Mental Health, Burnout, and Finding Balance in Today’s World
How normal is it to feel burnt out?
Is it normal to feel burnt out? It depends on our work environment. However, I’d go as far as noting: not feeling burnt out in an exploitative environment, is abnormal.
Throughout my time working in the mental health field, I have witnessed the paradox of institutions wanting to improve their worker’s productivity and output yet also expecting them to “never burn out, never look too tired, never show just how human you are”. Does that sound familiar?
As a therapist, I have been encouraged by many employers to “do our team mental health challenge!” or “be sure to write how we can help you best prevent burnout”. Yet, the hierarchies we work within, north american professionalism standards, and the seemingly never-ending rat race did not allow for much improvement to my burnout or mental health. I realized, no matter how many of our 2 mental health days we take off in the year, how many deep breathing exercises we do, or how many yoga classes we attend- the burnout follows us until our work environment changes.
This means that the more we try to find balance by changing ourselves to fit into unhealthy work environments or institutions, the more dysregulated we will become.
There is no “easy-fix” to burnout, something has got to give! Is it going to be you? Or is there a chance that something about your job/work environment has to change?
If the answer to that last question is “absolutely” but you don’t know where to start, consider creating a short term and a long term plan of the changes you’d like to make. These can look something like this:
Short term plan:
Change my commute routine to include grounding and deep breathing (this will help for when we need to have difficult conversations, or make scary life changes)
Talk to my partner/family about my burnout, discuss possible solutions to decrease workload at home.
Talk to my employer about my burnout, discuss possible solutions to decrease workload at my job.
Long term:
Work at this job for 6 more months, save up every month.
Talk to friends and family about my want to leave my job/improve my work environment, see if they have any suggestions.
Apply to other jobs, interview jobs (Remember: Tocar la puerta no es entrar, knocking doesn’t mean we have to enter!)
When we see a light at the end of the tunnel, suddenly that gives us strength to get to our goal: mental and physical freedom!
In case you haven’t been reminded today: you are capable of anything you put your mind to as long as you are patient, consistent, and flexible. You are not a rat in a maze, you’re a human being who deserves to feel heard, rested, and valued. We all have that human right.
If you are interested in processing and working through burnout with a mental health professional, please be sure to submit an inquiry!
