Does your schedule seem overbooked? Do you forget to take out time for yourself, friends, or family? Do you check and reply to emails while you gulp in your breakfast hurriedly? Being constantly on the go can wreak havoc on your stress levels and before you realize you've reached the tipping point for burnout and exhaustion.
It’s a common misconception that only overly ambitious people reach exhaustion but that’s not true. Burnout can happen to anyone and can manifest mental, physical, and emotional symptoms with continuous stress and burden. When you are really busy and distracted, you end up ignoring small signs and fight your way through the days. Your stress levels keep rising and every task seems important and urgent.
It's like paper jamming in a printer. You cant find your flow anymore and don’t enjoy activities like before. As humans, we are not designed to be always functioning 24/7. You need time so you can rest and charge yourself, energize yourself and reboot otherwise you can crash.
Burnout is very dangerous as it is incremental stress. Every day you get a little more stressed out than the day before and then one day it all hits you like a train and now it's too late to fix it fast because of the delayed effect of it.
If you wait for a burnout to hit -- it will take a much longer time to get out of it when compared to seeing the signs beforehand and realizing when to stop.
Seven Signs You Are Reaching Exhaustion:
- You feel exhausted and tired all the time.
- You are an insomniac, even though you are tired, you just can't seem to sleep.
- Small daily tasks feel very big and complex.
- You experience brain fog and find it difficult to recall what you're supposed to do during the day
- Your emotions are on a high, emotions like crying and anger are easy to come.
- Your usual love and spice for life have disappeared.
- Self-care becomes difficult to manage.
Some of the physical symptoms that might indicate you are reaching burnout are:
- Change in eating habits and weight
- Abnormal sleep pattern
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Headaches
- Gastrointestinal problems.
If you experience these symptoms, you should discuss them with your preferred health practitioner, therapist, or coach. There are many ways to minimize this such as living in the moment, enjoying the present, and taking care of yourself first. When you put yourself first, the rest just flows.
The pandemic and the number of changes, stress, and anxiety that have been happening around the world have shown us that a lot of people are not taking care of themselves well enough. Sure, a lot of us stay at home but that also meant that we didn't have a clear distinction between work and personal lives anymore.
This is where you need to be more aware of how you feel and what you're doing on a daily basis to take care of yourself.
Here are some ways you can take care of yourself a little on a day to day basis:
- Take some time to journal as penning down your thoughts can help you work through them.
- Take a walk every day as it helps you breathe better, you get more oxygen into your system & you spend some time with nature too.
- Meditate.
- Speak to your friends and family.
- Learn to say no.
We hope that this article will help you realize when you need to stop and take a break. If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will be able to.