Can we please pause for a second and talk about how tiring life can be at times? I’m tired, I don’t know if it’s the cold weather or waking up at 7am for my lectures, the seasonal depression what ever it is, I am tired.
I wish people were more honest about how much life sucks sometimes you know, all you want to do is lay in bed and do absolutely nothing, talk to nobody, turn off your phone you know what I mean ?
What is burnout?
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. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place.
helpguide.org
I always said ”I’ll sleep when I die”…this is terrible way of thinking because I just ended up overworked and burned out. Endless working is heavily idolised on social media and it’s almost become competition to see who can work the hardest without rest. Burnout. That’s what happens. To work hard is very rewarding, you should definitely work but it’s okay to give yourself a break every once in a while.
The worst scenario though, is overworking that ultimately contributes to one’s demise. The Japanese have a name for this, and it’s called “karoshi” (death by overwork). There is also what they call “karojisatsu,” (overwork contributing to suicide). There have been cases in Japan in which the prevailing overwork culture caused clinical depression resulting in suicide in some workers.
thriveglobal.com
This doesn’t just apply to people in the corporate world. This goes for guardians, teachers, parents (yes parents need a break too) , students who happen to be parents and have a full time job, students in university working on a project that’s affecting them in ways they didn’t think it would. It can be really overwhelming when you have so much to do without a break.
The goal is to always take care of our mental wellbeing. If you are burned out and stressed, you won’t be able to do anything which is why it’s okay to take care of yourself once in a while and you definitely shouldn’t feel bad for taking a break and having a lazy day.
I was recently encouraged to have a lazy day and my response to that was ”I can’t do that, I have too many unfinished tasks that need to be completed” but the reason why I wasn’t able to finish them is because I had been too stressed to do anything and had been forcing myself to do them even though I lacked motivation. With further encouragement I took a Friday off and did absolutely nothing. It was the best thing I ever did for myself. 10/10 would recommend.
You have to be selfish and think about you and only you here, you deserve to take a break from caring about others and care about yourself for once. Even if it’s half a day, you deserve to rest because life is already overwhelming as it is.
According to Forbes.com and mindbodygreen.com a few ways to unwind would be to;
- Talk with a friend
- Get enough sleep
- Take a local adventure
- Go to your place of worship
- Unplug and get offline for a few hours
- Journaling (write down everything on your mind)
There’s many different ways to unwind what’s important is you actually get to do it. The same way you recharge your phone every night is the same way your mind needs to be recharged. Put your mental wellness in consideration and take care of yourself.
Words By Mul 