Real Steps to Take in Burnout
by Holly Madden
Burnout is so prevalent among those in any field that works with people. The weight of the needs always outweighs the available and accessible resources, and that is a responsibility that those who lead with empathy struggle to reconcile.
The truth about burnout is that the root issue is not found on an individual basis but on a societal basis. There is a tragic trend that glamorizes worker exploitation and influences guilt and shame around taking time off and rest.
This is a truth we need to accept before we can truly heal the part of us that feels less than because we experience burnout.
Below are some real steps we can take in our burnout experiences
Normalize taking time off :(too many who are empathetic, driven by achievement, struggle with unhealed self worth, or who work with people in crisis struggle with feeling guilt around taking time. We often do the opposite of what we advise everyone else to do! So take time off.)
Establish a Sanctuary for Yourself : Our connection with nature physiologically and emotionally has so many healing benefits for us as well as connects to the wilder, greater world in a way that opens us to even more compassion toward the world. While just going outside is so regulating, there’s also something really intimate about having a sacred space you visit often. This connection could be your own backyard or a favorite hiking trail nearby. Make sure it’s a place that is regularly and easily accessible and as often as you are able, return to this space to engage your senses. Notice how this land changes with the seasons. Notice when the wildlife changes as animals expand with families, as they migrate, or hibernate, or as they wake or return. Notice the trees and plants and find ones that you feel a connection to. Notice the way the water changes with weather patterns or with the shift in the time of year. This intimate act of noticing makes this space became a holy and sacred space for you. It can create a sanctuary for you to come to again and again to heal the nervous system when burnout is a regular experience. You can document these experiences in art, poetry, pictures, or journals.
Tend to Life that Gives Back: So often the work of mental health care, social work, and other human centered work comes with times that feel thankless or times that feel like we are fighting battles against systems so severely that our help feels like it is doing little. Most of us have gotten into this work because of our natural gift of empathy and a desire to tend to the lives of others. One powerful tool to use during times when our desire to care is high but our threshold is at capacity is to tend to life that gives back to us. One of the best examples of this is to take care of house plants or a garden. There is something so beautiful about tending to a plant on our window seal or planting flowers or vegetable plants in a garden, watering that plant, tending to the soil, and watching it grow. In many indigenous languages, the word for “plant” is interpreted as “ones that care for us.” Plants purify our air, they provide food, shade, and shelter. And they make our world more beautiful. When we put our hands in the soil, the microorganism that is found in the soil, the bacterium vaccae, stimulates the secretion of serotonin in our brain, boosting our mood. This has been linked to antidepressant properties. Interaction with plants and trees also provides regulating properties to our nervous system, lowering our blood pressure, pulse and regulating our breath. Most plants contain various shades of green. The human eye can see more hues of green than any other color. There is science that shows that seeing green in the wild world has a calming and happy effect on the body. If you are new to the world of plants, visit a local store and look for a type of pothos plant (cebu blue is my favorite) or ask a worker about a friendly plant. Take time to just tend to your plant in love and care. Make it a part of your routine each day to check on your plant, talk to it, document it’s growth, and extend love to it. As you love on your plant, watch the love you have for yourself or the capacity you have to love begin to heal.
Create Art through Stories, Poetry, Paint, Clay, Music… : Art is one of the most powerful expressions of emotion. For many of us who grow up creating, art may feel like a hobby that feels less important that so many other responsibilities we carry. But if we’re honest, our creative outlets are therapeutic. So carve out time to create. Tell the story on your heart. Paint. Mold Clay. Sew. Sketch. Color. Carve. Dye. Rhyme. Make music… whatever it is that gives your soul flight. Find a way to make this part of your priorities. A few ways to keep your art accessible is keep an art journal which documents your emotions or your life with simple pictures. You may also create a monthly embroidery loop or some other form of art that allows you to add a little at a time instead of starting over each time you sit down. Another way to keep your art accessible is to set up an art corner, an art room, or leave your art set up on the kitchen table. The executive function to set up and tear down can prevent the moment of expression so finding a way to keep it in front of you with little prep work can be inviting even when feeling tired.
Reengage in Communities that Nurture Fun: Too often community builders find that they struggle to make community for themselves. That, or their community is focused on the work of justice, care, or advocacy and gatherings may struggle to include simple fun. So- create fun. Start a book club. Invite others on a weekly hike. Create a a gathering around a game or sport. Plan regular thrifting adventures with friends. Or host a weekly family dinner. Gather to celebrate, gather to laugh, and gather without the intention of enjoying community outside of the pressures and responsibilities of work.
Read Fiction or Poetry: Some of us commit to so much growth in our reading that we forget to read for fun. Pick up a book that carries you to the shire, to a ship at sea, to a distant city, or a distant time, or even a distant planet. Escape into reading the way you once did…
Create Your Atmosphere: Sometimes we forget how much the environment has an impact on us. Your office may be a place with little choice: lacking in windows, fluorescent lighting, limited space, a cohabitated space, etc. But never underestimate the power of making your space yours. Whether it be your own work space or a space you leave work from or come home too, create a space that honors your aesthetic cravings. Hang Christmas lights, light candles, fill the room with fresh lavender or a favorite scent, hang pictures, organize clutter, add a friendly rug, add cozy blankets or a cozy place to sit, and find little ways to make the space feel safe for you to be yourself.
Dress like You: Professional clothing or work uniforms can make us feel some out of body emotions. Clothing is such a powerful form of expression and can be linked to the way we feel about ourselves and about those around us. While our options may be limited, look for ways to add a flare that makes you feel like you. Add jewelry, put on a fun and favorite cardigan, wear your favorite socks, stop trying to be who you think people want to see and dress in a way that makes you feel like you. Whatever you do, make it you.
Move with Healing Intention: Movement is one of the most powerful outlets for our own healing. In our culture, movement has been hijacked to be something to force in intense workouts and fierce pressure to move in a way that transforms the way you look. Here’s your permission, your invitation to move not to build muscle or burn calories, but to move to reconnect with your inner child and move to heal your body from the stress and trauma of our capitalistic, hurried, competitive society. Incorporate dance, somatic yoga movements, hiking, climbing trees, and going for walks even if it’s only for 10 minutes. When you are moving outside, I invite you to take your shoes off and ground using your bare feet on earth’s surface. Or reach out to touch the trees and the wild world around you. Maybe you can carve a 15 minute walk into your lunch break, not to get your heart rate up high enough to count as exercise, but to attune your body to the season, to notice the birds and squirrels outside, to watch the clouds, to feel the grass or soil underfoot, to listen to the crunch of leaves or snow, and to just be. Maybe you find yourself dancing. Maybe you find yourself moving through warrior and tree asañas. Maybe you just engage in earthing practices. But as you move, move to release energy and trauma and stress. May your movement fill you with relief. You can connect with our yoga offerings here-many of which honor mental health, social justice, and are written for those who care for others. I have even created a healing yoga program committed to healing burnout.
Seasonal Rituals: We are seasonal beings and our modern world of electricity and grocery stores filled with food has disconnected us from this way of living. One way we can reengage with the seasons is to create rituals for ourselves that honor our body’s need to grow and move with mother earth. Some ideas are: In winter, end your long days with a dark, candlelit, epsom salt bath to remember our need for rest and care in the darkest days. In fall, sit underneath your favorite tree and enter a time of reflection, journaling or sitting with all that you’ve experienced and grown through this year. Honor your journey and as the tree above your releases leaves, choose what you will let go of. In summer, make it a habit to play and explore by climbing trees or laying out under the stars each weekend to learn the names of stars and constellations. Go for a weekend hike at local trails or create art near the ocean waves. In spring, plant and tend to a garden to embody the season of new life and growth. I dare you to garden barefoot with bare hands in the dirt to become one with soil and earth. Our ancestors once did that, so can we. Your rituals may include favorite meals, favorite clothing, what you tend to read or activities you tend to prefer. You may even do this without realizing you do, but name these sacred traditions in your life and protect them. See them as a form of rest that reconnects you with the way your body needs the connection with earth.
Friend, burnout is violent and it’s way too prevalent. Tricia Hersey, author of the radical and powerful book, Rest is Resistance, writes, ““We must believe we are worthy of rest. We don't have to earn it. It is our birthright. It is one of our most ancient and primal needs.” While vacations or big life changes may not be your calling or accessible in this season, remember that there are so many ways you can tend to you even in times when you are giving so much to others.
To bring an end to this resources, I send you off with this poem I wrote. May these words hold you. Remember, you are worthy of rest, care, love, and time.
———
For the caretakers and justice leaders-
Weary bones.
From days upon days
Of weary work.
The price of compassion
In a world of capitalistic competition.
How tired are the caretakers?
Overexposed to a world of needs
With hands bloodied from the needs
Just next door.
We beg the sun to rise again
And yet our trust wanes that it will
As man-built systems
Always have casualties.
And those casualties have names.
We know their names.
Light a candle-
For those suffering
Light a candle-
For those caregiving
Light a candle-
For those held by earth
But overlooked by community.
Light a candle,
Light a candle,
Light a candle.
Caregiver-
These are words to hold your helping,
To honor your giving,
To thank you for working in extended darkness, or in unletting light.
May rest find you-
And may you listen to your need for it.
Your value is in your breathing,
Not in your doing,
Not in your helping.
It’s time,
To lay your hand on your own chest.
To close your eyes.
To feel the beating of your heart.
To feel the breathing of your lungs.
To feel the warmth of your skin.
And to feel the way this connection moves energy
from muscle to feeling,
From bone to knowing.
You’re aliveness is extraordinary,
And you are deserving of the same care
You give.
So give and give and give
To your weary bones,
To your bleeding heart,
To your raw grief and triggered guilt.
It is time,
For you…
-Holly Rose Madden