Burnout Signs & Steps to Recovery

This article is part of a series of posts about understanding burnout, sign/symptoms and recovery. For previous posts you can check out: 1. How Art Therapy Helps with Burnout and Prevention, 2. Coping with Burnout. 

Burnout can feel like continuous exhaustion even after sleep and resting, not feeling like yourself, and not enjoying your life. Burnout is when your nervous system is taxed by too much stress with not enough recovery time which is common place in a "busy driven culture" and particularly for those living in the large metropolitan areas like the GTA.
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For the 401 commuters, many can feel added stress going to and from work with added time pressures with gridlock traffic, and our nervous systems “picking up” the stress of those around us. Below I include some signs you may be burnout:

You feel/experience…

• Depleted
• Jittery inside
• Difficulty sleeping
• Unexplained irritation/anger
• Tension headaches
• A lower capacity to cope with stress
• Numb
• A lot of body tension
• No energy to do what you enjoy
• Little to no connection to people in your life
• Brain fog
• Not feeling like yourself anymore

You may find yourself saying…

• "I am so exhausted"
• "Why do I get a tension headache every day?"
• "Why am I so snappy with my spouse/kids?"
• "I’m waking up at 3am and cannot fall back asleep"
• "I can’t think and function properly"

Starting Points for Recovery:

1. Identify what signs you are experiencing and when they started. See if you see a pattern in the symptoms. E.g. I often get my tension headache when I receive an email from my boss. I have also created a quiz to help you gauge "is your mind overloaded", feeling overloaded is a sign you can be nearing or are already feeling burnout. You can take the quiz here. 
2. Start small to build a solid foundation. Identify one thing you could start doing today to support your recovery.
3. Take care of your nervous system. If you are looking for nervous system support tools check out “Therapist in Your Pocket” tools/meditations to use anytime and anywhere when they need them.
4. Get support: Find someone in your area who specializes in burnout to support you on your path to recovery.

If you need additional support reach out to me, I am Nicole Levy, and I am here as your helping hand, let’s get started, book your complimentary no pressure initial consult today https://www.mindfulhealingjourney.ca/#/
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