How to Prevent Burnout
- Olivia Kehres
- Mar 30
- 3 min read
How does burnout occur?
Experiencing burnout is a cause of internal and external factors that create a state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion usually by the effects from stress. Some reasons burnout occurs is because of toxic work/school environments/relationships, heavy workloads, high expectations/pressure, feeling dissatisfied with your efforts, PTSD, lack of control, poor personal and professional life balance, personal life, perfectionism, and lack of support. All of these factors happen in everyday life, but it's how we deal with them that makes a difference. Our response to stressors, anxiety provoking situations, high expectations, and nonideal conditions is what will determine whether burnout will occur or if we can stop it from happening. To recognize when we may be experiencing burnout or making our way towards it, let's look at the stages of burnout as mentioned by Medical News Today:
Honeymoon Phase: This is initial motivation, determination, and positive outlook that is relied upon to complete a task.
Onset of Stress: In this stage, we begin to realize that there are many things to be done but little time. There is a realization that working hours are expanding along with stress and responsibility.
Chronic Stress: At this point, stress is lasting longer and physical symptoms such as headaches or nausea begin to arise.
Burnout: Eventually, burnout will occur and the mind, body, and spirit will be exhausted. There may be a lost interest in work/school, a decline in productivity, and negative feelings towards work/school.
Chronic Burnout: Developing a significant impaired ability to function, worsening mental, physical, and emotional states.
How do I help prevent burnout?
To prevent burnout, you must be able to recognize the signs of burnout in the first place. This could mean an upset stomach, tense muscles, headaches, etc. These signs are some of the physical factors that are affected due to burnout, however, some emotional factors include feeling tired, unmotivated, mentally exhausted, etc. Overall, burnout is one of the ways we experience anxiety or stress from work and school.
Setting personal boundaries is one way you can help your body handle the workload being carried. This doesn't mean limiting your ability or stunting your potential, but rather managing what needs to be accomplished. Organizing your events, tasks, and days will help these boundaries come to full effect. This could also mean creating a stricter work-life balance to make sure you can manage and optimize overall productivity.
Something that is often overlooked is caring about yourself first and prioritizing self-care. This is not a waste of time or effort, it allows some relaxation while working to improve the mind, body, and soul. To some people this may mean exercise, eating healthier, or spending more time with friends and family, while to others this might mean listening to music, being creative (read, paint, draw, etc.), or practicing positive affirmations. There are many ways to calm your mind, body, and soul that will feel like an improvement instead of a wasteful leisure.
There are so many ways to experiment how to help burnout from occurring or continuing and there will always be more solutions to discover. However, the only way you can help yourself is by actually caring and by actually trying to practice positively and improving self-care such as what was discussed above. Love yourself first, you are worth it!
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