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What can we do to prevent burnout and stop ourselves from getting exhausted?

by Damien Howard-Pask

How often do you feel weary and depleted? Or perhaps just plain exhausted?

Anna Schaffner knows these feelings well. In her previous life as an academic she suffered from burnout. Now she works as a coach specialising in helping those who are exhausted, and has written a book, Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary.

 

So, what can we do to prevent burnout and stop ourselves from getting exhausted?
 
1. Know yourself – understand what gives you energy and what costs you energy
 

“A good starting point is to reflect on our natural preferences,” says Anna. “What costs us energy and what gives us energy? Do we, for example, have an introverted preference or an extroverted one? Introverts need alone-time to recharge, whereas extroverts get their energy from being with other people.

2. Find something that energises you and that makes you feel alive – a hobby!

“When we’re exhausted and when we lack energy, we tend to cut activities out of our lives and our lives shrink, our horizon of experiences becomes ever smaller,” says Anna. “That’s kind of intuitive, that we want to avoid expending energy. But it’s also very dangerous because we cut out what has the potential to re-energise us, to nourish us.

3. Nourish your soul

“Listen to music. Read a novel. Dance. Sweat. Watch a great film. Get out into nature. Share a secret with a friend. Do something that makes you feel something – anything!” says Anna. “Find something that can be what author Franz Kafka described as the ‘axe for the frozen sea inside us’ – whatever that may be.”
 

4. Check the narratives you live by

“What kinds of stories do you tell yourself about yourself?” says Anna. “Are they helpful or unkind? And what stories do you tell yourself about time, about productivity, about work, and about your value as a human being?

 

Anna joined Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to discuss why we might be feeling this way, how we can spot the signs, and her advice for dealing with it.

 

Adapted from: Are you exhausted? How to spot the signs and why hobbies could help. BBC Radio 4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5trwc8wBylmsCYmCD7z9Z2z/are-you-exhausted-how-to-spot-the-signs-and-why-hobbies-could-help