Recognizing Burnout

There's a good chance that you are burned out right now.  There's an even better chance that your default state is burnout, so you don't recognize it.

Here are some symptoms to help you recognize when burnout is looming:

• Social activities start to feel like another "to-do" on your list
• You stop all social communication and only do what is mission-critical
• Hermiting 
• You're hyper-sensitive for things not going exactly as you planned
• You're hyper-sensitive period - too much energy, emotion, or action exhausts you
• You're exhausted, overwhelmed, or depressed on a regular basis
• Your anger lives just below the boiling point - until it bubbles over onto everyone around you
• You're jaded, cynical, and pessimistic about the future and everyone's motivations around you
• You're feeling victimized by everyday events - feeling out of control 
• Energetically you may have moments where you feel like your energy field is buzzing - almost like ants are crawling across it
• You're hiding in pleasure-seeking activities (drugs, alcohol, TV, shopping, your phone, sex, etc.) to avoid your life  
• You're getting sick more often than usual
• You're not sleeping well or you're not able to get to or stay asleep
• You lack motivation - you can't seem to get yourself to do anything, no matter how hard you try

And this is not all of the symptoms of burnout, but it's a representative sample.  Some of these may sound like they are just part of your life - that you've always had them.  But they are actually burnout.  This is why I said it may be hard to recognize.

So what do you do?

It's time to take a TON of downtime. 

• And this means that when you are reading, you are reading for pleasure - not to learn something new. 
• It means you're taking a walk just to take a walk - not to run an errand. 
• It means you're sitting and doing nothing for long stretches - and letting the thoughts of "I should be doing X" go when they surface (which they will - a LOT). 
• It means listening to your body and energy before doing things - if you feel withdrawn or exhausted at the thought of doing something, you don't do it.  If you feel neutral, you don't do it.  You ONLY do those things that feel expansive and good.  
• It means taking a LOT of naps - or if you don't nap, then taking a lot of laydowns. 
• It means regulating your sleep schedule so that you go to bed at the same time every night.  For the record, the average person NEEDS 7.5 - 8 hours/night.  This would be the time to give yourself that much time - even if you think you need less.  It's likely you've convinced yourself you can get by on less, but you'll actually see improvements if you sleep longer.
• It means eating more fruits and vegetables.  When we get stressed we tend to eat a lot of crap and this kills off a lot of the good microbiome in our guts that influence our mood.  When you repopulate that gut, your mood improves and the burnout starts to recede.  

Here's the deal though.  You don't do these things just until you feel better.  You do them for MONTHS AFTER you start to feel better.  Why?  Because you are used to being burned out.  This means that the "feel better" point will be half an inch above burnout.  If you stop there, then anything that stretches your energy will drop you down into burnout again and you'll just be playing the up-and-down game over and over again.  If you continue the self-care of doing the things that bring you out of burnout long after you feel better, then you develop a habit of taking care of yourself and this leads to a long-term avoidance of burnout through better daily habits. 

If you don't pay attention to and work on reversing your burnout, you run the risk of adrenal fatigue which will take you a LOT longer to fix.  So self-care is no longer optional - it's required if you don't want to start falling apart.

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