4 Ways To Avoid Burnout

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Barely a day goes by when we don’t hear about the high numbers of the cases of burnout in the corporate world.

Here, psychologist Dan Sainsbury (and former corporate sales person that endured hard-core sales environments) highlights 4 ways to completely avoid burnout.

1. Recognise the signs

If you have a constant level of high anxiety or a large number of sudden waves of fear and other such jolts to the nervous system – or a constant very high level of stress – it’s really not a good sign.

You may think you are Mr or Mrs Superhero that can power through anything but if the feeling of stress and fear feels out of control then the body and brain are being flooded with neurotoxins like cortisol. Fine now and again, but not as a constant. And certainly not as a constant for weeks and months at a time.

There’s only one of you, so don’t feel you have to plough on. You sick and burnt out is no good for anyone. There’s plenty of decent jobs for someone of your talents. And as I say, only one of you.

2. Ditch the a-hole boss

Another way of having out-of-control stress, fear and anxiety is if you have a tyrannical, egregious boss.

One that you feel could flip out at any time, or is generally unreasonable. One that you are always on red-alert around.

What to do in this case?

You can speak to his or her boss, or just generally take leadership of the situation. If you were completely proactive here, what would you do? Start interviewing elsewhere?

Address the situation head-on?

A lot of the terrible forms of stress (rather than the more positive, in the flow “eu-stress” states) occur when we feel we have no control and feel completely vulnerable in the face of the elements.

Noone deserves to feel like that. We’re all grown up adults here. Take control, have a word, or make plans to leave.

3. Go to the drawing-board

Take an hour or so to deliberately plan your life.

What does the IDEAL life look like?

In an ideal world, where are you working?

What kind of role is it?

What’s the environment like?

What’s the company like?

What’s the leadership like?

Let your mind just float to your ideal.

Do this often.

As we do this, the mind and body get imprinted by the internal markers of the ideal and we naturally begin to steer toward that.

When we deliberately activate the imaginal layers of the mind, we can start to design and make manifest these core parts of our life.

Instead of sleepwalking into the next terrible role, we can ask the bigger questions of what the ideal looks like.

There’s a part of the brain called the reticular activating system which will then assist you in making it happen.

So be deliberate in DESIGNING your ideal situations and the power and focus of the mind is such that you can forge it into reality.

We were told off for daydreaming at school but when harnessed in the right way, this activity is one of the best ways to purposefully design a life – and a workplace – you love.

4. Learn some emotional health skills

There’s so much out there that can help.

I used to be all over the place with my emotions, mainly anxiety and fear. One of my personal favourite ways to CLEAR pernicious and uncomfortable feelings is the following process:

A. drop out of the head (thoughts) into the body (the way you feel)

B. notice the feeling and where it mainly is in the body (generally it’s going to be the chest or stomach)

C. allow the feeling to be there in full and as you do so, breathe it into the heart-centre (the point in the upper-centre part of your chest), hold it there for 1.5 seconds then breathe it out

D. repeat with what remains of the feeling

E. repeat the process til gone

This I find to be an extremely good way to remove uncomfortable emotions and feelings, and in doing so the thoughts naturally calm down on their own.

Try it now!

What you will probably find happens is that as you become clearer and more pristine internally, not only will you no longer be pulled thither and yon by these difficult, catastrophising emotions but you will be able to start seeing OVER AND AROUND the problem and see a way out.

Hope all these help.

Noone deserves to feel like this not with so many options out there. And not when there is a path out there perfect for you.

If you want any help please do not hesitate to get in contact.

Dan Sainsbury Transformational Psychologist

+44 77239 25056