What is Burn out?
Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place.
When you are constantly on the go; be it with work, family, business or life in general we can sometimes reach a stage called burn out. Feelings of being overwhelmed, extreme exhaustion and the enthusiasm you usually have in tasks and life roles ceases and you may need to take a break. (although it some cases it can be a lot more serious. Please refer to details below)
What are the signs of burn out?
There are over a dozen psychological and physical symptoms (warning signs) that suggest you may be getting burnt. Please see https://ada.com/signs-of-burnout/
Is Burn Out that serious?
The short answer is yes! Burn out may possibly turn to break down if you do not do anything about it. Your mind and body really does need to be taken care of with top priority. Being burnt out is caused by stress and this may possibly effect your physical health.
Even electronic devices can get overheated and will automatically shut down until they have been recharged. Likewise, we too need to look at how we are managing our time, our well-being, our mental health… essentially our self-care, otherwise we too may become over exhausted and worn out.
Every plane must land
In simple terms if you think of yourself as a plane. Built to fly high, carrying passengers and has incredible capability and purpose. However, every plane must land. No matter how great the build of the plane, the expertise of the pilot, the hospitality of the cabin crew. The plane still needs to land to be refueled before it can take off again. Otherwise it will not function properly and eventually become dysfunctional and need repairing.
The same goes for you. No matter how specialised you are in your field, how talented, how compassionate and driven you may be…you need to take time to land and refuel. You must take care of yourself!
The foolish pilot
Now imagine there was a pilot who had all the qualifications, they were in fact one of the best pilots around! Yet one day they were flying a plane and the fuel, light was signaling ‘refuel needed!” yet they chose to ignore the signs consequently putting their own life as well as others at serious risk. The plane starts wavering and begins to start drop…suddenly it crashes. Tragically Iives are now in jeopardy, their reputation is ruined and their own life was in a terrible state. All of which could have been avoided if they had just landed and refueled the aircraft.
Some of the time we can be like the foolish pilot. Our bodies are letting us know ‘hey it is time to land’. Our minds might not quite be there and our emotional state is wavering yet, we choose to ignore the signals. At the cost of your own mental state you continue to keep trying to fly and eventually you too may crash. (metaphorically speaking)
A better you
When you take the time to refuel and make your own wellbeing a priority you will actually be a much better person to those around you. Since you have taken care of you, you can now take care of others. You can fly your plane well and function properly. The passengers on your journey of life with you can enjoy your presence at ease. You can give your best service to yourself, family, friends, work, business and a variety of roles, having a clearer mind to solve problems and come up with fresh ideas. Most importantly you will be a much happier you and able to enjoy everyday life a lot more.
What Now?
So, the bottom line is take the time to refuel and take care of yourself. The best way we advise this is to create a self-care plan where you analyse what you enjoy, how often you should and implement some good mental habits. To also recognise your stress signs and what can you do to prevent getting there and knowing what to say yes and no to.
If you are already at breaking point there is no shame and we strongly advise you to seek professional help. Get in contact with of one of our therapist today. If it is urgent please contact Samaritans 24 hour helpline.
Take care of yourself,
Bennu UK
If this post has been triggering for you or you would like further advice, please refer to useful links below
Useful links
https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/mental-health-services/
