Burnout and YOU

Last week, we talked about Your Character Strengths, and the research that continues tells us how important it is to use our strengths in our personal and professional lives. In that post, we linked to a free character strength assessment on Via Institute’s website.

We heard from some of you that you found the assessment helpful and will look for more opportunities to use your strengths more often. That’s great!

We heard from others that you’re just too exhausted, overworked, and burned out to pull up and think about the possibilities of living life differently. We’re so sorry to hear that and we want to let you know that you’re not alone.

Many of us tend to wear “busy” as a badge, and all too often, we push numbly through the anxiety, pain, and stressors of life. In pushing through, we can miss or discount, the messages that our physical, spiritual, and emotional selves are trying to tell us.

We want to remind you that you don’t have to take on all the things for all of the people.

Your health and wellness are important and burnout is serious. Burnout is, in many ways, a response to depletion and has very real physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences. Learning how to take care of yourself is critical so you can live with energy, success, and satisfaction.

Researchers are finding that it could take years to fully recover from burnout and exhaustion. In an article on duke.edu, Psychiatry and Behavioral Science Professor, Robin Gurwitch, describes this state as “cumulative stress”.

Think of cumulative stress as building blocks
that continue to stack upon one another.
The higher the stack the more it is at risk for tipping.
– Robin Gurwitch

So, what can you do? The common theme we’ve found in the research and in the work we do, is that connection is key. Connection to self and others, and knowing when you need one versus the other.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll go into more detail with examples about what connection to self and connection to others can look like in your life.

This week, consider checking in with yourself daily to ask, “What do I need today? Connection to myself, connection to others, or some combination of both?”

We’ve found that the simple act of checking in on yourself regularly can be a wonderful gift. 

Keep us posted!