The main reason for burnout is sustained stress over weeks, months and even years.
There comes a point where it becomes unmanageable for the body and so exhaustion, as a form of compensation, is the result.
The stress response is designed for situations where we feel in danger, threatened, and the way to deal with this is with three mechanisms: fight, freeze or flee .
If we imagine that we have a lion in front of us, our response would be one of these three, and once safe, the stress level would decrease. That is, it would not stay in our body, because the reaction would give an end -or expression- to the emotion.
This is the step we miss every time we feel stressed, the one that releases the stress and lets our body know that we are no longer "in danger".
Then,
How do we give ourselves this safety message in a practical and actionable way? How do we do it today?
Understanding that stress is reflected in a physical way, the best way to relieve it is to respond in the same language:
- Get moving: Run. Go for a walk. Take a walk around the neighborhood. Dance to your favorite song. Something simple, pleasant. Send a message to your body that "the alert situation is over" and you can take your attention away from the problem.
- If you can't at that moment, tense all the muscles in your body: start with your feet, legs, abdomen, arms, back, neck, and then relax them.
- Breathing exercises: as we have already mentioned, breathing is one of the first things that accelerate when there is stress. Inhale for 8 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds. Repeat until you feel calmer.
- Call someone you love: And if you have them close to you, hug them for about 20 seconds. This produces a sense of security and relaxes the moment.
- Watch funny videos. Laughing works magic.
