When people talk about mental health, you might assume it is only about severe stress or mental illnesses like anxiety and depression, but it can also be about your general mental state at any given time. This includes if you are overwhelmed in your life and facing burnout.
It is just as important to rest when you have burnout as if you are dealing with a diagnosed mental health condition. Here are some tips for figuring out how to rest your mind and body.
Find Your Stressors
Before you can figure out how to get more rest when dealing with burnout, you need to first understand what is causing the overwhelm or burnout in the first place. This is in the form of your stressors or triggers.
A stressor or trigger is something that is causing you to feel more overwhelmed or anxious throughout the day.
Is something in your life different right now?
Maybe your loved ones have been more demanding, you aren’t taking enough breaks, or work has gotten chaotic.
It can be anything from your job to your home life to the people you are around. Something as simple as falling behind on your daily journal can trigger burnout because you don’t have those few minutes to unleash all the thoughts in your head and stop obsessing over them.
Take a Break From Work if You Can
While this is not always an option, try to take a break from work in whatever form you are able to. This is of course a privilege not everyone has, but if you do, take advantage of it.
Take a mental health day where you don’t even think about work and might even get out of your house for a day. Take a long weekend or go on a short trip.
If this isn’t an option, then try to lighten your work load. Figure out if you have any work tasks that can be delegated to other people, or if you can move your schedule around to have a few days a week that aren’t quite as hectic.
Learn How to Say No
Learning how to say no is a beautiful thing, and can benefit you in so many ways, beginning with helping you to rest from burnout. This might be personal obligations or people in your life who are always asking you for help, or work being more demanding. Burnout can happen in such subtle ways, where you think you’re just helping out a friend and don’t realize how much it is impacting your own life.
Find Ways to Practice Daily Self-Care
Self-care doesn’t need to be overly complicated or cost any money. It can be as simple as going for a walk after dinner, sitting in your office with the door closed during your lunch break, or reading a book in the evenings instead of watching TV.