friends would be best).
• Take a break. Go for a walk. Chill at the beach. Even an hour break can help you ditch that burnt our feeling.
• Talk to someone if you feel your mental health is being affected, before it gets worse.
• Exercise. You don’t need to obsess over it, but even thirty minutes of yoga or walking can work wonders. Or if you prefer more hard core exercising, take a run. or do some weights.