When you're dealing with burnout, the exhaustion, negativity, and emotional distance can make peace of mind feel like it's miles away. Unlike regular stress, burnout often comes from facing tough responsibilities or situations over a long time. These stressors build up and affect almost every part of your life, leaving you feeling completely drained. This stress can even make you sick!
Burnout often sneaks up on you slowly, draining your passion, drive, and energy, and leaving you feeling worn out, disheartened, and frustrated. Despite how all-encompassing burnout can seem, recovery is possible.
Here are 9 straightforward tips to help you bounce back from burnout.
A adult sitting with their head down at a desk in front of a laptop
1. Strengthen active reflection and self-compassion practices
When supporting people in recovering from burnout, it's crucial to offer them extra self-kindness and patience. Engaging in reflective exercises can also help them understand the bigger picture of what might be happening.
Research shows that practicing self-compassion and empathy can help reduce burnout. By incorporating self-compassion into your daily routine, you can ease current burnout symptoms and stop new ones from developing.
Here are some ways to practise self-compassion when recovering from burnout:
Be patient – give it time and focus. Healing from burnout takes time and can’t be fixed with just one candle or a single bubble bath.
Acknowledge and appreciate the effort you're putting in, not just the end result.
Consider taking an ownership mindset. Look for the opportunities and choices you can make to improve your present and future.
Remember to consider the system you're working in! If you see success as finishing everything in a job where there's always more to do, you'll likely feel stressed and unhappy. Take a moment to think about how you can protect yourself, improve the way things work, or find a different system that suits your needs better.
2. Create action items for systemic changes
Finding actions that fit your schedule and needs can help you make lasting changes in your daily work life and prevent burnout:
Set work boundaries: hen you find yourself not being productive, take a quick break. If you work from home, set up different spaces for work and relaxation so you don’t mix the two. Also, have a schedule so you know when to “switch off” at a certain time.
Make a list of what stresses you out and what re-energizes you. Write down a couple of actions to reduce your stress every few days or each week. If making this list feels stressful, set a time limit (5-10 minutes) and remember that recovering from burnout takes time.
Make meaning: Take some time to think about and reconnect with what really matters to you, including your values, goals, and priorities. You might be in this demanding job because you want to help people, you might also be working hard to provide financial security for your family. When we remember why we're doing something hard, it makes it easier to keep going. If you find that your values or goals are changing, that's fine – just create a plan to handle this change ahead of time. Keeping a gratitude journal can really make a difference for this.
3. Develop daily strategies to prevent burnout
Identifying and changing habits that might be causing burnout can help stop it from taking over your life. Spend some time each day doing these simple exercises to reflect and check in with yourself:
Take care of your body: Really important! Get some exercise, eat when you're hungry, and sleep when you need to. During recovery, it's especially important not to push yourself too hard.
Unwind before bed: Before you go to bed, take a moment to relax. Listen to some music, read something soothing, or think about the meaningful parts of your day.
Disconnect from screens: Technology keeps us connected, which is great but can also be overwhelming. Here are some practical tips to help you step away from screens.
Create a gentle reflection practice: It could be a meaningful chat with a close friend or a brief journal entry — I really like the 2-minute journal that has a gratitude practice.
Many people associate staying present or mindful with meditation, which is a great option, but it doesn't always work for everyone, especially at the beginning. Mindfulness could be watching a basketball game, eating a snack, or taking a 5 minute walk around the block with the intention of practising being present and nonjudgmental.
4. Set aside time to thoughtfully consider your achievements and efforts.
In the rush of today’s busy life, it’s easy to finish one task and quickly move on to the next without taking a moment to celebrate your wins. But if you see success as just getting everything done in a never-ending stream of work, you’re likely to burn out eventually.
It's important to acknowledge both your accomplishments and the effort you've invested. You don't need to keep a list of everything you do (especially if you're feeling burnt out and don't want another task!). However, taking a moment to reflect can help you remember the worth of what you do.
Here are two easy but effective ways to look back on how far you've come:
Spend 5-10 minutes at the end of each work day jotting down what you learned, noticed, and achieved. You can jot this down in a work journal, an app, or even the notes section of your iCal or Google Calendar. You can also do this throughout the day in ways that are subtle and easy to fit into your work routine.
Memorise these mindful questions for a daily reflection meditation. Studies have shown that mindfulness can help prevent burnout [3,4]. Taking just 5 minutes to reflect mindfully gives you a chance to recognize your successes and understand your challenges without judgment. Try asking yourself: Where did I find joy today? Has anything caused me inner stress or conflict? What did I learn today? You can think about these questions anytime, whether you’re on your way home, having dinner, or washing dishes.
5. Take a break to hit the 'reset' button on your life.
If your burnout is severe to the point where you're struggling to function, you may benefit from taking time off so that you can reset and refresh. Taking a break, whether it's a getaway or just a few days of relaxation at home, can really help.
Make sure to turn off work emails or other notifications, as even small pings can bring up stress and make it harder for you to relax.
If taking time off isn’t possible, try to take small breaks at work. Moving from one tough task to another can lead to burnout, so make sure to go for a walk or do some breathing exercises between projects.
6. Recognize and replace negative self-talk
We often start criticizing ourselves during tough days or weeks. But knocking yourself down in the midst of an already-stressful period won't exactly move you forward! So instead, try replacing your negative self-talk with more supportive, nurturing language. Here are tips for getting started:
If you find that negative self-talk is deeply ingrained, you might need to start recognizing it. Next time you're feeling low, notice how you talk to yourself, like saying, "I should have completed this task by now," or "I'm so dumb for messing this up."
I could be done by now, but I chose to focus on [abc] instead. Remember how much I’ve already accomplished, and as a result, I'm in a better place with [xyz]." For the second, try "I'm worried about doing a good job, but one slip up doesn't define me. I can pause and fix the situation."
7. Adopt an "ownership mindset"
A big part of burnout is feeling like life is happening to you instead of being in control of it. By choosing to have an "ownership mindset," you remind yourself that, even if others have played a role in your situation, you still have the power to make your own choices. This is about empowerment, not placing blame!
Here are a few small ways to adopt this mindset:
At the start of the work week or day, ask yourself, “What’s the one thing I can do today to move closer to my goal?
Take ownership of your commitments by clearly understanding and sticking to what you can realistically handle.
With this perspective, you might find it easier to spot opportunities and make choices that can enhance both your current situation and your future.
8. Give yourself permission to be an imperfect human.
If you always demand perfection from yourself, anything less might feel like a failure. Allow yourself to be imperfect, knowing that one action doesn't define who you are.
Here are some ways to respond to perfectionism if it's negatively impacting you:
Notice when you're having perfectionist thoughts and label them as such without judging them ('That's a perfectionist thought,' or 'That's perfectionism').
Imagine talking to a friend in the same situation. It sounds like you're being hard on yourself. You did your best at the time. Now, try to be as kind to yourself as you would to a friend.
9. Seek professional support through therapy
Therapy is a great way to understand what burnout feels like for you, figure out which parts of burnout are hardest for you, and identify what's causing your burnout. For instance, if you find that feeling disconnected is affecting your work or home life, you can develop strategies to improve your relationships and interactions.
These strategies may include steps to protect your energy. For example, delegating tasks if possible and working on communication such as setting boundaries with respect rather than with irritation. A therapist can help you tackle the different causes of burnout, as each cause might require a different approach.
When searching for a therapist to help with burnout, seek one who:
Is familiar with burnout recovery literature
Helps you work towards both short-term and long-term goals.
Has the ability to help clients tell the difference between burnout, depression, and anxiety.
Helps you feel at ease and get where you're coming from.
Has an understanding of systemic issues such as workplace discrimination if these are big factors in your experience of burnout, as not all of us are trained in culturally competent counselling
Burnout can feel really tough, but it is treatable, and getting through it can be a powerful experience! Working with a vetted therapist is the right next step.
Through recovery, you can become more in touch with your values and goals, feel more confident in your ability to manage stress, and learn to implement practices that will help you play the long game well. While burnout generally is temporary, the growth you experience in being intentional about treating it can be lasting!
An experienced psychologist can help you overcome burnout by guiding you through recovery. At Koott, we have a team of skilled Malayali psychologists who specialize in this area. They will help you tell the difference between burnout, depression, and anxiety, giving you personalized support to heal through our online counseling service.
Koott can help.
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