If you regularly keep up with my Instagram posts, you know I’m no stranger to burnout. I’m talking about the kind of deep, dark mental states that had me waking up in the morning asking: “what’s the point?” If you’re currently stuck in a pit of mental and physical exhaustion, and nothing seems to spark your soul the way it used to, know this: the lows end. This isn’t some sad attempt of cheering you up or force toxic positivity on your weary heart. In fact, from personal experience, I know that rushing out of a burnout state when you’re just not ready to bounce back can amplify the feeling of helplessness. With all this in mind, make no mistake that with enough mindful rest and gentle encouragement, you’ll start regaining some of your former motivated, joyful-self back.
The mission here is to break the cycle of overwork, burnout, recovery, just to overwork and burnout again. I want you to stop looking at rest as something that doesn’t hold its own value but rather just a mindless task to get through, so you can start working again. This way of living is counterproductive because it decreases productivity over time and, according to scientific literature, has long-lasting damage to your mental and physical health. In this blog post, I want to layout every single tool that helped me restore my mental energy when I was in a sunken place. Not only that, I want to provide you with some proactive actions that will have you charging your mind and body as much as you charge your phone so that you can defeat burnout for good. Let’s begin:
The upside of hitting rock bottom.
If you’re currently experiencing burnout because of prolonged chronic stresses, I have some good news for you: this is an opportunity for a fresh start. The late wakeup calls, the lack of motivation to see your friends and family, the overall feeling of not giving a crap are all the ways your body is trying to put up the boundaries you failed to set. These are all signs that what you are currently doing is simply not a sustainable way to live. You see, discomfort is the first lesson taught at the school of hard knocks. It’s a valuable one because what was once under the radar is now revealed; hitting rock bottom forces you to take a good look in the mirror and notice the dysfunctional behaviour and bad habits that got you here in the first place. So now that you know, where do we go from here?
Start with a change of perspective.
Queue my favourite mantra: “if it doesn’t serve you, let it go.” The fastest way to unsubscribe to a personal issue is with a change in perspective. I used to wear my workaholism like a badge of honour. Maybe you’ve even witnessed some of that delusion in action when I posted about editing photos at 1 a.m. via stories. If my mind was a Google translate tool and you typed “working long hours,” it would translate it to “passion and success.” Can you blame me? We live in a world that praises overwork and productivity, labelling rest as a repulsive activity reserved only for slackers.
If productivity and success are what you chase, what if I told you that as a society, we have the idea about the relationship between working hours and productivity totally backwards? I didn’t either until I came across Dr. Alex Pang author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. He reviewed over 100 years’ worth of scientific literature, proving that rest isn’t just the absence of work. Dr. Pang uses neuroscience to argue that overwork is productivity’s worst enemy because a tired brain has an impaired ability to
- make good decisions
- observe and make sense of important information
- react well in fast-moving or stressful situations
- work consistently
That’s not all; Dr. Pang uncovered research showing that overwork makes people more prone to cut corners and cheat. In the long run, workaholism affects your overall happiness, increases odds of burnout and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, leaves you vulnerable to chronic diseases such as dementia later on in life.
After listening to his masterclass through the Calm app, I gained an immense sense of clarity that being a workaholic is nothing to be proud of. A point that especially resonated with me was his claim that the more you love your job, the more you need to take a break from it. He arrived at this conclusion because ambitious and creative people tend to get sucked into the work they do. So much so that they tend to treat their bodies as a vehicle of self-sacrifice for their craft — making creatives more vulnerable to burnouts.
Now that we know the consequences of chronic overwork let me show you some highly restorative practices that have helped me stay burnout-free for over a year.
Schedule and protect your relaxation time.
We both know that if we don’t pencil it in, it’s not getting done. Prioritizing downtime is hard because we’re constantly getting pulled in different directions. Our work-life sneaked its way home, and now there is always one more email to answer, always one more meeting to attend. It won’t stop unless you make it stop. Taking charge of your schedule by blocking time off to engage in mindful rest is the key to all of this.
It’s unlikely that your boss would be cool with you “unplugging” to mediate at 1 p.m. when it’s conflicting with a pre-scheduled client meeting. Make it make sense for your life. My daily restorative practices live between five and seven in the morning. No one in my household is awake by then. I carve out this time to make a cup of tea that makes my mouth water, meditate, move my body and read for 20 minutes before getting ready for the workday. The early morning atmosphere says “fresh, new start,” and knowing that I catered to myself before anyone else gives me a sense of peace. I also avoid making plans on Sundays at all costs. That time is reserved for family.
Pencilling in rest makes it easier to tell people you’re unavailable, even if it’s not in the way they understand. You’re busy resting deeply and being patient with yourself. Stick to this commitment and make it a non-negotiable to miss.
Work in your sleep.
Your eyes probably narrowed after reading that but, hear me out. Sleep is often associated with “lost time,” but according to research, sleep isn’t just beneficial for physical rest; it’s a time for incredible mental activity giving our brain time to organize information and even learn new skills. My point is, don’t for a second get to thinking that sleeping is useless or a waste of time. Going to La La Land might not be exciting because you’re not fully cognisant of what’s happening, but make no mistake, your brain is busy working overtime consolidating information you learned while awake, making future plans and even figuring out unsolved problems occupying your mind.
On the flip side, lack of sleep negatively impacts learning and performance. Sleep deprivation is directly linked to difficulty in receiving and retaining new information. Oh, and good luck making good decisions without a good night’s sleep because the less of it you have, the more likely you’ll lose the ability to assess situations accurately, plan and choose appropriate actions. I haven’t even touched on moodiness. I can spot a cranky b**** from a mile away, and she’s usually sleep-deprived — she was me, I was her. Long story short, sleep isn’t a waste. Get more of it.
Learn about your perfect Active Rest match.
Work in your sleep was a new and interesting concept that I learned from Dr. Pang. Rest doesn’t mean binge-watching Netflix for hours on end and procrastination. Some top-performing, highly accredited individuals engage in something called Active Rest. It turns out, how you rest matters more than how long you rest. Taking up an activity that forces you to occupy your mind helps refocus your attention and takes away everyday life stresses. It plays a big role in determining how much you recharge your mental and physical batteries. According to Dr. Pang the best restorative types of rest are physically engaging and mentally stimulating. The higher the level of your detachment from work, the more therapeutic your time off is.
So what activities qualify as Active Rest? Anything that allows you to think hard and play harder. You’re seeking complete, psychological detachment from your regular work tasks. For example, in a Vogue profile piece, actress and singer Dove Cameron reveals that she is an avid rock climber and loves bouldering. She describes the activity as “playing a game…” and “competing against yourself because the wall has a shit ton of problems on it.” She’s not alone in seeking mastery over a leisure activity. Many scientists and engineers play a musical instrument and play chess because they find these activities restorative, mentally absorbing and challenging.
Personally, my perfect Active Rest match is swimming. When I was in university, I made it a point to hit the pool after classes to destress. It felt like I was washing away the stress of the day. Not only that, being in the water stirs memories of growing up by the coast, happy times. So, here’s some homework, if you want to keep burnout at bay, find an engaging activity that offers an opportunity for exercise or mastering a new skill. Chances are you already have something in mind. Book it!
Time away from screens.
You made it to the last, and in my opinion, most beneficial rest practice: unplugging. In many ways, our interaction with our phones mirrors our first crush: it’s the first thing we think of in the morning and the last thing we check on at night. But, let’s not forget how that ended… As mature adults, we understand that healthy relationships require boundaries; this is applicable to love and tech. Information overload is real, it’s exhausting, and for me, it’s an actual work hazard because I spend most of my time on one or multiple social media platforms. My screen addiction also made me a crap Influencer because I had an all-or-nothing approach to my job. I would over-post, reply to every DM immediately, scroll to hours on end, many times aimlessly. Then, when my brain started inevitably short-circuiting from worrying about how my posts were performing, getting caught up in other people’s highlight reels and all that other nonsense, I would spiral, get into a depressive state and disappear for months.
I knew that I needed to make changes offline if I wanted to have a sustainable career online. So that’s how “No Scroll Sunday” was born. At the end of each week, I throw up a virtual “Do Not Disturb” sign on my Instagram and put a block that prevents me from clicking on any social media app on my phone. Sundays are my time to rest, indulge in self-care, harvest mental clarity and muster the inner strength to thrive during the workweek. Although the first couple of weeks of no scrolling were not easy, now, I look forward to them. At this time, it’s been six months since I started this practice, and not once did I feel like I needed to go on a social media hiatus because a scheduled break is always right around the corner.
Wow! You made it to the end. I hope that after this you can look at resting with fresh eyes.
Parting words: Forgive yourself for not being as productive as you would like to be during these low-energy phases. Simply carve out time to rest. Don’t spread yourself thin when there’s nothing left to give. Sleep, restore and when you have enough strength, start seeking activities that replenish mind, body and soul.
