Breaking Free from Burnout

How to Prevent Overwhelm and Rediscover Joy- A dive through my lens

Do you equate constant busyness with success or happiness? If so, I urge you to pause and clear your mind for just a few minutes. Focus solely on this article, and you might discover valuable steps to prevent burnout.

We often hear about the hustle culture—it's become a societal norm. However, in Japan, there's a term for the extreme consequences of this lifestyle: Karoshi, meaning "overwork death." Hustling should not be about working endlessly or juggling countless tasks simultaneously. Instead, it involves resetting your day and week. This reset allows you to shed daily stress, reconnect with yourself, appreciate nature, and practice gratitude. By resetting I mean, putting away the stress from your day to an ease at the end of day, to connect back to your soul, to connect back to the nature, to be present and to be grateful.

As I'm not a medical professional, consider this a personal perspective rather than medical advice. In this article, I’ll share what burnout looks like, its causes, and prevention strategies based on my experiences.- from my lens

Burnout through my lens

Every person in his/her life feels burnt out at one point of time or other( me too..we are all in the same boat:) ). I will narrow down my experiences categorized as reasons of stress and burnout here.

Workload

Many can relate to stress caused by workload. Sometimes it is due to the work culture, and sometimes it’s just us. Well if it’s the work culture, uhh you know what I am thinking. But if it is you, it’s time to improve. Stress is sometimes good, in adequate proportions. It helps us to perform well and not to forget, it helps us to meet deadlines. But the overdose of it should be illegal.

Consider overdose of work and stress as illegal

If things at work are not going as you planned due to one reason or other, you should remember it’s the work- the one part of your life, and not your entire life. You can not let it affect your other parts of life- health, relationships, etc. Having a set daily routine before and after my work helps me to reset. Take some time out in the morning before logging in to your work. Make use of that time to read, to listen podcasts, enjoy music, go for a walk, or whatever you enjoy doing. Starting the day with being grateful and being present helps a lot. This also has domino effect on all dimensions of your life throughout the entire day. Similarly, winding down after work, go for a evening walk, pick up your hobbies or just watch funny videos you feel so. Anything which helps you to reset. Practice some night time routine. Reading a book not only makes me feel good, it also helps me to fall asleep.

Problem with setting boundaries

People who have problem with setting boundaries feel burnt out more often as they have a dirty habit of saying yes to everyone and everything. To be honest, I was guilty of this too at one point of time. But once I saw the repercussions of this habit, I flipped. Trust me they are bad. I have been practicing setting boundaries since then. Setting boundaries help you to protect your inner peace, take time out for your physical and mental well being. Learn to say no to things which do not align with your values, your principles and your well being.

Setting personal boundaries is not equal to being selfish. Learn the art of saying “No”

And plz, it doesn’t mean being selfish, but rather it is self-ish( ha ha). The reason for this feeling of guilt is very well explained in the book “Badass Habits: Cultivate the Awareness, Boundaries, and Daily Upgrades You Need to Make Them Stick” by Jen Sincero. It is mostly because some people in our life, specially the ones we love, start acting out when we start changing our habits to set boundaries. It is not because they are bad but rather because they are human too. Humans have a deep natural instinct of being always right and a deep subconscious fear of new things, unpredictable things. When they feel, you are changing, that fear comes to life- of unpredictability, of losing you. Setting boundaries not only help you to prevent burnouts, but also help people in your life, in the long run. Also you are teaching them to start setting boundaries for themselves. It can be difficult but good things take time. Rome was not built in a day.

Not everyone is building rockets

Don’t get me wrong, I know every job demands hard work. But seriously, not everyone is making rockets. We should stop being so serious all the time.

Enjoy little things

Taking your life too seriously is like laying down the red carpet for stress and burnout. Whenever I feel I am taking my life too seriously or being so stressed out, I look around me. I have a house to live in, food to eat, loving relationships, a job to pay my expenses. This is enough to feel blessed. Then I have you as a reader and as a supporter for my writings. Extra blessed:) This teaches us to calm down a little and enjoy life, be present and make best out of your day. This one step of being grateful helps a lot in preventing burnouts.

Know which battles to win

Sometimes people, specially who are perfectionists, believe that they have to win every battle( again I am guilty as well). Winning is good but you have to understand the cost it takes. If there is some challenge which is not aligned to your goals, not aligned to your values, just drop it. It is not worth it. Repeat the following sentence after me.

“Anything which is taking a toll on your physical or mental health is not worth pursuing”.

By practicing this, you will feel that you have created a very important filter on problems and challenges before reaching to you. This in result prevents burnout.

I understand all the above things are easy said than done. But better start sooner than later. Start incorporating these little steps in your routine. You will surely feel better.

To sum it up, the steps are

Set a Morning routine, a night routine, practice setting boundaries, learn the art of saying no, practice being grateful, know which battles to win and start living in the present

Hope this read proves to be useful for you and comes as a reminder for calming down a little.

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