Hypnotherapy Associates Blog

Jan 2025

• Burnout - how to avoid it

  21
  Jan

  by Bonita Rayner-Jones on Tue 21 Jan 2025 17:43:52 GMT

  Have you experienced ‘burnout’? Do you often feel excessively stressed and exhausted without hope of change?

  Burnout is something frequently experienced by adults.  We see many clients at the clinic for burnout and a recent study of 2060 adults stated that 91% had experienced high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the last year, leading to 1 in5 (20%) needing to take time off from work.

  The common symptoms of burnout are:

  ·      Feeling exhausted or trapped in a job with no options to grow

  ·      Characterised by cynicism and feeling of ineffectiveness

  ·      Depression, overwhelm and stress.

  ·      Physical symptom of stomach problems, headaches and insomnia.

  The general advice to alleviate symptoms is to take more breaks, prioritise self-care, meditate, manage stress effectively, maintain a healthy diet, find ways to limit demands to name a few.

  So, all practical, doing type things which all make sense, but I’m going to talk more about the psychological aspects of what can help.

  It has been discovered that burnout is decreased and overcome, when people begin to understand the concept of ‘agency’, which is that they are in control of their own well-being. This influences their behaviour and perception at work and in life.  If you have come to see us at the clinic, you may recall how we point you to seeing how thoughts create our reality, not the ‘outside’ world and how empowering just this understanding can begin to be.  This alone, can allow more feelings of empowerment and insight.

  When we see more deeply how we live in the feeling of our thoughts, and how transient our thoughts are and how often ‘outdated’ or ‘false’ many thoughts can be about people and outside events, this allows us to let go of some of the thinking which is negatively impacting how we feel and behave.  For example, an outdated point of view could be seeing work as ‘the daily grind’ or ‘drudgery, which may seem humorous but it does impact how we feel and how motivated we might feel in it.  Another example is a perception we might have of a ‘boss’ regardless of the personality of the individual.  We might think of a ‘boss’ as someone who is ‘self-interested’ and who we can’t be honest or really be ‘ourselves’ around them.  This stops ‘open’ communication and feelings of being an ‘equal’, therefore fuelling insecurity and inefficiency.  These examples are often from beliefs from the past, even stemming from childhood and how we thought of teachers etc.  When we ‘wake up’ to the ‘noise’ / the thoughts in our minds we can begin to let go of some of these outdated beliefs to allow fresh new insights and more relative viewpoints become part of our everyday thinking.

  Burnout is also commonly linked to ‘Diligent’ high performers who have a tendency towards perfectionism.  People living a life consumed by collecting achievements, experiences and winning.  This can cause people to ‘push through’ tiredness or rush through life and not be fully ‘present’ in each moment and therefore, missing having a deeper, richer experience of life.  Also, chronic tiredness and rushing can lead to mistakes being made and lack of creativity as the mind becomes overwhelmed and ‘full’.

  Slowing down and enjoying tasks / work to be done can increase feelings of engagement and curiousity, rather than ‘ticking off’ a completed task list.  It can be surprising how the most ‘mundane’ tasks, can become more enjoyable when we look at them differently.  I have even learnt to enjoy ‘washing up’ and doing my accounts!

  So to ‘sum up’, the most important aspect to alleviate burnout is understanding your ‘state of mind’ and how this makes you feel in any given moment.  You have more control over how you feel than you realise.  We always have access to wisdom, peace and well-being within ourselves, just don’t believe everything you think!

  Do be in touch if you would like to learn more.