Are You Feeling the Pandemic Burnout? 6 Strategies for Reclaiming Your Energy
This week has been hard. How about you? I feel like the work world turned backed “on” in the last two months – like the speed dial was turned to “acceleration” very quickly. In addition to the world opening back up in some ways, we are still holding the effects of a continuing pandemic. We have been forced to pay attention to a screen with at home distractions. We are living without some of our favorite distractions (Ex. Travel). We don’t yet know the results of lacking regular physical touch for so long. And we are dealing with new emotions and longstanding ones as we wait out this pandemic and continue to dismantle a stubborn dominant culture. Dang. No wonder I feel this way.
I don’t intend to be a downer here. In fact, I want to offer some strategies for addressing the widespread burnout that I am seeing on a daily basis in my networks. Burnout is a word that gets thrown around quite often, so let’s agree to a shared definition in this space. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) added burnout to its disease classification system (ICD-11). They define it this way:
“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
reduced professional efficacy.
Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”
Well, the WHO efforts to remove burnout from our everyday vernacular did not work; however, this is a broad definition of the concept and a significant milestone. The World Health Organization recognized that burnout is a syndrome that must be addressed. And this was BEFORE the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this day and age, I would surmise that almost anyone could identify with the three-bullet definition given by the World Health Organization right now. Author and psychologist Adam Grant recently proposed that many of us are not experiencing burnout but languishing. He defines languishing as:
“…a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.”
Whether are you experiencing burnout, languishing, or some other combination, here are six strategies to reclaim your energy on a regular basis.
1. Give your brain a break. Knowledge work, such as making a decision, understanding a new idea, or memorizing information, requires a lot of brain energy. In his book, Your Brain at Work, David Rock suggests giving “your brain a rest when you can by mixing things up.” If you are working on a computer screen all day, then schedule mini breaks that don’t involve technology. If you are working with the public, then find some moments of solitude and quiet. Rock uses the analogy of doing heavy lifting all day; it’s not possible. Knowledge work is heavy lifting. My favorite brain breaks: unloading/loading the dishwasher and coloring.
2. Identify and embrace your emotions. When I look at an extended feelings wheel, I can say confidently that I have felt ALL of these emotions in the last 12 months. Emotions are linked to stress, and stress is linked to our bodies. We have held a lot of stress in our body for the last 15 months. Professor Kali Cyrus likens it to “running an emotional marathon.” Embracing our emotions allow them to exit our body rather than holding them in our bodies. When I was dealing with a lot of anger a few years ago, a former therapist suggested that I create an anger box for my closet. The box with a predetermined list and already purchased supplies allowed me to quickly access healthy ways to face my anger. My favorite box activity: scream therapy. I highly recommend this activity to those parenting teenagers.
3. Move your body multiple times per day. This may sound like a cliché, but it deserves to be repeated. Frequently, working from home reduces our daily movement. Rather than walking from a parking lot to an office, we walk from our bed to the couch. We might move another few steps to get a snack. And our commutes are non-existent. It is important to consciously get up and move around every 45-60 minutes. Not only does body movement help our bodies; it also reduces our stress levels. Body movement is not necessarily exercise. In fact, I encourage you to listen to your body and move in ways that feel good. My favorite at-home body movement: Using the hallway as imaginary model runway with booming music.
4. Rest, rest, and rest some more. Activist Audre Lorde once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Y’all, the last 12 months have not been easy. Going back to the emotional marathon analogy, even marathon runners need breaks to refuel and rest. Our bodies, especially our brains, need some rest. I am constantly reminding myself that rest is more than sleep. Our eyes need a break from screens. Our hips need a stretch after sitting all day. Our hearts need a rest from the news. Embrace rest. My favorite rest advocate: The Nap Ministry.
5. Take breaks from the toxicity. Britney Spears brought the word “toxic” into our lexicon back in 2009. Like burnout, toxic and toxicity are words that get thrown around a lot. For toxicity, I am using Elisabetta Franzoso’s definition: that which “doesn’t nurture our personal wellbeing.” Toxicity can be found in our relationships, our habits, and even our purchases. Author Sonya Renee Taylor encourages removing the toxic in our lives as part of a greater liberatory beginning. In her book The Body Is Not An Apology, Taylor says, “Taking in toxic messages blocks our pathway to radical self-love without any real effort on our part.” Where is the toxicity in your life? My favorite break from toxicity: removing myself from Twitter and Facebook.
6. Develop an evolving, multi-layered self-care plan. The development of self-care plans has become more mainstream in the pandemic. The intent of self-care plans is similar to the emotion boxes I described above – a predetermined list of people, places, and activities that bring us joy. When I first built a self-care plan, it took me six months to come up with a list. I struggled to separate what brought others joy from my own. Within one month of the pandemic, most of my list was not possible. While individual self-care is important, group and community care are just as important and needed. We aren’t just having an individual experience in this pandemic; it’s a collective one. What does your work team do for self-care? How does your organization support self-care? My favorite group self-care activity: playing Quiplash on Jackbox.
Ironically, I fell asleep while writing this post and missed an important meeting. Hm – I think my body was telling me something. What is your body telling you today? What are your strategies for reclaiming your energy? Take a break today. The world will wait for you.