Trembling, crying, being unable to focus and going to work with total reluctance. These are symptoms that belong to people who are overworked or facing burnout. If you are in this phase, it is important to do something about your burnout, as this can prevent a complete burnout. By taking a step back you can ensure that you do not come to a total standstill.
That's why in this article I'll discuss overexertion, how to recognize it and what you can do about it.
What is overwhelm?
If you are overworked you are actually running into burnout if you do nothing about it. With overworkedness, the symptoms are still mostly mental and not yet physical. This means that you mainly have mental symptoms.
Who knows, maybe you used to see it yourself in your elementary or middle school. Teachers who seemed to flip out of the blue. Who started throwing compasses or dictionaries because they just couldn't take it anymore.
The best story I've heard regarding teachers is that of the engineering teacher who suddenly wanted the students' attention with logs. The rest of the week he had called in sick anyway.
Unfortunately, it is mostly people in the healthcare and education sectors who suffer from symptoms of overwork, and many people with burnout can also be found in that group. On the one hand, this is very unfortunate because they are one of the most important social jobs out there.
But that reason is the same explanation for the large number of overworked teachers and caregivers. The responsibility of the job can weigh heavily on you, making it difficult to step back.
If you very often think you just "have" to do something, even if it's late at night or you have many other things to do, you may find taking a step back very difficult. Who then teaches those students? Who then is going to provide proper care?
Symptoms of being overworked
If you are wondering if you are overworked, you can check for yourself if you have been suffering from the following characteristics for a long time:
- Dissatisfied with work-life balance.
- You make mistakes more often than before.
- Difficulty concentrating.
- You avoid other people.
- Restlessness as you try to relax.
- Feeling like you're going to get sick all the time, but it's just not happening.
- Fatigue.
- You constantly suffer from headache(s).
- Sleep problems.
- You have totally lost your libido.
Treating overexertion
If you are overworked, it is very important to admit this to yourself. After all, that is the first step in doing something about it.
First, there are a few practical things you can do to suffer less from tension.
Listen to your body
If you notice in your body that you are suffering from tension, it is important to start consciously relaxing. You can learn how to listen to your body with some mindfulness techniques.
This can be done, for example, with the mindfulness body scan. If you are doing this for the first time, it is important to set aside 30 minutes for this to go through your entire body. This way you check how your body feels and whether you have tension in unexpected places.
For example, an unexpected place might be your tongue pressing hard against your palate due to tension.
The mindfulness body scan allows you to relax yourself very consciously. Once you've done this once, you can also pick up on tensions in your body more quickly while not even being as mindful as with the body scan.
Take a rest when you're tired
Some people exercise for energy, but sometimes you just don't feel like it. I know a self-employed person who usually does a 20-minute workout at noon, but at one point she just didn't feel like it for a while and went to bed instead.
Suddenly, she woke up 1.5 hours later!
This clearly showed that her body was signaling her to lie down, and for good reason. Subsequently, she did have enough energy for the rest of the day to do her job well and still enjoy the evening.
Now taking an afternoon nap is often not an option in employment, but going to bed a few hours earlier is. Sometimes, if you feel like getting into bed as early as 8 in the evening, you can just do that.
You can then pick up your normal rhythm much better the next day.
Do yoga
If you find that relaxing makes you restless, yoga can be a good transition from tension to relaxation. The poses you do and the breathing exercise that goes along with them actually take advantage of the tension because you need it for the poses.
You will find that you can relax much better after a yoga practice than without yoga when restlessness normally gets in your way.
Use brief mindfulness meditation at work
Concentration problems are especially annoying when you're at work. If you find that you are not getting on with what you are doing, you can perform a short mindfulness meditation.
You then take a few deep breaths and focus on feeling your body in the here and now. Those deep breaths also put more oxygen back into your blood, which in turn does help you focus.
Thereby, you can also hold the mindfulness meditation when you are busy with your task to be less distracted that way.
Explore why you can't stop
If the tips to take rest and consciously relax are difficult to follow, there is actually some kind of mental block that makes it difficult for you to choose for yourself.
In this case, it is important to consider what beliefs are getting in the way of you relaxing. Perhaps you're afraid that the company can't do without you at all, or that you'll lose your job if you take a break.
These fears are often unfounded, especially if you don't actually call in sick very often.
If you find it difficult for yourself to figure out why you do or don't do something, you can seek help from a hypnotherapist or pyschologist. Through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or regression therapy, it is possible to figure out why you find it difficult to choose for yourself.
For example, one technique of CBT is to ask why you do something the way you do it. The therapist then actually assumes the role of a toddler trying to make sense of the world. To every answer comes another "why." This can be very tedious when it comes to why the sky is blue as toddlers can do, but when it comes to your own choices it can give you a lot of insight into your own doings.
Through regression therapy, you may find out that a moment in your childhood is the reason why you find it difficult to choose for yourself. Perhaps you have always cared for other people and it is difficult to stop this habit.
Once that is figured out, it is possible to use hypnotic suggestions and other hypnosis techniques, including self-hypnosis, to do something about those beliefs.
A therapist can then give you hypnotic suggestions that apply to your situation. By using self-hypnosis alongside normal hypnotherapy, you can enhance the effects of CBT.
Preventing burnout
Treating or addressing overwork is also very important to prevent total burnout. A vacation, weekend getaway, and small adjustments in your lifestyle and outlook on the importance of your work can stop overwork.
This may only "bother" your employer and yourself for a few days, but by then you can function much better.
If you do nothing to be less overworked you will actually continue to steal energy that you will need in the future.
Your body is actually signaling with muscle tension, headaches and decreased libido that you need to take a step back, but if you don't, it should eventually start sending stronger signals.
Burnout can be recognized because it is when you suddenly find yourself unable to do anything overnight. There are people who literally collapse, faint, or simply can't find their way to work. Everything then suddenly seems very complicated.
Recovering from burnout is much more difficult than from overwork. It can take months for some people and is often a reason to change one's entire outlook on life.
Therefore, it is very important to intervene in time so that you can gradually do what is right for you instead of having to do it all at once.
Want to learn more about mental techniques to reduce stress? Then check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses or come to a seminar.
Sources:
http://dailyburn.com/life/lifestyle/how-to-deal-with-stress/
