Burnout: What Causes It, 5 Techniques to Avoid It

You vanish in the midst of it all, you become nothing, and you plunge into the deepest depths of that place where demons dwell, where each of your fears comes true. It's your mind, after all, that decides to harbor them. It's you who gives them the possibility to take a part of your moments, your aspirations, each of your deepest desires, every longing, every hope.

What are you waiting for to change the order of that signal that doesn't let you move forward, perhaps shielding yourself with an endless array of social and work-related excuses? The world is there for you to live in, for it to be yours, so you don't waste your time on what lives in the past and invest everything in what has yet to happen.

The reality of this present points to the inconsistency of leaving aside our health to be part of something bigger. For some reason, we stop allowing ourselves to breathe or smile because we impose upon ourselves the duty that others burden us with. Often, we do it mechanically because we don't have a more important reason than the self-imposition of a path that seems to go in circles and has no chance of evolution.

Burnout can manifest in various ways. You might feel burnt out, with apathy, without reason. Your most mentioned word might be related to tiredness. Smiles might not appear, and you might feel in a haze that isolates you and stops you, a kind of transformer that takes away part of your energy. These are all signs of burnout, and it's important to recognize them early to prevent further deterioration of your mental health.

Stress is an essential component of burnout.?

But what processes contribute to burnout, to feeling like your head is burning? Fatigue, nerves, and the constant race to achieve that "should be," whether in work, in relationships, or personal matters, cause our bodies to produce neurotransmitters that are in place to make us faster, stronger, or more agile in the face of a specific danger. But like everything in our minds, if we believe that not delivering a report, not meeting a deadline, or being unable to progress are real dangers, our bodies will start a stress process, allowing us to use our resources to the limit.

But... why is there always a but in these things? At some point, we will deplete our reserve of norepinephrine, the neurotransmitter that allows us to keep our senses and muscles sharp and ready to be used since this system is for brief moments. This understanding empowers us to take control of our stress levels. At that moment, the body begins to use another resource it has in quantities, cortisol, which is generally used to regulate carbohydrate consumption, support the immune system, and is part of the sleep-wake cycle regulation. The problem is that when cortisol replaces norepinephrine, it damages us, allowing the system to remain under prolonged stress. Thus, we reach a point where our body rebels, and instead of maintaining a high level of performance, we are left without fuel, strength, or desire.

Let's now examine some techniques for reducing the chances of burnout.

Technique 1: Finding the light at the end of the tunnel

One of the main reasons stress leads to burnout is the lack of a real purpose for what keeps us stressed; that is, the mind suddenly finds itself in a situation from which it knows it will not be able to escape. When prisoners of war are taken, they are often promised that at the end of the conflict, they will be released; in this way, the captives do not feel cornered and do not need to defend themselves. Similarly, when we are in a job that has no growth opportunities, we feel like prisoners without the possibility of escape and, therefore, begin a stressful process, without a light at the end of the tunnel, without the possibility of advancing to the next level and therefore in a combination between the stress caused by feeling trapped and the sadness caused by accepting that there is no more place to go, leads us to a covert desperation that undoubtedly ends in feeling burnt out.

Therefore, we need a purpose, a milestone from which we can evolve, not to live in the future, but to achieve the mental image of an exit, of a goal that we can reach and fulfill. This emphasis on finding purpose can ignite a sense of direction and motivation in our lives, thus releasing endorphins, serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine in proportions that can turn off the alert system and allow us to stop, take a breath, and smile. The goal is to restore neurobiological balance to regain motivation, energy, and overall well-being.

Technique 2: Regular Physical Exercise

Many of us today have to work from home; we are locked in and keep our minds running while the body remains at rest, the muscles lose tone, and our reflexes dull.

This technique is the most logical; we put our bodies under stress, and now we need to spend that energy and fill ourselves with positive sensations. Regular exercise allows you to have an activity in which to expend energy but also leads you to produce all the neurotransmitters (Endorphin, Serotonin, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, and GABA) that fight stress, not to mention that physical activity offers us feelings of well-being, personal purposes, simple milestones to achieve.

Some of us might say we can't or can't find the will to train, that we are worried, that we don't feel like it, and that is precisely burnout. It's time for all of us to get up from that chair and do something good for our bodies... having a sprained ankle, for example, is a great excuse to do sit-ups!

Technique 3: Relaxation, Meditation, and Adequate Sleep

When we don't sleep well, we shake hands with burnout. When we sleep, we lower stress and allow ourselves to simply not think about what stresses us. We enable ideas to be rearranged so that the next day may have a different color with your system rested and slowed down a bit.

The same happens when we meditate or relax. We diminish the importance of the effects of what causes us stress and allow the body to get out of that accelerated mode we got into. When meditating, we can focus on what produces this sensation and observe it from other angles, thus finding possible solutions, paths, and exits, achieving well-being by setting aside the processes that stress us.

Technique 4: Positive Social Interactions

Better alone than in bad company, says the saying; for some strange reason and as social beings, we gather and stay with people we meet along the way. But often, we do not observe whether those people are negative, those who absorb energy instead of sharing it.

Finding people who empower us and make us feel good today proves to be one of the most complex solutions since we live in an era where we stop valuing principles that lead to proposing that the well-being of others is the virtuous and positive path we should take. Spending time with people who empower us allows positive ideas to replace the negative feelings that lead us to stress.

Within the same framework, today, even though we have ways to be connected to everyone, we choose to isolate ourselves amid the noise caused by all those voices, contradictions, negativities, and impositions until we find those people who go on a positive path, who seek our well-being, or at least seek collective well-being.

Technique 5: Reward and Recognition Therapy

Reward and recognition therapy is an effective strategy for combating burnout and promoting mental well-being. It involves establishing a system of rewards and recognition that helps improve motivation, commitment, and job satisfaction.

Being rewarded and recognized for what we do, internalizing that with specific achievements we will have a reward, leads us to a mental place where instead of stressing, we start to play; since we are creating milestones and purposes, from this technique, a path of personal development, growth, and empowerment must accompany. This must be crowned with constructive, regular, and balanced feedback in such a way as to push the person to feel that each of their actions has a purpose and that that purpose contributes to their evolution.

Conclusion

When we play with brain chemistry, we come up with answers to questions that have been asked for millennia. These techniques are many solutions to avoid or even prevent burnout. However, perhaps we could simplify it and understand that we shouldn't give so much importance to things, that smiling is a task that must be done even if it is hard, that having good people around changes everything, and finally, keeping our purpose, our reality, and our actions in sync so that every step we take is always forward without the need to live stressed out.

Author: Fabian Mesaglio