THE TELL-TALE SIGNS OF A BURNOUT & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.

THE TELL-TALE SIGNS OF A BURNOUT & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.

“I’m so busy”, “I can’t seem to shake this tiredness”, “my body is seriously aching, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong”, “why am I so sad and confused, I don’t get it”.. – Telltale signs of ‘BURN OUT’.

Have you, or maybe, are you currently, feeling like above? I AM! And actually, I have been feeling like that for a few weeks now.

I was laying in bed with Pash last night (at 9.15pm!), when I said to him with sadness in my voice: “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep waking up early, not getting enough sleep, feeling sore, feeling tired. My body is aching. My mind is always on. Whether it’s for friends, for you or for social media. I can’t keep doing this. I’m falling apart at the seems. I can’t keep doing these different schedules you and I have. We are always ON, and it’s tearing me up. I’m on the verge of burning out, and I can feel it coming. I need a break, and I need it soon..”

Yes, I do know they’re pretty heavy words, but that was the best way to describe how I felt last night about how my current-life situation is placed.. And, by no means is this anyone else’s fault than that of my own. I’m completely owning up to being a workaholic, a people-pleaser and a worrying stress-head.. Sometimes it feels like it’s in my DNA, and when I try to go against it, it’s a hard fought battle that leaves me exhausted.

One thing is feeling the burn-out on my body – that I can almost live with – but another is when I start to feel the burn-out mentally!

I’m not my normal bubbly, happy and positive self. Instead, I’ve found myself feeling a little lost in this world, searching for my purpose with a flashlight, sometimes sad and worrying (about my future), de-motivated and just wanting to hide away from it all..

I recognise these aren’t my usual feelings, and they’re not feelings that define me, still I’m questioning why they’re lingering within me, and what it is that I need to see and experience from them, that I still haven’t picked up on..

I’m somewhat lucky to be very in-tune with my body, and knowing what feelings (mentally & physically) are driving me towards a burn-out, but below are some signs of when a Burn Out could be in sight:

1. You’re constantly feeling tired whether you sleep for 6 hours or 10 hours – the feeling remains the same.
2. Your body is aching and having a hard time to recover from simple exercise & training.
3. You’re stiff and sore – especially around your shoulders, neck and upper back because you’re worrying and slouching.
4. You’re bloated, constipated & might have a poor digestive system caused by ongoing stress and increased cortisol levels.
5. Your vision is foggy, eyes are hurting and you’re having a hard time reading letters and words.
6. You’re sad (depressed), don’t feel like getting out of bed, want to hide from the world, and everything seems hard & too much effort.
7. You don’t feel like being social or talking to anyone.
8. You’re eating poorly and seeking comfort-foods or you’re not eating at all due to no appetite.
9. You’re agitated, angry and have a short fuse. You pick fights with the people you love and get annoyed when things don’t go your way.
10. Your skin might be breaking out with acne due to imbalanced hormonal levels.
11. Bruises, cuts, scratches or wounds on your body are taking forever to heal.
12. You get distracted very easily, and your mind seems to be in a constant cloud of fog.
13. You have no sex-drive and a low libido.
14. You worry excessively about the future and the past, instead of being in the moment.
15. You get very self-critical and question why you haven’t done more with your life.
16. You can’t concentrate on anything what so ever.

You might nod yes to all of the above, you might only nod yes to some of them. Burn out ranges in severity, and from my experience, you can have a mild (oncoming) burn-out or you can be suffering from a full-fledged, severe and very serious burn-out.

Whether you’re recognising these signs mildly or extremely, I urge you to take this seriously.

Stress, and the ongoing kind, to the body is a very serious matter, and not one we want to keep around.

There would be not point to this post, unless I’d give you some of my suggestions, and what I feel works for me, as to how you can combat a burn out.. But, you have to take action yourself if you want to get better.

1. Clear your calendar and take a week off (if you can!) – and if you can’t? Take a day off. Turn off your alarm-clock, sleep until you wake up and stay in bed all day long. Then sleep some more.
2. Cancel your training for the week. Give your body time to heal, and stop stress-induced exercise. As great as exercise is; when we’re already stressed and burned out, adding more stress to the body through exercise is not what we’re looking for.
3. Moving your body is still good, but do it through yin yoga, an ocean swim or a gentle walk in nature. Remember, we’re looking to calm our heart-rate and not getting it up.
4. Get off Social Media and be present. I know it’s hard, because I do it myself, but putting your phone and laptop away, instead of endlessly scrolling social media and letting your mind run off with what you should be doing, how you should be acting or the ancient practice of comparison. It’s just not going to help you in the long run. Sorry!
5. Up your nutritional-dense foods by eating more vegetables, fruits, grains, proteins and overall whole-foods, so that you can help repair your body from the inside. When we’re stressed, the body’s ability to ‘pick up’ the nutrients that goes into our body becomes harder, so we want to give it as much of the good stuff to dive into as possible.
6. Use relaxation techniques to help get rid of your aches and pains. Think relaxing massages, warm heat packs on a sore neck or back, meditation, foam-rolling, gentle stretching, infrared saunas & acupuncture. They all help serve a purpose to heal your mind & body.
7. Reach out to those closest to you and have a talk about how you feel. Sometimes, we bottle up so many emotions and thoughts in our own heads that we make matters worse. Getting some things off your chest, can really free up some internal space.
8. Get out and into nature. Spend time by the beach, dip your toes in the ocean, walk through the forest, sit by the river.. The human body resonates at the same frequency as Mother Earth, so taking your shoes off, walking bare-feet, and connecting with nature is more important than ever.
9. Spend time with animals if you can. They have a very calming effect on our nervous system, and has actually been proven to lower, not only our blood pressure, but also harmful stress hormones like cortisol and elevating beneficial ones like oxytocin which is linked to relaxation and happiness levels.

Burn out or continuous stress isn’t a natural state for our bodies to be in, so I do urge you to take it seriously if you’re feeling like you’re on the verge of collapsing.

We live in a day & age where we are spoilt for choice, but that isn’t always a good thing, in my opinion. Sometimes, all we need to do is go back to basics and start from there.

All my love and healing vibes, Caroline xx

*Ps: I’m writing this from bed.