Are you exhausted? Have you lost your interest? Do you feel overwhelmed or have burnout?
Sometimes it can be difficult to listen to your body, especially during busy seasons of life. Pushing through and ignoring your body when it needs to rest, skipping breaks, working through lunch.
I’ve pushed through my body’s signals and I’ve experienced signs of burnout.
So, how can we recover from burnout in mind, body, and spirit?
Being overwhelmed and out of balance
Being out of balance can look like physically ill, mentally overwhelmed, emotionally exhausted, spiritually empty, or socially isolated. One example would be if you get tired often, or if you have no more energy to help other people on a regular basis.
In one day, if I am getting easily irritated with people, the entire problem may not be the people around me but instead, I may be stressed out and out of balance to handle the stress well. If I want to cry at anything extra added to my day, then it’s best if I can go lay down and rest or at least talk to someone and tell them I’m overwhelmed and can’t handle anything extra right now.
About half of adults in the U.S. feel overworked or overwhelmed at least some of the time.
Anyone trying to achieve big goals, such as dedicated parents and caregivers, college students, professionals, and high-achievers can be prone to burnout.
Consequently, this includes most of the adults I know, and especially with the pressure to succeed being attached to over-achieve. Over-achieve is when we push and push to achieve more, be better, improve always. These are great goals when practiced with balanced self care and rest to recover.
Balancing achievements and self care is difficult, because responsibilities can be overwhelming and emotional exhaustion is real. This is when burnout happens, when we are out of balance and we work long hours or lose interest in our work because of low self care.
16 Symptoms of Burnout:
How do you know if you have burnout?
Here are 16 symptoms of burnout from Psychology Today:
Chronic fatigue
Emotional exhaustion
Trouble sleeping
Increased irritability
Forgetfulness or trouble concentrating
Physical symptoms
Increased illness
Loss of appetite
Loss of interest (disengagement)
Anxiety
Depression
Anger
Negative self-talk
Isolation
Feeling hopeless, overwhelmed easily
Poor performance
When you are beginning to have any of these symptoms, you may be experiencing a little or a lot of burnout, depending on how many symptoms and the severity.
It may help to be aware you are feeling stressed and try some new activities to increase your self-care and recover from burnout.
21 Coping Skills to Recover from Burnout
in Mind, Body, and Spirit
These 21 coping skills will help you boost your health and reach your goals. Now to increase your self-care and recover your energy in mind, body, and spirit.
As you review the coping skills, consider which of these Coping Skills match your values.
Here are 21 Coping Skills to recover from Burnout in Mind, Body, and Spirit.
MIND & EMOTIONS
- Read a good book
- Say no to new commitments or adding more responsibility
- Delegate or ask people to help out
- Reframe negative thoughts into positive thoughts
- Choose life-giving activities
- Be around positive people
- Talk with a friend
BODY
- Stretch, walk, or exercise for 15 minutes 2-3 times a day
- Deep breathing for 5 minutes
- Yoga
- Warm baths
- Drink a cup of tea
- Massage
- Take breaks during the day, Move for 5 minutes every hour,
SPIRIT
- Guided imagery
- Muscle relaxation
- Meditation, Prayer
- Give yourself grace and compassion
- Find your passion, do what you enjoy
- Immerse yourself in nature (5 minutes even)
- Vacation or staycation
Reflect:
- Which of these 21 Coping Skills sounds the most interesting to you?
- Are any of the 21 Coping Skills life-giving to you, or rejuvenating?
- Out of the 21 Coping Skills, which ones are the most easily achievable for you, at this time in your life?
3 Top Coping Skills to Recover Your Energy
Choose your top 3 coping skills to recover your energy and interest in living a full life. These are now your top 3 goals to recover from burnout and recover your energy.
If 3 goals are overwhelming, focus on 1 goal that is the most rejuvenating.
Take a few minutes to write these goals down, just writing your goals down can increase your chance of actually achieving the goals.
Write down “My Top 3 Goals to Recover from Burnout”
My top 3 goals to recover my energy.
The easiest and most achievable steps to get to these 3 goals.
- Goal #1: __________________________________
Step (1): __________________________________
Step (2): __________________________________
Step (3): __________________________________ - Goal #2: __________________________________
Step (1): __________________________________
Step (2): __________________________________
Step (3): __________________________________ - Goal #3: __________________________________
Step (1): __________________________________
Step (2): __________________________________
Step (3): __________________________________
Now choose one of the top three goals to recover your energy, and think of small goals, or baby steps. Consider what is the easiest and most achievable step that you could take in this one area?
You want to succeed, so choose a small baby step that is laughable it is so achievable. Now do the same steps with your next two goals to recover your flame.
Baby Steps = Small Goals
Try this for a few days and see if it helps. If these small goals are too difficult, be gracious to yourself and maybe adjust the small goals to be more helpful.
Plan for success with realistic and achievable small goals. If the goals are too big or too complicated, simplify and break it down to smaller goals. Once you succeed, you’ll be more likely to continue towards the next small goal and keep improving.
Restoring Wellness & Energy
Many of us can have burnout, anytime you are working hard to achieve a goal, you probably put in extra effort and push yourself more than usual. The 21 coping skills to recover from burnout will help you keep up your energy and health.
What 3 coping skills are you going to try this week?
I hope this journey of identifying signs of burnout and choosing goals to recover from burnout, helps increase your self-care and wellness.
I’d love to hear from you, please leave me a comment, or join me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Blessings,
Beth
Disclaimer: This article has resources about restoring wellness, and is based on my research and my experiences. This information is not meant to take the place of counseling or therapy. If at any time you feel uncomfortable or need to talk to someone, wellness resources may be helpful.