Burnout Warning Signs Before You Crash
Working hard and staying on top of responsibilities can feel like a good thing. However, when work starts to feel never-ending and there’s little room left for rest or personal time, it can be a sign you’re heading toward burnout.
Signs You May Be Near Burnout
Balancing work and personal life has always been challenging. With work now accessible on our phones and laptops, it can feel almost impossible to fully disconnect.
Burnout can show up in different ways, including anxiety, low mood, and a loss of motivation in daily life. It is important to monitor signs of burnout before they become a long-term issue.
Common warning signs before burnout occurs include:
Persistent fatigue/chronic exhaustion
Becoming emotionally detached from your body, thoughts, & emotions during work
Regular tasks that were once easy now feel impossibly overwhelming
Physical symptoms that are not linked to any other clear issues (ex. Insomnia, fatigue, muscle tension, headaches, etc.)
It’s normal to feel tired after a busy week. But if you start to feel stuck, unmotivated, or disconnected. However, it is different to start to feel your life is suddenly meaningless or that you have no motivation or joy in work that was once a personal achievement for you.
Being consistently overworked without properly balancing maintenance of healthy interpersonal relationships and a sense of self outside of work can, in extreme cases, lead to difficulty focusing, increased irritability, or feeling overwhelmed by everyday tasks.
Preventing Burnout & its Long-term Negative Effects
You might be thinking: “I can’t just quit my job, how do I deal with this?” If it is not your job itself that is making you feel chronic stress, but rather, work overload and feeling not being able to switch off, then mindfulness therapy and EFT therapy skills may be integral to preventing burnout and maintaining balance long-term.
Mindfulness therapy helps you stay present and regulate stress in real time. If you find yourself always stressing about the future, particularly about work deadlines, and unable to truly relish in your down-time, mindfulness techniques are designed specifically for learning to enjoy the present, as well as relaxation exercises to physically help with muscle tension and anxiety. Some of these practices include:
Breathing exercises that calm your nervous system
Practicing bodily awareness to ground yourself
Allowing thoughts, feelings, and worries to pass through without hooking onto them and overthinking
It does not have to come in the form of popular meditative exercises; you and a therapist can create particular exercises tailored to your needs & interests.
Emotion-Focused (EFT) therapy helps you understand the emotional side of burnout. Learning about your under-explored, maybe even unconscious emotions, or emotions that you may not be aware you are avoiding can be helpful in preventing burnout.
Life without Constant Overwork is Possible
It may be tempting to assume that because you need to work to live, you are stuck in a cycle of being perpetually overworked and crashing from burnout every once in a while.
Life doesn’t have to be this way. If you learn to confront, feel, and safely process your emotions using EFT therapy, as well as integrating mindfulness therapy practices to help you relax and stay present.
At Healing Voices Psychotherapy, we offer EFT therapy, as well as Mindfulness therapy, in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, and Newmarket, Ontario. If you feel chronically overworked, you’re not alone, and it doesn’t have to stay this way. We provide a supportive space where you can manage stress and feel more in control. Book a free 15-minute consultation today to take the first step toward feeling calm again.
