3 Lifestyle Changes You Can Easily Make to Avoid Burnout
Gloria Martinez of womenled.org
It’s natural to have a bad day at work or feel overloaded by all your responsibilities. It’s even natural to get stressed out and overwhelmed from time to time. What’s not natural is for these bad days and stress to be a constant in your life. In that case, you may already be suffering from full-blown burnout, which will invariably leave you feeling isolated and disengaged, as well as hopeless and unmotivated.
While there are ways to tell that burnout is imminent, stopping it in its tracks is still infinitely better. The good news is there’s more than one way to prevent burnout, and they need not even be earth-shattering. Here are a few lifestyle tweaks that you can easily do to keep burnout at bay (and keep your sanity intact while you’re at it).
Listen to your gut.
Contrary to popular belief, burnout is not just a ‘mind thing’—it’s very much a body thing, too. As a matter of fact, Shape explains that gut bacteria may actually be the root of burnout and chronic fatigue. Not only that, there is an interconnection between gut health and mood, proving that gut health does, in fact, contribute to overall wellness.
It goes without saying that you may actually find yourself healthier and happier when your gut is equally happy and healthy. No doubt, this makes for a compelling case as to why it’s necessary to pay attention to your gut health—that is to say, your diet. To that end, taking in a daily dose of probiotics, as well as adding fermented foods to your meals, are highly recommended.
Move your body.
Now, a good diet often comes hand in hand with exercise. This is particularly true when it comes to dealing with burnout. In fact, physical activity appears to be an effective stress- and burnout-buster, and it would benefit you greatly, to add exercise to your daily routine. Of course, this is easier said than done, especially for busy professionals who are on the verge of burnout as it is because of their packed schedules and mountains of workload.
Luckily, you need not commit to a gym membership or even perform long workouts every day. Instead, you can make exercise a part of your life by simply making mindful decisions to move more, such as choosing to take the stairs instead of the elevator or walking to your colleague’s cubicle instead of shooting them a message. Devoting some time during your weekends to do something fun and physically engaging like hiking or cycling will also do wonders for your stress levels.
Curate your relationships.
As Verywell Health explains, attitude can be a big influencer on burnout. It’s important to stay positive, and part of that can relate to your self-talk. If you tend to focus on the negative in your life, making some adjustments to your home like decluttering and deep cleaning can improve your mindset.
Similarly, who you’re around can influence your attitude. Know that a negative mindset can be contagious. Being surrounded by complainers and naysayers, therefore, will inevitably affect your mood and general outlook in a bad way.
On the other hand, your relationships with loved ones and friends who are closest to you can be a positive force, as is being more sociable and engaged with your co-workers or peers. Being around people who are familiar with your struggles and love you unconditionally can elevate your mood by leaps and bounds, minimizing the likelihood of stress and burnout.
Indeed, burnout is unnatural, and it’s definitely no picnic. But by making conscious adjustments to your lifestyle and mindset, you increase the chances of not letting it happen to you, so you live a fuller and happier life that’s more productive to boot.
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