Hey guys, welcome back!! Honestly I’d be lying if I said everything was going well at the moment, but it’s ok. As much as I try to see the silver lining in each situation, not everything in life is all positive and happy all the time and I think it’s really important that we as a society can address that as opposed to having toxic positive mindsets.
Lately I’ve just been so burnt out, I feel like no matter how much I do (which is an unhealthy amount) is never enough. I told myself that I’d start this school year with trying to prioritise myself but I feel like, especially in sixth form, that I have this constant pressure to be doing a million things and excelling in everything in order to have a stable future. I’ve been breaking down at least twice a day and been sleeping very few hours despite the amount of sport I do. Whenever I start feeling like this, I have a tendency to isolate myself from people because even simple conversations makes me so drained. My muscles have been tired and are constantly tensed and I know I should be taking better care of myself but honestly it gets so hard sometimes.
I wrote one of my first posts on perfection and I hate to say it but I have been slipping back a bit into my older mindset. Sometimes I feel a bit hypocritical whenever I write about topics like this but then never implement the advice I give out in my own life. It’s fine though, I am going to try and take everything one step at a time and just talk a step back from a few things in order to sort myself out a bit.
What Actually is Emotional Burnout?
Obviously I am no doctor or psychologist but from what I know, emotional burnout is basically a state of being tired and drained because of a bunch of mental and physical stress that’s been going on for a while. It’s kind of just like being really overwhelmed from work and being unable to keep up with the world round you. There are probably more accurate definitions out there on the internet but that’s pretty much what I think it is.
I feel like the reason that many students become overwhelmed with work/school and stressed in general around this time is because many people haven’t moved on from the summer holidays where everyday seemed like never ending happiness and now are given a lot of schoolwork to consistently stay on top of.
How to Deal with Burnout
I mean currently I am lying in bed eating an entire bar of pistachio chocolate and let me tell you, it isn’t really helping, I mean the chocolate tastes great but I could be doing something more useful to deal with this I guess. Some ways I usually deal with burnout include:
Obviously the best thing to do is to get rid of what is stressing you and causing you to feel this way. In most situations, this isn’t possible because if it’s school related, I can’t exactly drop out of school (even though moving to a small island seems very tempting). Sometimes dropping one thing out of the may things you do could allow you to give yourself some time for you to spend on chilling or doing some self care.
I know this is something that everyone will find annoying to hear because generally it is all people say but taking out even five minutes of your day to sit and meditate or just gather your thoughts is one of the most useful things, especially when you feel burnt out, you have a million things to do but no motivation to do it. Even if it is just sitting each morning and saying some affirmations to uplift your mood, it really does make a difference.
Another really good thing to do is just talk to someone you are close to and you trust. Honestly, it’s taken me a really long time to realise that I can talk to people about my problems and shouldn’t feel guilty about opening up, but, I am so grateful that I have such amazing friends and family who I know I can rely on. Talking to someone genuinely feels like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you automatically have less to do.
I know there are many other things you can do to reduce emotional burn out but frankly I’m quite bad at dealing with it myself so I don’t really know what else to say but the last main point is to just take care of yourself. I know this is definitely easier said than done but even if it’s taking a quick nap where you can or trying to eat some fruit or food that will really nourish you actually helps a lot. I find that usually the only way I get over times like this is when I force myself to sleep in on weekends and even though I’m “unproductive,” I am catching up on rest and it is technically productive because it allows me to not be doing mindless non-stop work that doesn’t always make sense.
If things do get to a more serious situation then my best advice would be to go seek professional help because if you don’t take care of yourself now, it could potentially lead to something worse and I understand that it isn’t possible for everyone to be able to take care of themselves at every stage in their life, therefore, talking to someone who specialises in the field would probably be the best.
I hope you guys enjoyed this week’s post, sorry my posts have been a bit more on the depressing side lately, I’ve just not really been in a very “I romanticise my entire life” kind of mood recently but hopefully we’ll get there again soon!! I hope you all have an amazing day, love you guys <33
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