Hello and welcome back to part 3 of the Invisible Shift series where we are discussing everything to do with burnout.
Now if you've ever tried to rest away your burnouts over the weekend and woke up on a Monday feeling just as exhausted,
I really need you to take a deep breath and hear me on this.
You are not doing rest wrong.
You are probably operating in what we call recovery debt.
You see,
You simply cannot repay 6 months or even 6 years yourself past your limits with a two day nap.
Burnout doesn't build up overnight and it definitely does not vanish over 48 hours of passive downtime.
If it was that easy to recover from burnout,
Then we probably wouldn't experience it to begin with.
Recovery from burnout isn't a quick fix.
It's actually a shift in how you live day to day.
When your mind and your body have been running on high alert for months or years,
Your whole system ends up losing its flexibility.
You end up getting stuck in fight or flight mode,
Running on frantic adrenaline,
Or crashing into that heavy,
Numbing,
Zero-energy state where even making a cup of coffee feels like a mountain.
When you're in that place,
Lying on the couch for a weekend doesn't automatically convince your brain that you're safe.
Your body needs clearer,
More consistent signals that the danger has passed before it will truly let its guard down.
In this session today,
I want to walk you through three very simple,
Deeply practical things your body actually needs to pull back from the brink of burnout.
Now before you roll your eyes,
You need to hear me out on this one.
It's all got to do with sleep.
I need you to please stop beating yourself up for having poor sleep quality.
So many people struggling with burnout fall into this very frustrating trap where you are completely exhausted,
But the moment your head the pillow,
Your mind starts racing or your body just refuses to settle.
We can often get into the habit of blaming our bodies for working against us.
But the truth about sleep is that it is actually one of the most vulnerable things a human being can do.
Think about it.
To fall asleep,
You actually have to feel safe enough to completely drop your guard and end up losing a state of consciousness.
So if your daily life feels like a constant emergency,
Asking your body to magically disarm the second the lights go out is nearly impossible task.
Safety comes before sleep.
Before you try to force yourself to fall asleep,
Focus on creating a sense of quiet and comfort in the hours leading up to bed.
Perhaps you consider dimming the harsh overhead lights or stepping away from stressful emails after a certain time or stopping the endless scrolling we are all too guilty of doing.
It's important to remember to take deep,
Slow,
Breaths when you are in bed with long exhales because this tells your heart rate that it's okay to slow down.
Something I have found quite helpful for myself and also for the people who I've worked with over the years is to start to treat your commute home as your downtime.
So by that I mean whether you are driving home,
Sitting in a train or taking the bus,
Whatever it is,
Treat that time as a way to start to tell yourself it is time to wind down.
Down from work and we are allowed to settle down.
Now you may say to me,
But Kim,
I spend two hours in traffic after work and it drives me insane.
And with that,
I will say to you,
I 100% empathize.
I've been there.
But the truth is also when you're in the traffic,
You are the traffic.
We are all part of the same system.
And so when we are trying to force our bodies to try to wind down,
We also have to remind ourselves what are the things that we do and don't have control over.
Remember that you can't force sleep from a body that still thinks it needs to stay awake to protect you.
Be kind to your body.
It is doing the best with what it has that's available to it.
Secondly,
Find one real person to talk to.
We live in a world where it is so easy to isolate ourselves or vent behind a screen to an algorithm typing out comments or scrolling through relatable posts very late at night.
An algorithm cannot comfort you.
As human beings,
We are actually wired to connect with other people.
An algorithm does offer a distraction,
Sure enough,
But it can't offer a gentle voice,
An understanding look,
Or the grounding feeling of having someone right there with you,
Where no words are exchanged.
Humans need humans.
When you are drowning in burnout,
You don't need someone offering silver linings or trying to instantly fix your problems.
What you need is a safe space with a friend,
A therapist,
A loved one or even a colleague.
Someone who can just sit with you,
Listen to your story and say,
I hear you and you are not crazy.
Knowing that you don't have to carry the weight alone is actually where the healing starts.
Thirdly,
Claim one low effort thing you love every week and guard it with everything you've got.
Decisions feels exhausting and joy is usually the very first thing we just end up throwing overboard to save our energy.
But taking time for pure simple pleasure is not selfish nor is it frivolous.
It is medicine for your spirit.
When you make room for something that brings a soft smile to your face,
It reminds your brain that life is about more than just surviving the demands required from you.
Making room for the things that gives you joy ends up providing you with a little pocket of hope.
And it doesn't need to be grand or time-consuming.
It could be 10 quiet minutes sitting in your garden,
Listening to a song that touches your heart,
Whilst drinking a warm cup of coffee.
Of a good book or doing something simple with your hands.
Pick that one low effort moment,
Treat it as something which is essential to your well-being and hold a hard boundary around it.
It is our responsibility to take the reins on our well-being and that means deciding and protecting what is important to you.
It is nobody else's responsibility to remind you to take care of yourself or to remind you to do the things that brings you joy.
Part of building up your resilience in recovery is making time for yourself,
Which is often one of the hardest things to do when you are attempting to recover from burnout.
Recovery isn't about fixing your whole life in one day.
It's about small,
Gentle,
Loving choices that slowly brings you back home to yourself.
And while some of these examples that I've shared with you may not provide overnight recovery,
Remember that it is about small,
Actionable steps.
Recovery is not going to be broken down in one night and you deserve to put the time into yourself.
I hope you remember that you deserve good things from life.
Your well-being matters.
Your mental health is important and you have a purpose to fulfill in this life.
Thank you for spending this time with me today.
I'm so grateful that you were here to listen to this and we were able to connect with each other.
Take good care of yourself.
I know that you can do it and I look forward to connecting you in the next part as we talk about burnout recovery actually feels like in reality.
I'll see you there and we will continue to explore the realities of what makes us human.
