How To Prevent Burnout?

After being burned out by stress from something totally unrelated to my daily schedule I learned to bury feelings less and listen to mindfulness recordings more to make things like meditation and letting go of persistent thoughts easier.

1) Preventing burnout can be difficult at times, as per you what are things that can come in the way?

Well, the things that can come in the way as per me, are linked to my bipolar disorder. I mostly push myself to accomplish something completely at once, and if I fail to do that, I refuse to go to bed and have insomnia, then I totally mess up my mood. I drink too much coffee and get sucked in some things that are important to me, but I then I go down the rabbit hole of doing random things, out of boredom, while trying unsuccessfully to make sense of my actions, and accomplish anything, but I fail.

2) There could be many reasons for burn out. What's your way to avoid them?

Recently, I was failing at accomplishing that task. But, I managed today to dedicate the whole day to self-care, organizing my next week activities, with stuff that is important, and I've also included these stuff from 7 cups:

- Bipolar support community

- Mindfulness

- Things for shifting your mind from destructive thoughts (feed for. ex.)

- Gratitude

- Journaling

Anyways, good sleep, taking self-care breaks, and when I do experience burnout, a little time dedicated to self-care and healing takes place.

I work in a field where burnout is prevalant. I actually attended a seminar where we attended workshops and discussed avoiding burnout. One thing I learned is we don't take enough time for ourselves b/c we are so focused on taking care of the individuals we support. Most people don't even take a break for lunch!

So this is a thing that can come in the way of burnout prevention. This whole mindset of putting your care duties first and your needs second. I know at my job we receive no official lunch or breaks, we receive "downtime" as our care duties allow. Basically, if you want to eat lunch you have to wait for a quiet moment when no one needs you and hope to have enough time to sit and eat. If it's a really busy day you may eat on the run.

Now as far as avoiding burn out, it can be hard with a set up like this. I try to have my lunch ready so I can sit and eat with the people I am taking care of while they are eating. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. If I am going to eat outside of their lunchtime, I then make sure all their needs are met and they have something interesting to do to occupy themselves while I take my lunch.

I try to take little mini breaks through the day and try to arrange the days activities so they spaced out in a way that allows proper time and attention to be devoted to them without rushing around. Now sometimes things will get added on that can make the day hectic, but I try to avoid over scheduling so we not always running around trying to get everything done before days end. Most times it works.

It can be frustrating sometimes because even though we provide high quality supports to the individuals in our care and prioritize them I sometimes feel our company has this mindset that we don't do enough. Some managers seem to think we have a lot of downtime and if we are not running around constantly taking people out on activites then we are not doing anything at all. Never mind all the medication administration, documentation, medical issues, special diets, special meal preps, personal care and toileting needs we deal with in addition to making sure everyone has a full and active life.

I really like my job and care for the individuals I support but I have to make a daily effort to carve out time for my personal needs at work or sometimes certain things will get overlooked. I've already had days where I was so busy running around that it will be 1pm and I''ll suddenly realize I haven't eaten or drank anything since coming to work at 8am. I am trying to make sure that doesn't happen on a regular basis.

I didn't really mean to go on about my work so much but I do think it highlights some of the problems found in the "caring fields" where you are responsible for providing various care services to people either directly or indirectly. We get so wrapped up in the needs of others we forget about our own. This can even happen to people in their personal lives as well, no matter what kind of job you have,

So I guess the biggest action you can take to avoid burn out is to MAKE YOURSELF A PRIORITY and don't feel gulity about it either. The better you take care of yourself the healthier you will be and better able to care for others.

Things I find personally helpful:

Always eat breakfast (or lunch/dinner as the case maybe) and make time for yourself before going to work. You will have a better day.

Pack a meal to eat a work so you have healthy food available and avoid eating "junk foods".

Try to pre-plan your day as much as possible so you can make it go as smoothly as possible but also be aware not everything goes as planned so also learn to be flexible.

If you need a minute take a minute. Unless someone is having a life threatening emergency, you can take a minute to breath, think, clear your head, sit down whatever is is you need to do recalibrate yourself then go about your work. You will feel better and the care you provide will be better.

Learn to use your leave time. This is the most valuable resource given to you from your employer to prevent burnout, don't be afraid to take time off or feel like you need to hold onto to it "in case something happens". Take at least one day a month in addition to your normal days off. And make sure you take a vacation every year, even if you don't go anywhere. These breaks are important.

Don't be afraid to speak up. If you feel too much is being asked of you, say something. If you have too much work too do and have to struggle to get it all down by shift's end, the quality of care you provide is going to suffer and you are going to be at risk for burning out.

Make time for family/friends/fun stuff. The more you enjoy your life and the more quality interactions you have with people the better you will feel and the happier you will be and the less likely you will be to succumb to burn out.

GET ENOUGH SLEEP! Sleeptime is the first thing people cut into when they are trying to free up more time for other stuff and tht is a bad idea. The more sleep deprived you are the less productive you will be.

Now I know some of this stuff is hard to do all the time, I struggle with it myself. Just keep reminding yourself how important it is to take care of yourself everyday and do the best you can.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

@ASilentObserver

University has been kicking my ass this year, so I found something online that I thought would help, called a bullet journal.

I won't go into detail here, but it really helps with planning and being organized. Thanks to it, I've learned how to prioritize and be okay if I can't do everything I originally wanted to do. You can actually get through school even if you do not do everything that is on your schedule. You just need to plan it all out carefully and make sure you won't leave everything till last minute just because you got overwhelmed.

Further Mindfulness truly helped me. I take five minutes every day, just before bed, to do a full body check. Just to make sure all muscles are relaxed and that I can leave behind all the stress of that day. There is no need to carry that on to the next.

So yeah, that's how I prevent burn-out I guess. Don't think I've ever had a burn-out, but I surely came close to panicking and wanting to quit my study this year.

How can I feel okay with relaxing in a go-go-go society?

What works best for me is take a holiday.

Rejuvenates me like nothing else !!!