Cooling Down the Burn-out
FEATURE | MAHI
Written by Sanskruti Banerjee (she/her) | @star._.stuffbysan / @san._. | Contributing Writer
Illustration by Gabbie De Baron (she/her) | @gabizzlesizzle | Graphic Designer
Ever woken up with that feeling of tiny weights on top of your eyelids, a sore body and zero will to do anything? You, like a lot of people, are probably burnt out. Before diving in, what actually is burnout? Let’s take a look into the world of exhaustion where there is probably so much on your plate that it’s slipping out of your hands.
Burn-out defined
Definition according to Help Guide - Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands.
If we were to look at this like the new Inside-Out movie does at emotions, burn-out could honestly be it’s own separate little feeling inside your head’s control system. Orange, with big tired eyes and a constant flame that looks barely lit on his little head. When burn-out’s on the control system, nothing else is going to cooperate. It’s almost like your body is giving up on you because there’s probably been times during your “girlbossing era” when you’ve given up on your body. As Taylor Swift once wisely said: karma’s a bitch. This is highkey your body taking revenge on you for not looking after it.
A lot of times people actually don’t even realise they’re burnt out. That’s why it’s so easy for people to pass up or ignore it. Usually, they say “I’m just tired, I’ll be fine soon” but the longer it’s ignored, the worse it gets. The main difference between just being tired and being burnt out is timespan how long the feeling lasts. If it's 2-5 days ish you just need a little rest, but any more than that means you need a long time to recover. Burnout can lead to some crazy connections and patterns in human behaviour; you could be too over ambitious and start depersonalising your own needs, become cynical or even have your open-mindedness to change decrease. Stressed is blessed is not the motto you should be following. The Nap Ministry on Instagram says more and more Gen-Z people are normalising unhealthy work hours, toxic achievement culture and the lack of self-care.
Why am I burnt out?
You girlbossed too close to the sun and forgot your basics. Food, water, sleep. It sounds so easy but having breakfast (an iced coffee at 2pm), sleeping at 4am and replacing water for energy drinks day after day can take a toll on you. Whether this was because of mahi you’re involved in with the endless zoom meetings, exam study/uni and assignments coming up or anything else - you would have constantly been go go go.
You’ve been a BUSY bee. Life just got in the way of you being able to do the things that bring you joy. Prioritisation meant taking out things relating to wellbeing, self-care and even fun. This can leave you feeling burnt out because there’s no space being created for you to just exist, breathe and de-stress.
These two reasons combined are probably what is making you feel the way you feel. Still don’t notice it? Still in denial? Well, here are some burnout signs that pretty much show inevitably that you need some good ol’ hit-the-hay time.
Top seven signs you are burnt out
You aren’t making time for the people you love or haven’t seen them in a while.
You can’t remember the last thing you did for YOU.
You haven’t slept properly in a while or for enough hours.
You haven’t been eating enough or drinking enough water.
You keep getting colds/sick and body aches or sore throats.
Your will to do anything has plummeted down and all you wanna do is curl up in bed.
You feel like you need some relaxing time or a vacation - just anything away from work and people.
See? Don’t gaslight yourself, babe, you are most definitely in need of some self-care time.
What to do?
So how can you continue to slay - because let’s be real rotting in your bed (as ideal as that sounds) can sometimes make burnout feel even worse. Here are some ways to get your body, mind and soul a momentary reflection and pause so you can do whatever it is you need to do again!
Do not be afraid to say NO to work. Trust me, in the long run, nobody will hold it against you if you ask for that extension for an assignment, postpone that Zoom meeting or don’t meet that person for that thing. If it means you kick-start your process of recovery, so be it! This truly is a situation where rest a while, run a mile comes into play. The more you try to add workload-wise during your already burnt-out state, the longer the time you will have to take to recover.
Create space for YOU. Do an activity that you enjoy at least once to twice a week, don’t miss out on seeing the people you love and prioritise self-care. This doesn’t have to be how the media portrays it either - do what works for you. If it's self-help books and skincare, then do that. If it’s working out or dancing, embrace it - or honestly if you just need some good snacks and to curl up with a Netflix binge, literally do that…anything as long as it's for you and making you happy.
Reassess. Re-prioritise. Relook. Why is your life burning you out? Are there things you are committing to, that you do not have the capacity for? Why are you doing these things? Doing a big brainstorm can help you identify what it is you need to do, to reshuffle your life so the cards are more in your favour.
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