Emotional burnout: methods of recovery and preventive measures. How to cope with professional burnout You can’t stay if you leave professional burnout

Emotional burnout: methods of recovery and preventive measures.  How to cope with professional burnout You can’t stay if you leave professional burnout

When a person takes on too many responsibilities, strives for ideals in work and relationships, and at the same time experiences constant stress, his strength can be depleted. Then he begins to feel inferior, loses interest in everything that happens around him, becomes lethargic and apathetic. Symptoms such as irritability, anger, depression, and a feeling of lack of time may also appear. The result is a deterioration in the quality of life, illness, nervous breakdowns. Career is under threat, family is almost destroyed, there is no desire to do anything... What is this?

Psychologists call this state emotional (or professional) burnout. In scientific terms, emotional burnout syndrome (from English burnout - literally “exhaustion of physical and spiritual strength”) is a condition characterized by a gradual increase in fatigue and overwork, indifference to one’s responsibilities at home and at work, a feeling of one’s own failure and incompetence in the profession.

The Pursuit of Happyness

On CT scans of people exposed to long-term stressors, large white spaces may be seen where brain tissue would normally be. Nightmare? Probably evolution.

The problem is that humans were not designed to live at the fast pace of the 21st century. The body simply does not have a huge reserve of ability to withstand chronic stress. And why were they needed before? Even in the Middle Ages, rarely anyone lived to be 35 years old. This is probably why we resist stress well when we are young. But our “protective system” is not designed for a longer period.

IN last years Even the beloved American dream is crumbling, and those who strived for it are thrown to the margins of life. People become disillusioned and their anger and resentment turn into self-destructive behavior. “Burn everything with fire! Life has failed, and I’m giving up trying!” - people who experience all the delights of emotional burnout argue in this vein.

But our grandparents perceived life differently. However, then it was more predictable. They knew how to be happy and enjoy life, although they understood that it was impossible to be in high spirits all the time.

Cure for stress

According to statistics, the less we strive for career growth, the happier we feel. Moreover, people who focus on financial well-being are more disappointed with their work and family life. What to do if there are only problems around? How to overcome stress?

1. Admit you are facing difficulties.

Don't beat yourself up. Recognizing the problem means half winning the battle. Sometimes we think that everything is our fault. But let me point out: modern world sometimes makes too high demands on everyone, so it’s normal to burn out.

2. Ask your loved ones for help

3. Regain your hope

Relax - you won't become rich by age 40, and Prince Charming has a boyfriend. That's it, the fight is over. You set the bar too high and worked too hard. But life is not over there: the goal was simply unrealistic.

4. Find an outlet

Whatever way you choose to deal with the vicious circle of stress, there is always a chance to break it. Meditation, physical education, changing views, new goals, openness to the world - any positive change can set in motion a spiral of adaptation, when each subsequent change strengthens what has been achieved. Our reaction to a positive event makes something else more likely - good attracts good.

5. Develop awareness

Try to monitor your thoughts and feelings. Anger often masks fear, and jealousy can be an expression of insecurity. Do not give in to impulses, but focus on deeper and, most importantly, true feelings and motives for your behavior.

6. Don't give in to emotional impulses

Do you want to take a sedative or get drunk at the nearest bar? Don't give in to your immediate desire! Wait 10-15 minutes, and then think again - do you need it?

Before you argue with your boss or be rude to your family, step aside and calm down. You will certainly regret your rash action. It's better to warn him!

7. Play sports

Movement changes thoughts. Make it a rule to go to the gym twice a week, swim or run. Ride horses, walk, play tennis - anything to take your mind off bad thoughts.

Instead of a conclusion

And one last thing. When you really can't bear it, develop an escape plan. Take a long-term vacation or look for another job altogether. Go on a trip or talk to your family about moving to another city. Just remember: “This too shall pass.”

Based on materials from the book “The Psychology of Bad Habits” by Richard O’Connor

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

“I’m emotionally burnt out at work”—this is the verdict people increasingly pronounce on themselves. This even becomes a good excuse for frequent sick leave or a reason for dismissal. Most people by and large do not understand what “emotional burnout” is. Many people identify irritation, body pain, and bad mood at work with it.

But in fact, this is a severe functional condition that has many side effects, and to get rid of them, a long recovery period is needed.

What is “burnout syndrome”?

Burnout syndrome is a regression professional development. A person experiences negative emotions, tension, internal psychological conflicts, psychosomatic reactions from prolonged stress at work. This syndrome is experienced by healthy people whose work involves intense and constant professional communication. These are professions of the “person-to-person” type: workers in the education system, medical workers, social sphere, service sector.

“Emotional burnout” includes three mandatory symptoms:

Emotional exhaustion is characterized by feeling tired from work. The person is indifferent to responsibilities. Looking at such people, one gets the impression that they have no strength left to experience “real” emotions.

Indifferent attitude towards work. A person communicates formally, even dismissively, with clients, partners, and the team. In the medical, educational and service fields, a person is only superficially interested in the needs and problems of those with whom he works.

In sales, for example, “understanding customer needs” and “after-sales service” are ignored. It's too energy-intensive. It all comes down to a formal procedure: “If you want, buy and pay. If you don’t want to, then goodbye.” Irritation tends to build up, so it's no surprise that conflicts with clients are becoming common.

Devaluation of professional achievements. A person develops a feeling of professional incompetence and professional unsuitability. All achievements and successes in work are devalued. And personal skills and abilities seem so primitive that even a schoolchild can master them.

It is a mistake to mistake irritation and lack of desire to go to work for emotional burnout.

If an employee feels a lack of energy, a decrease in mood, and an unwillingness to perform duties, but a weekend or vacation is enough for him to get in shape, then this is ordinary fatigue. With emotional burnout, a person needs a long period to recover. However, after returning to work, the state of burnout is sure to return. Changing the type of professional activity is often the only way out of this condition.

Remember that the feeling of fatigue is not accompanied by devaluation of yourself as a professional, a cynical attitude towards work and clients, unlike emotional burnout. The employee loves his profession, values ​​himself as a specialist, respects clients, but at a particular period he needs rest.

Causes of burnout syndrome

Individual personality characteristics

Perfectionists and people with high level claims in to a greater extent susceptible to emotional burnout. This category of people who strive to perform duties perfectly and on time, without making mistakes. They always set difficult goals and do not look for easy ways. If there is a discrepancy between the requirements for oneself and the real result, then self-esteem falls and disappointment in oneself as a professional sets in.

Highly anxious people and people oriented toward external evaluation are at risk.

People with high levels of anxiety worry about literally every little thing, are overly concerned about the future outcome, and make negative forecasts. Life turns into sheer excitement.

People who are oriented toward external evaluation believe that they are fulfilling useful work for society and only those around them can evaluate the results. They have no personal standards by which to determine how well or poorly their duties are performed. Unkind reviews, ratings or views from clients make them doubt their professional suitability every time.

These are specialists whose work involves daily and intensive communication with people. Many companies put customer focus first, requiring employees to individual approach to everyone, hyper-politeness, hyper-communication, hyper-helpfulness. All this takes a lot of energy and strength. Moreover, clients are all different, and it is not always possible to please everyone.

Operating factors

Lack of independence, moral and material encouragement, hypercontrol by management, suppression of initiative, cause negative emotional reactions in employees. After all, in this way managers hinder their professional and career development.

Factors such as the lack of a well-equipped workplace, comfortable lunch breaks and vacations, and opportunities to communicate with colleagues create discomfort, which ultimately leads to burnout.

How to cope with “emotional burnout”

Step 1. Professional self-reflection

Any solution to a problem begins with its awareness. It is important for a person to accept that work is disgusting. And then find out the reasons: what led to such a state? The content of the work itself, the company, the manager, the conditions? When the reason is clear, the person will have a clear idea of ​​whether the problem can be solved, how long it will take, and how radical measures need to be taken.

Step 2. Go on vacation/move to another department/leave the company

In my opinion, some of this is bound to happen. It is important to distance yourself from the problem either for a while or completely. Vacations, for example, are a good diagnostic tool to understand whether you are truly burnt out or just tired.

Some companies offer the opportunity to transfer employees to a similar/related department. The responsibilities remain the same, only the environment changes. The work began to boil in a new way, there was satisfaction and changes for the better - which means the problem was in external conditions. If even in a new place the work is exhausting, does not bring satisfaction, and the above-described triad of symptoms is observed, this means burnout.

Let’s say you went on vacation, worked in another department, and your work is still exhausting and annoying - change your field of professional activity. Perhaps you have established yourself as a specialist and need career growth.

Or, on the contrary, professional growth is needed. When a set of responsibilities is constant and predictable, you begin to perform them automatically. They need to be expanded and complicated periodically to prevent professional regression.

It is quite possible that you do not match the psychological qualities of your profession (for example, introverts work as active sales managers, and extroverts are specialists in issuing primary documents), that is, you are unsuitable for the profession. And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just time to really do your own thing.

You can offer standard advice like: delegate responsibilities, separate your personal and professional lives, get more rest. But I am convinced that all this will not save you from the problem of burnout, but will only create a temporary and illusory attempt to solve it.

The article was prepared by psychologist, recruitment and personnel development specialist Anastasia Teteruk:

“If you can’t cope with problematic situations at work, don’t know how to behave with your boss or team, don’t know how to effectively organize your work day, write to [email protected]. I will definitely share my recommendations both as a psychologist and as a personnel specialist.”

Few people like to talk about negative psychological states, and some are even ashamed to experience anything resembling sadness, burnout, or depression. We are not taught to understand ourselves, but we are taught to endure, overcome and compete.

I don't want to overcome and compete

Precisely because the problem receives less attention than courses like “40 Ways to Overcome Yourself,” it is useful to talk about it without a hint of despondency and fear.

What is burnout

This is a psychological exhaustion that occurs due to long-term stress At work. When burnout occurs, cognitive abilities, emotional and physical state person. The symptoms of this condition are similar to clinical depression, but it is not a mental disorder that requires medication.

Burnout works in three directions:

  • emotional exhaustion;
  • depersonalization - detachment from the work process, colleagues;
  • decreased productivity and job satisfaction.

The American psychologist Herbert Freudenberg first wrote about it in 1974, talking about the symptoms of free clinic volunteers: headaches, irritability, narrowed thinking, drowsiness. At first, burnout was associated only with work in the “person-to-person” field: doctor, psychologist, social worker, teacher - but over time it spread to other professions.

Burnout is the antithesis of engagement. If an engaged person is motivated, experiences joy from work and communication with colleagues, feels productive and useful, then a “burned out” person feels a decline in energy, indifference to work and colleagues, and the meaninglessness of his activities. And this is dangerous, because you can actually be talented, smart, responsible, but look like a lazy cynic if you burn out.

Why do we need to know about this condition? Burnout can occur in any company employee: manager, department head, director. At the same time, a person cannot maintain the same level of productivity, which means that performance indicators, for example, customer satisfaction with service or the number of closed transactions, decrease. To prevent this from happening, you need to be able to notice and eliminate professional burnout both in yourself and in your colleagues.

How to spot it

What burnout is is clear. How can you notice it in yourself or a colleague and not think “no, I can’t have that”? The following signs may be signals:

  • feeling of emotional exhaustion;
  • fear of going to work: it seems that you are not fulfilling your duties, but are only pretending;
  • low energy level at work: you constantly need coffee and/or sweets, it’s difficult to start doing something;
  • increased cynicism towards the company and colleagues;
  • increased irritability at work;
  • envy of loved ones who love their work;
  • indifference to the results of work: the attitude “it will do”;
  • feeling that activities are meaningless;
  • increased sick leave and time off along with the desire to take a vacation as soon as possible.

There are also specialized diagnostic tools, they can be easily found on the Internet:

  • diagnostics of the level of emotional burnout V. V. Boyko;
  • burnout test by Christina Maslach (Maslach Burnout Inventory).

Where does burnout come from?

A person “burns out” when he works for a long time in conditions that do not meet his expectations and capabilities.

Professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, a well-known researcher on the problem of professional burnout, Christina Maslach, identified six causes of burnout:

  • workload imbalance;
  • imbalance of control;
  • loss of contact with colleagues;
  • injustice;
  • conflict of values.

Also among the causes of burnout are:

  • too short time to complete tasks: “deadline yesterday”;
  • numerous distractions from work: open space and an avalanche of letters;
  • too high workload and responsibility with insufficient salary: one employee becomes a secretary, marketer, logistician and accountant;
  • excessive communication: well known to contact center operators;
  • inability to control working conditions: for example, daily routine, tasks and workload;
  • lack of understanding of who evaluates work and how;
  • toxic atmosphere in the team: unfounded criticism, rudeness, humiliation;
  • discrepancy between values ​​between employee and management: requests to perform tasks that contradict moral principles;
  • unsuitable work - work that does not correspond to a person’s interests and skills;
  • too chaotic or, conversely, monotonous work regime;
  • lack of support from colleagues, family, friends;
  • work takes up too much time and energy, so there is not enough for loved ones and favorite activities.

You might think that the vast majority of the population is feeling the pressure of these factors, and you would be right. But how high is the productivity of people who are guided by the principle “patience and work will grind everything down” in a situation of psychological exhaustion? Not too high. A number of studies suggest that burnout is similar to depression or even a subtype of it. “Treating” such conditions with willpower is common to us, but reckless. There are more effective ways.

How to deal with burnout

Burnout cannot be eliminated in one day, work on psychological state is difficult and lengthy, and the methods of recovery are individual: some need to spend six months in Goa, others need to visit a psychologist and go to fitness.

If you find yourself experiencing burnout, the best thing to do is take time off to step away from the work environment that led to it. If the vacation is far away, but you need to do something now, then they can help:

  • breathing exercises and meditation;

Life hack: if you enter “breathing exercises” into Google, then in front of the results you will see a simple breathing “simulator” for one minute.

Google helps you develop breathing practices right in your browser

  • regular breaks from work: for example, five minutes every twenty minutes spent solving a problem;
  • a conversation with a manager who will help change working conditions;
  • Hobbies outside of work: helps to distance yourself from work problems, switch to actions and thoughts outside of stress;
  • lighten the workload: delegate more, learn to say “no” to tasks for which there are not enough resources;
  • Don’t forget about healthy sleep and nutrition: if you sleep for four hours and eat chocolate and coffee, your body will work together with burnout.

More serious ways include working with a psychologist, and there is nothing scary or reprehensible about this. A psychologist helps you work with your psyche in the same way as a coach helps you with your physical form. Thus, cognitive behavioral therapy and work with cognitive attitudes and behavior patterns can be chosen: the client, together with a psychologist, eliminates destructive stereotypes of thinking and behavior and learns new, productive ones.

To avoid repeated burnout, you cannot do without solving its causes, stated above:

  • workload imbalance;
  • imbalance of control;
  • lack of proper remuneration;
  • loss of contact with colleagues;
  • injustice;
  • conflict of values.

Emotional and professional burnout, leading to general exhaustion, become the main cause of diseases from the heart to the thyroid gland and oncology. By applying even a few of the techniques described below, you will learn how to significantly improve your well-being.

At some point, I caught myself thinking that I was leading a slightly different lifestyle than I would like. Constant fatigue and slight burnout have quietly become my constant companions. There are several promising projects, but with the kind of labor productivity that I have now, I won’t be able to handle them. This means that sooner or later this will lead to problems with money.

Moreover, I did not have enough energy and time to communicate with my wife and children, and they grow up so quickly. It turns out a shoemaker without boots. Every evening, the child came several times and asked - dad, have you finished your work yet? Will you play with me? Will you read me a fairy tale? But I’m tired, and I don’t have time for this.

But I would like to go skiing, ice skating in the winter, rollerblading and cycling in the summer, and much more. I seemed to regularly do yoga in the morning, and sometimes went for a run on the weekends. From time to time the whole family went ice skating and skiing. Wasn't this enough?

It all started as usual, I wanted the best - I started working 1-2 hours a day, and then I didn’t have the strength to go outside for a run, skiing or skating, and I also didn’t have the strength to meditate in the evening. After a week of overwork, I began to burn out. Another week or two of this lifestyle and you will be exhausted.

What is CMEA? Burnout syndrome is...

This is when there is a feeling of severe fatigue, not only physically, but also emotionally (mentally), which does not go away for weeks. It's hard to wake up in the morning. It's difficult to concentrate and do important things at work. Productivity is low and deadlines are missed. Your boss or clients are unhappy with you, but you don’t have the strength to work better, even if you try.

At the same time, you feel a state of apathy - you don’t want to do anything. This is a deep depletion of the body due to emotional burnout. It is very difficult to concentrate on your responsibilities. Relationships at work and at home with loved ones deteriorate. Children painfully endure this condition of their parents and take some of the fatigue and stress upon themselves.

People do not immediately understand what is happening to them and why it happened. Simply getting a lot of rest on the weekend doesn't help. Disappointment with life and dissatisfaction appears. Self-pity intensifies, resentment towards almost everyone and for everything. Someone’s comments and your own minor failures irritate you more than ever and intensify your condition. At the end of the day, no matter what you did during the day, you feel squeezed like a lemon, not only physically, but also mentally.

Your situation at work or in your personal life seems hopeless and hopeless. And the challenges seem insurmountable. Burnout and similar exhaustion cannot be eliminated by standard methods - going on vacation, getting more sleep, resting as before. Often accompanied by insomnia with general constant fatigue.

It can burst into zhor and lose weight. Or vice versa, your appetite disappears and your weight drops critically.

Why do we get emotionally tired and burn out?

No forces? You can’t complete projects, you can’t realize your dreams, you won’t be able to communicate with your children for a long time, and life isn’t turning out the way you wanted. Or maybe you have already given up on all this? Do you work to feed yourself and your family? Or would you still like to aim for something more? Live a joyful life, be satisfied with your life, some dreams, but still realize them?

Let's first find out why we burn out?

  1. Sedentary work for 8 hours a day - require at least 1 hour a day of leg activity, preferably with parasympathetics turned on. Legs are the weakest part of the body. Do you move a little? Expect burnout and then exhaustion.
  2. Constantly staying inside closed premises very tiring. You need to go outside for at least 1–2 hours/day to saturate the body with oxygen and give physical activity. If you don’t go outside, further advice on eliminating fatigue will be useless for you.
  3. Sleep, insomnia. Daytime stress gets into such a state that then the body and mind cannot calm down and relax for a long time. In a partially wound state, it is impossible to fall asleep on time and get a good night's sleep. This condition does not go away on its own; it needs to be released.
  4. A sedentary lifestyle means that the body is full of energy in the evening, while mentally one feels tired. So it turns out that it is difficult to fall asleep when you are tired.
  5. There is too much stress during the day. We were taught theorems and integrals at school, they even taught us a little about the theory of relativity. But we were not taught to get along with each other, nor to let go of stress. Working with people means a lot of stress - no matter what it is.
  6. Lack of harmonious communication with loved ones: family, children. Lack of personal hobbies, small joys, periodic changes of environment, travel. Life, turned into continuous work, is emotionally and mentally tiring, exhausting, and burns out. Living only for work does not bring satisfaction and joy.
  7. Frequent criticism, especially undeserved criticism. And it doesn’t matter where it happens at home or at work.
  8. Low salary. Which creates a feeling of uselessness, undervaluation, and not being in demand.

a. Burn out at work or professional burnout.

Professional burnout and exhaustion is increasingly caused by work. In Japan, authorities are forced to introduce administrative and even criminal penalties for deaths from overwork. Even in China they began to pay attention to this and punish.

In Europe, overtime of more than 220 hours per year, when the work norm is 1,800 hours per year, is prohibited by law and punishable by fines - this is monitored by labor protection services and trade unions.

  • strict deadlines
  • liabilities with penalties
  • great risks or liability
  • routine work
  • low or falling demand/sales,
  • receiving or reading a lot of negative news
  • conflicts, intrigue among colleagues
  • venting dissatisfaction on each other and especially on the part of superiors
  • frequent inspections, changes in legislation
  • disrespectful attitude towards you, outright rudeness
  • difficult working conditions with people

Some statistics about burnout.

In Europe, professional burnout is the cause of 50-60% of lost working days.

In Australia, to cope with stress:

  • 61% of people drink alcohol
  • 41% engage in gambling
  • 31% use drugs.

In Russia, in total, up to 70% of the population are at risk, who, according to statistics, are depressed.

As you can see, the statistics are depressing. And it tends to grow.

b. Family causes of emotional burnout.

Emotional burnout can also happen for family reasons. In mothers after birth, due to insomnia. It can happen even to housewives. The causes of burnout are approximately the same as at work, but come from the family. They don't appreciate, they don't respect. Busy with household chores. Difficult financial situation in the family. Debts that put psychological pressure on the psyche.

Lack of proper attention, love, recognition, support from a spouse. Interference of other people in family affairs. Unfounded criticism. Lack of regular sex, which helps relieve some stress and promotes better sleep.

According to the Pareto rule, 80% of tasks require 20% of energy. And the remaining 20% ​​of things require 80% of energy. In other words, if a wife only looks after small children and gets up at night and takes care of the housework herself: cooking, washing, cleaning, then she has a serious chance of burning out. But if a husband or one of the parents at least helps and takes on up to 20% of the family’s affairs in order to give his wife some sleep, then they thereby save her 80% of her strength.

c. Age crises

All people have age-related crises for which our education does not prepare us at all. Moreover, our culture is a bit frowned upon to openly acknowledge and discuss our crises. In youth, there is a lot of energy and little experience - this energy is spent extremely unproductively and often to the detriment of oneself.

To be honest, I felt my first crisis already at the age of 18-19, when I had to face life one on one for the first time. Alas, but independent life schools and universities do not prepare it. But the state doesn’t care about this. On that moment Soviet Union It just collapsed and shock therapy began in the economy. I tried myself in several directions, but I was not particularly successful in my business.

The second time I faced a crisis was at the age of 25-27.

By that time, I had learned to make good money, but I had to work incredibly hard. There was not enough time for hobbies and personal life. And I had no experience building relationships. A slight dissatisfaction began to overcome me. And it led to radiculitis at the age of 28.

Having suffered with radiculitis for nine months, I felt like an old man: you couldn’t bend over, and you had to dress very warmly because of the constant feeling of cold on your lower back. Radiculitis was cured in 3 days using yoga courses. Why don't doctors know about this?

The next crisis arose at about 33 years old - it was already a classic midlife crisis. But I spent it working 8-16 hours a day. And all my free time I meditated, looking for a solution.

My blood pressure dropped to 82/75 and I wanted to sleep all the time. Only kicks from my bosses got me out of work. At some point I almost died from this. But they helped knowledgeable people— the pressure leveled off in 1 evening and became 126/90 as in the book.

I felt the next crisis when I turned 40 years old.

Something happens to us at this age - we need to seriously change our lifestyle to cope with everything. Most men burn out and cannot fully overcome this milestone. A sluggish downshift begins: beer, fishing, football, the Internet, simple work, detachment from household chores.

Each crisis is an emotional burnout and should not be underestimated. For example, in the English-speaking world there is the “27 Club” - celebrities who died at the age of 27. In other words, celebrities who could not cope with this age crisis.

d. Reasons from childhood.

By and large, the cause of age-related crises is the lack of preparation for adult life. They don't teach us this at school. And parents often, instead of passing on to their children life experience pour out their dissatisfaction on them. Many people had difficult childhoods for one reason or another.

Let's be honest - just as you were not taught to raise children, no one taught your parents this either. And most of them could really do with learning. Raising children is still not an easy task. The socialization process that each of us goes through in childhood is quite painful.

e. External reasons

For the last 25 years, there has been a continuous crisis in the country, and throughout the world. In some places it is felt more strongly, in others less. It would be dishonest for me to say that external factors do not affect your life at all.

We live in a world that is changing too quickly and too competitive, at the intersection of several crises: economic, cultural, interethnic, demographic and others. All this puts some psychological pressure.

Doctors and teachers, although they are budget employees, have a rather difficult job, and then there are continuous “reforms” in medicine and education, when in words they seem to want the best and promise support, but in reality everything is done exactly the opposite.

This dissonance makes doctors and teachers feel deceived, unnecessary and burn out. And until the state policy changes, they will be at risk. What can we say about businessmen and people employed in companies?

Emotional burnout and your responsibility for what is happening.

All these reasons and factors make your life difficult, even to the point of emotional burnout, but you need to take responsibility for your life. You are responsible for what happens to you and no one else. Do you want to change your life for the better? Take full responsibility for your life.

If for every difficult situation you have someone to blame, your life will never improve.

1. Professional burnout syndrome – and character traits.

Some people are prone to professional burnout, emotional exhaustion, chronic fatigue. These are people prone to the following character traits:

  • Perfectionists, idealists - people constantly trying to do everything as best as possible, ideally
  • prone to feelings of guilt, taking on too much responsibility, sacrificing their interests
  • touchy people, as well as those who have high expectations for others and themselves
  • people with “rose-colored glasses” who usually break their “face on the asphalt of reality.”
  • The desire to please everyone, usually at one's own expense.

The most difficult thing is that you can remain in these states for decades, even be proud of these traits and not notice how much they harm your life and health. Yes, I myself was touchy, and I didn’t notice that I was offended by every little thing. At the same time, he considered himself a non-offensive, good guy.

Only burnout made me pay attention to my touchiness and perfectionism. Moreover, it was so deep inside me that if someone had drawn my attention to it, I would never have believed them.

One way or another, these behavior patterns need to be tracked down in yourself and get rid of them. Some things can be changed in yourself through willpower, while others may require attending special training. Why not?

People who live for others are very touchy. Due to the fact that they sacrifice themselves for the sake of their loved ones and therefore are full of expectations of the same sacrifices in return, even if they believe that they do not need anything. But the subconscious cannot be deceived. Expectations are an unconscious process. Many people don’t understand that living for yourself is normal.

Burnout syndrome and profession.

Burnout most often occurs among those who work with other people and have increased responsibility. And also for creative people.

And it doesn’t matter whether your work really involves a lot of responsibility and risks, or whether you’ve made it all up to yourself and screwed yourself over.

Particularly at risk are:

  • Doctors, medical workers, especially those working in the ambulance. And even ambulance drivers, as shown in the Nicolas Cage film Raising the Dead.
  • Teachers in universities and especially in schools. Fewer for kindergarten teachers.
  • The service staff, especially when there is a large flow of people, is not very polite: bars, service centers, call centers
  • Sales managers, marketers, managers at various levels, company owners, entrepreneurs, businessmen.
  • Creative workers: designers, artists, actors, directors.

Repeated daily encounters with negative moods, dissatisfaction, rudeness from other people. With a general lack of preparedness for such situations and support from management. It practically guarantees the occurrence of stress, which over time accumulates like a snowball and intensifies, turning first into burnout and then into exhaustion.

All cases have general signs– loss of interest in work, fatigue. Working with people is very, very difficult; even in the most favorable conditions there will be stress. All people need to be prepared for real life: taught to let go of stress, which, unfortunately, we do not have in our education system. You will either learn on your own, or life will force you to learn, but will undermine your health.

Professional emotional burnout and business.

More and more effort is required to attract customers and sales. Customer orders are decreasing. Bills to pay, obligations and debts are becoming more and more. Lack of long term perspective. Uncertainty.

There is less and less room for error. The possible consequences of mistakes are increasing. Losing a job or business becomes a very likely event—even companies that have been in business for 50–150 years go bankrupt. This greatly complicates the moral climate in business and creates psychological tension.

The emotional stress at work increases. The amount of rest time is the same or less. The situation forces you to give all your best and even work harder. Projects require more perfection in execution, that is, more mental strength.

Moreover, in conditions where victories are difficult to achieve, the joy of another victory can be the cause of burnout. In general, burnout from positive emotions is 5 times stronger than from negative ones. There are simply more negative emotions, and fewer strong positive emotions, and this is not so noticeable.

2. 10 signs of emotional burnout or exhaustion.

Not all people immediately understand what is really happening to them and why. Often many people take what happens personally or blame others for it - this is what main danger emotional exhaustion and burnout.

Society has an erroneous understanding of the norm. For example, some believe, " if after 40 years it hurts somewhere, it means you are still alive" In other words, perceive body pain as normal after 40.I assure you this is far from the case. If you take care of your health, you will live 100–120 years, and even at 80–90 you will still be in fairly good health.

Age is not a reason for illness. According to Norbekov - With age comes only insanity, and illnesses come from lack of care for your body. Pay attention to the following signs - many people have them. Just don’t assume that this is normal with age.

  • Early gray hair, hair loss
  • Heart problems, illnesses, decreased immunity
  • Constant worries, fears, irritation, dissatisfaction
  • Memory loss, teeth loss, vision impairment
  • Wrinkles, dark circles under the eyes, aged appearance
  • Heart attack, stroke, grumpiness, insanity
  • Drowsiness, insomnia, constant fatigue even after sleep
  • Lack of joy, depression, apathy, hopelessness
  • Reluctance to have sex
  • Alcohol cravings, overeating, undereating

All these external signs of burnout are not the age norm.

Many diseases can be easily managed or avoided without medications. Any illness is not normal. Each of the above signs can be postponed for another ten years. It is enough to regularly perform just a few simple exercises.

The majority of people cannot be an indicator of the norm - because the majority is initially mistaken. An indicator of the norm are some individuals who look great and feel good at 70-80-90 years old and even older.

The main character from the Shaman's Laughter trilogy is about 120 years old. At about 100 years of age, he looked to be 50–60 years old and appeared to be stronger than the book's author at age 47. Moreover, at the age of 105–110 he started a civil marriage, not bad, right? Thousands of such examples can be given. I have personally met many people aged 50-60 who look 40 with the health of 25 years.

Simple, uncomplicated exercises can get rid of 95-99% of diseases. And the remaining ones, with the help of doctors, will be much easier to eliminate if you generally monitor your health.

Just start taking care of yourself and your health.

  1. Five stages of emotional professional burnout syndrome

The progress of emotional and professional burnout and exhaustion can be divided into 5 stages. Moreover, there may be different reasons for their occurrence, but the stages and reasons are approximately the same.

  • At the first stage, everything still looks good outwardly, but you already feel some fatigue.
  • The first external signs: insomnia due to fatigue, decreased concentration on responsibilities, some apathy
  • Difficulty concentrating at work, frequent distractions - overwork with a decrease in actual work time.
  • The first signals from the body: health is deteriorating, immunity is decreasing, colds out of the blue, old sores remind of themselves. Dissatisfaction, irritation, pickiness - become a permanent state.
  • Fatigue has become chronic and turns into exhaustion, health is signaling in a big way, bursts of anger, self-pity, resentment, and feelings of guilt.

4. Symptoms of emotional burnout

I don’t even know if it’s worth talking about the symptoms of emotional burnout, if most people are chronically burned out. It is believed that emotional burnout has a rather long hidden, latent period. And to be honest I don't quite agree with scientific explanation symptoms.

It is officially believed that at first the enthusiasm for performing one’s duties decreases. I want to get out of work quickly, but it turns out the opposite – rather slowly. The desire to concentrate on what is no longer interesting disappears. There is a feeling of fatigue from work in general and a little bit of irritability for everyone.

But the fact of the matter is that burnout is emotional. And it may happen that there is interest in the work, but the person is criticized a lot, external factors interfere very much - and burnout occurs.

Symptoms of emotional burnout can be divided into 3 groups:

Physical symptoms of burnout

  • Chronic, constant fatigue;
  • weakness and lethargy in the muscles;
  • headache
  • decreased immunity;
  • insomnia;
  • eye fatigue, decreased vision;
  • joint and lower back pain

Weight changes due to the fact that stress usually makes you want to eat. There is also a loss of appetite - for example, after a divorce or dismissal. Which leads to noticeable changes in weight and appearance

Social and behavioral signs:

  • The desire to run away from everyone or resentment towards everyone, as a result the desire for isolation, a minimum of communication with others
  • evasion of responsibility, failure to perform duties, laziness
  • blaming others for one's own troubles, resentment, irritation
  • envy, complaints that someone is lucky in life
  • complaints about your life and the fact that you have to work a lot;
  • pessimism, negativity is seen in everything

Many people, if possible, fall into escapism or dayshifting. There may be cravings for sweets, alcohol, or even drugs.

Psycho-emotional signs:

  • indifference to one’s life and the events happening around appears;
  • self-doubt, decreased self-esteem
  • disappointment in others
  • loss of professional motivation;
  • short temper, irritation and dissatisfaction with other people
  • depression, constant bad mood, life is not going well

Mental burnout syndrome is clinically similar to depression. There is an experience of semi-contrived suffering from artificially created loneliness raised to the level of doom. In this state, it is difficult to focus or concentrate. However, burnout is much easier to overcome than it might seem at first glance.

5. Implicit symptoms of professional emotional burnout.

You can deceive your consciousness or yourself. But it is impossible to deceive your subconscious or something in the depths of your soul. If you are tired and overworked, that means you will rest. Of course, you can emulate vigorous activity, sit on social networks, read the news, but in essence, this will be a psychological rest.

You may even truly believe that you are working. But if the body is tired, then it is tired - and it will rest, whether you want it or not. The body or consciousness will begin to switch off, you will sleep on the move, concentration will decrease, attentiveness will decrease, thoughts will begin to get confused. Operation errors are possible.

Productivity will be reduced to nothing - which means that you will be doing small unimportant things, routine. But you won’t be able to rest normally either - this is precisely the biggest danger. The next day you will come to work in the same or almost the same condition, which will again affect your work productivity.

Continuing to work in this mode for a long time, sooner or later you will face a decrease in income. And when the question of money is added to your fatigue, emotional burnout and professional exhaustion are guaranteed.

If you are tired, go rest! Get out of this tailspin.

6. Where do professional burnout and emotional exhaustion come from?

I remember in the mid-90s, the guys and I went to a neighboring city 170 km away. The car was 17 years old, “Kopeyka”, its engine had just been rebuilt - the pistons and rings had been replaced. After such a major overhaul, the engine was supposed to withstand 100 thousand kilometers, if you drive carefully, at a maximum speed of 90–110 km/h.

But we were young and hot, we were having fun, so we drove with the gas pedal to the floor, which was a speed of 130 km/h. It would seem that the difference in speed is only 20% greater, and we drove some 400–450 km. But this was enough to burn out the engine. It turns out we burned the engine, using only 0.4% of the resource, i.e. 200 times faster.

Emotional exhaustion and professional burnout affect you in much the same way; by working just 20% harder than your maximum resources, you shorten the rest of your life by 20–200 times. Is it worth it? And don't ask me how to go to bed at 9 pm.

Don’t ask - maybe you shouldn’t run 3 times a week and train your heart? Therefore, when you feel tired at work and can’t work, go home, rest, recuperate, and maybe you’ll be able to work the next day. The working day should be a maximum of 8 hours - because this is the maximum time for work.

Of course, you can work an hour more, as doctors, businessmen, and managers often do - but you need to remember that the next day you will have to pay double the price for it. If today you worked 2 hours, then tomorrow you will be idle for 4 hours.

7. Consequences of burnout syndrome

And if you are constantly in a state of burnout, emotional exhaustion, physical or mental fatigue, your “ship of life” simply does not have fuel or energy to move forward.

If youth knew
if old age could.

When you are young, you burn out from lack of life experience. IN mature age from the inability to recover. One way or another, burnout and fatigue accumulate over the years, and after 40 years they turn into chronic fatigue or exhaustion.

And all because we are not taught to let go of stress gradually. So we collect it on ourselves throughout our lives, and all the stress of life settles on our body in a thick layer of tense muscles, scientifically this is called the “shell of tension.”

If you do not eliminate burnout, then over time there will be a feeling of hopelessness in your life. life situation. Depression appears. May develop into alcoholism. Constant feeling of hopelessness, disappointment in own life, disappointment in oneself. Feeling of injustice. Feeling deceived.

These are very strong destructive emotions. I would say that they are not compatible with life. You have seen them many times in older people. Usually people die quickly after this. Often such people are seriously ill with difficult-to-treat diseases.

As Faina Ranevskaya cynically noted: if the patient wants to live, then the doctors are powerless. Doctors themselves often notice that if the patient does NOT want to live, then the doctors are powerless. Hopelessness and disappointment with life is the unwillingness to live.

Many people are accustomed to the fact that life is hard, they get tired, get sick, and this way of life seems normal to them. This is an unconscious pattern of thinking, imposed from nowhere. But this is not so - life can and should bring joy and pleasure, despite external circumstances. The crisis will not end soon - why not live now? Not enjoying life?

8. Emotional burnout and exhaustion - accumulate in the body for years.

There is such a joke: Comrade General, stop the train. In response, the general commanded - Train, stop! One, two.

Emotional burnout and exhaustion are also a kind of “train” - don’t fool yourself that you can stop them or control them “one or two”.

According to Wilhelm Reich: Emotional fatigue, burnout, exhaustion create muscle tension in the body, which, becoming chronic, further suppresses the free movement of energy flows and blood flow in the body. Sooner or later, this tension leads to the formation of a “muscular armor of tension,” which creates fertile ground for the development of neurosis.

Spending every day, for years, from childhood, in such a corset, a person becomes more and more tense and heavy. This is muscle stiffness throughout the body that occurs due to the burden of emotions that you are carrying around. Naturally, these constantly tense muscles are terribly tiring and drain your strength. As a result, a person stops noticing his stiffness and tension, and loses his natural interest in life.

You are so accustomed to constant muscle tension that you don’t notice this shell. But, if you pay attention to the tension in the shoulders, neck, face, back of the thighs, near the knees, you will see that for many these muscles are constantly tense.

9. Official scientific methods of letting go of burnout do not work.

The most interesting thing is that 80–100 years have passed, but scientists still have not proposed a complete method for releasing this accumulated tension in the muscles of the body. Either they don’t know, or they don’t want to offer. Therefore, I do not believe that official professors and doctors psychological sciences will be able to offer you something really effective against burnout.

I argue that any technique for letting go of fatigue, burnout, and emotional exhaustion is nothing if it cannot release the tense muscles of the “shell of tension.”If someone tells me about another super technique for letting go of burnout and fatigue, I ask one question: does the “armor of tension” let go?

If the answer is “no”, and the answer has always been negative, until now - I don’t even want to look further - the whole technique is a dead poultice. And it can be used in addition to something, but not as a main technique.

If you really want to let go of psychological fatigue, emotional exhaustion and professional burnout, then you should do exercises that let go of the armor of tension too. Otherwise, this is an attempt to stop the train “with the power of thought” for “one, two.”

10. Learn to relax - or how to deal with emotional burnout.

You need to be able to rest. This skill will not appear on its own. This issue cannot be solved with money. I know many people who are 10 times richer than me - but they get worse sleep, rest, and are less full of strength, especially mentally. Why? They don't know how to rest.

The difficulty of rest lies in the fact that we need to take into account that we have not only a body, but also a consciousness. And they can get tired of both. Biorhythms may not coincide, when the body wants to sleep, but the consciousness does not, and then it is difficult to fall asleep. Therefore, it is highly recommended to prepare your body and mind for sleep. 2-3 hours before bedtime, stop watching TV, turn off your computer and smartphone.

One of the main reasons why you cannot rest normally is a sedentary lifestyle. Working with your mind and reacting emotionally, it turns out that you are psychologically tired. But physically they moved little, that is, they were full of strength. Go to bed and start “counting sheep”; you cannot fall asleep, being tired.

Here are some principles on how you can better rest and get enough sleep:

  • You need to be in the fresh air every day for at least 1 hour. Or better yet, 2 hours a day. For example, Russian nobles walked for 2 hours a day almost without fail. If you violate this point, then everything else is useless.
  • Go to bed earlier. To fall asleep earlier, prepare your body for sleep several hours in advance. One hour of sleep in the evening is equal to several hours of sleep in the morning. Isn’t that why you sleep in the morning, sleep, but when you wake up you feel like you’ve had a hangover? And even your head can ache from sleeping too much in the morning.
  • Drink water when you wake up, before meals and every hour. Water is needed for 3 main systems in our body: the brain, immunity and digestion. What people call thirst is more like some kind of dehydration. We do not have the exact sensation of desire to drink. Therefore, you need to drink water consciously, according to the regime, and not when you want to drink.
  • 8 hours of sedentary work should be compensated by 1 hour of physical activity. The activity that you enjoy is desirable. You also need to remember that activity should be aimed only at health, and not at the ego like bodybuilders or fitness enthusiasts, where some parts of the body or joints are overloaded.
  • Eat healthy with enough proteins, enzymes, spices, fiber, vegetables and fruits. If you don't have fruit or fiber in your diet, you're almost guaranteed to have mild or even severe constipation. Vegetables are needed similarly. The main source of fiber is bread, so our ancestors ate everything with bread.

Food should be tasty and pleasant, easy to chew. Limit sweets. If you need to lose weight, then learn to chew your food more thoroughly and lose a maximum of 50–100 grams per week.

How to fall asleep faster and get better sleep so that you are full of energy in the morning?

On Monday he set a record for skiing: 7.7 km in 53 minutes.

The weather was great for skiing. And the ski track was very slippery.

The result exceeded all my expectations: almost 2 times faster than the day before. Almost not tired. On the second day my legs almost didn’t hurt. A week later the record was broken by 3-4 minutes. And this despite the fact that I had already run 2 laps, i.e. 15.4 km. On average, I ran 30-45 km per week.
(By the way, this is very little; the last world record in cross-country skiing is 50 km in 1 hour and 46 minutes.)

What is all this for? Why run several times a week? Yes, because a sedentary lifestyle and burnout are probably the biggest cause of death every year. Heart disease alone kills approximately 31.4% each year. You need to move MUCH more.

If you have read the series of books “Shaman’s Laughter” by Vladimir Serkin, then in the third book the author asks him: How long will you be able to maintain life in your body? The “shaman” answered - yes, for a long time. How many people aged 120 would you hear that from?

I'm sure 99% of people could live to be 100-120 years old.

If only we moved like this “shaman”. Well, let go of stress, disappointment, and other negative emotions.

Jogging can be anything comparable: skiing, skating, rollerblading, active cycling, swimming, jogging. You need to run for at least 30 minutes, and preferably 1–2 hours per session, 2–4 times a week. Once a week is NOT ENOUGH to maintain a healthy heart and get enough sleep.

You need to run with pleasure and at a low heart rate. Running fast and at a high heart rate is strictly contraindicated. It is also necessary to run with pleasure - this is how parasympathetic is activated, i.e. you gain energy.

Running without pleasure, i.e. in sympathy, means a loss of energy, puts stress on the joints, knees - jogging is extremely harmful to the knees and joints. Look at the occupational diseases of athletes who, in pursuit of records, overload their bodies. Don't rush to run a lot and quickly. You need health, not records.

You run to get the blood pumping through your body, to invigorate your heart, and to sleep well at night. Not for records. For example, I have very poor results both in skiing and jogging, this moment. But I don't need it anymore. My friends can run 1.5–2 times faster, but their knees hurt after such runs.

An example of physical activity from my life.

Although I set a personal record, everyone was ahead of me again. This time we were overtaken by not only old people and grandmothers, but also a couple of children aged 9–11 :-). It seemed that they were moving at least 1.5–2 times faster than me. I wonder what their speed is?

It looks like I still have huge potential for growth. I still have little balance on skis; I fell once when I landed on clean ice from a hill. On cross-country skis it is difficult to maintain balance, and even at speed.

This time I managed to run 4.5 km in skating style. I was less tired than the previous time, when I was able to run 1.5 km in skating style. Another interesting thing is that despite the fact that I moved almost 2 times faster, the calories burned, the tracker shows 27% less. How does he count them?

Yesterday I didn’t run - I rested. Today I'll go for a run again, for an hour.

This is roughly how my runs go in the winter. In the summer I run for 1-2 hours, about 8-10 km per hour. It's quite slow, but I don't need the speed.

Perhaps someday the results will be much better, or maybe they won’t. For me, the main indicator is a pleasant feeling from running, how I sleep, and that my knees don’t hurt. Many times I caught myself thinking that I don’t want to run, because today I won’t be able to repeat my best result. This is what it means to chase results.

You know, it’s difficult to work actively for 8 hours a day and at the same time set records while jogging. Then I remind myself that I run for health, not for results - and I go run as best I can.

Good sleep is a must to eliminate fatigue and burnout.

But you won’t be able to sleep normally without walks in the fresh air and without minimal jogging every other day. Someone will say that they work out in the gym, fitness, yoga, or work out. Or dances for an hour a day. Believe it or not, this is not enough for your heart and health.

Yes, it's better than nothing. The heart, except for jogging, does not train anything properly. Even monks in Buddhist monasteries and yogis run for hours. You can swing and jump in the gym as much as you like, but you still need to run in the fresh air.

If you don’t train your heart, don’t help it pump blood around your body, it means your heart and other organs are working under load and even overload. Which means you burn out. You may not believe me, but a sedentary lifestyle is the most energy-consuming for the body.

Processes in the body are interconnected - muscles help move blood and fluids throughout the body, supply cells with oxygen, cleanse the body, and move food through the gastrointestinal tract. If you move little, it means that each organ individually is working under load. Something like this…

11. The first rule of a spy or moral exhaustion.

We were not prepared either at school or in universities for real life. We are being prepared for the life that “should be”, in a good way. There is a huge gap between these two “lives”. With such upbringing, the first age crisis occurs already at the age of 18–20, when people face reality one on one for the first time and “suddenly” it turns out that everything is a little more complicated.

In reality, it turns out that everyone is for himself. But setups, deceit, and cruelty happen not only in the movies, but also in your own skin, and they are not at all as funny as in the movies. And either you cope with the tasks, or you are replaced by someone else and continue to live as you want, where you want.

To achieve your dreams, you need to plow and plow. And it’s not a fact that it will work out. This is disheartening. By and large, burnout occurs from unpreparedness for life, when the skills to cope with situations are sorely lacking.

And the pressure in the form of demands and claims from all sides continues to increase. The law of the jungle applies in life, only in the city it is tougher.

The first rule of a spy is don't get caught. Well, if you get caught, “you’re a fool.” On the other hand, you can learn to cope with burnout, stress, and exhaustion quite quickly. And keeping yourself healthy is quite simple. You just need to understand that 85% of success in society is possible thanks to developed social skills. And only 15% thanks technical education

and knowledge.

  • I recommend developing the following skills in yourself in order to make life easier and not have to overexert yourself.
  • Study. Life is constantly becoming more complex - which means you need to constantly learn. Yogis say that life is all about learning. When I entered the university in 1991, some IT-related disciplines were so new that even the teachers did not know them and studied them together with the students. When I finished my studies in 1996, this knowledge was hopelessly outdated. And I had to learn something new, different. And now everything is changing even faster. Read, learn something, develop.
  • Communication. The ability to communicate is a skill. He doesn't fall from the sky on his own. Humans are social creatures and that means communication. You need to be able to communicate with people. From the right communication with people you are interested in, you can receive tremendous pleasure, inspiration and satisfaction. And this means mental strength of the highest quality.
  • Building relationships. To learn how to build relationships with the opposite sex and at work, I read a couple of dozen books and completed more than a dozen trainings on each topic.

And voila - I learned how to build and maintain relationships both with women, friends, and at work.

When I got married, I took this whole stack of books and training recordings and gave them to my wife.

With words, if you want a long and normal relationship, you need to know all this. Read them as quickly as possible. And she read them. All. No questions.

  • Health. It's a skill, not a given. Rely on the doctor, but don’t make a mistake yourself. 95–99% of diseases can be eliminated – in a healthy way life. In the remaining cases, let the doctors help you. But nothing more.
    Abroad, waiting lists for surgery can last up to one year; there is no way to speed things up with money. IN ambulance It’s better not to go there - so many articles have already been written about it. That's why 20% of the population goes in for sports there. And in Russia (CIS) – only 2%. Hard? As it is, this is life. Are you taking care of your health? What are you waiting for: a kick in the ass in the form of a severe illness?
  • Sales and purchases. We live in a world where everything is bought or sold for money. But at the same time, we are not taught at all how to buy and sell. I know a bunch of friends who earn 2-3 times more than me, but live in worse conditions.

They cannot buy and sell - a lot of money is stupidly lost to nowhere, every month. And they can't stop. We bought the wrong car. We bought the apartment in the wrong place and need to change it. And so on several times. There is a lot of unnecessary rubbish at home, without the necessary things. Clothes, food, household supplies - from a cannon budget for sparrows.
Moreover: sales, negotiations, persuasion, the ability to negotiate, purchasing - this is essentially the same skill, based on general principles.

Do you consider yourself more brilliant than Vincent Van Gogh and Nikola Tesla?

They couldn’t make a living with their talents - do you think you can if you don’t learn to sell, buy, bargain and negotiate with people?

  • Honesty. It’s also a skill, like the ability to tell the truth. If you decide to tell the truth directly, then you will be called a truth teller, and maybe even impudent and rude. Or they might also hit you on the head. Yes, and you will do the same if someone tramples on you with such honesty.
  • Kindness. Oddly enough, it’s also a skill. Kindness should be in moderation and in place. There is no point in feeding pigs oranges - forgive me for this harsh but vital statement. If you are too kind, others will take advantage of you. But at the same time, obviously, being angry and dissatisfied is not an option. Although this is exactly what many people choose, unfortunately.
  • Gratitude. Probably one of the most neglected skills. What people lack most in our time is gratitude and appreciation. Start thanking and giving appreciation to others, and you will be surprised how much better you will be treated. You will never be able to pay for everything with money - you need to learn to be grateful not with money, but in a different way.
  • Performance. You need to not just work, but work profitably. Labor productivity is especially important for office workers. And even if you haven’t thought about it until now, you should think about it now. The competition is so high that either you are more productive or your services are no longer needed.

Having these skills will make your life much easier. One way or another, you need to develop them. But their absence will cost a lot of gray hair and health, a waste of energy. Well, then emotional exhaustion, burnout, psychological fatigue...

12. Sympathetic and parasympathetic body regulation systems

In order to have a good rest, you need physical activity on your body. But the fact is that not every load is suitable. Most sports, to put it mildly, are harmful to health because they have a one-sided effect on the body. Even running - almost indispensable for training the heart - is very harmful to the knees and joints. It turns out that playing sports heals some things, but cripples others. Where is the way out?

And the whole point is that we have 2 nervous systems for regulating the body, sympathetic and parasympathetic. But only the parasympathetic supports homeostasisthe desire of the system to reproduce itself, restore lost balance, and overcome the resistance of the external environment. And the internal environment too.

Therefore, you should exercise in the parasympathetic system, which has powerful restorative and healing properties.

Doing sports, fitness or anything else without parasympathetics turned on is an unaffordable luxury - because the sympathetic nervous system does not acquire, but spends your energy. That is, you will need more strength to recover, and the recovery processes will be weaker.

Turned on parasympathetics is the eternal elixir of youth - if you know how to use it. Naturally, you need to learn to work with the parasympathetic system turned on, and to stay in it for as much time as possible during the day. Then there will be plenty of health, work will bring joy, and there will be no stress or fatigue from it. But this, of course, is aerobatics.

It's worth trying to learn.

13. Ways to overcome emotional exhaustion, professional burnout and psychological fatigue.

The general answer to this question is to change your lifestyle. If you have the opportunity to change a job that is emotionally draining, then you should change it. If you have relationships, friends, or loved ones that are squeezing your strength and health out of you, then you should at least reconsider them. You should refuse to communicate with people as vampires - you cannot help them - only “life” can help them. But they will damage your health so much that it won’t seem enough.

Next, you should review your daily routine and make any necessary changes. If you continue the same lifestyle as until now, then it is useless to fight exhaustion and recovery. Yes, I understand not everything depends on you, but you can change a lot.

Recuperation plan for one weekend.

Ask your family and friends not to disturb you or even help you - to take on part of your responsibilities. And spend the weekend according to this scenario:

  • Go to bed earlier in the evening. Give yourself some sleep in the morning.
  • Drink some water.
  • Morning exercises or yoga - stretching. Some harmonious yoga complex. Perform with parasympathetics turned on.
  • You can have breakfast. Walk for 2 hours in the fresh air.
  • A walk can be combined with a run - Jogging/skiing/or swimming - 1 hour (minimum) at the slowest pace, at a low heart rate.
  • Take a nap at lunch. No TV, movies, internet, smartphone. It’s better to talk to your children, friends, and parents.
  • Relaxation meditation – 15–30 minutes.
  • Go to bed early at 21-22 hours. Have sex before bed! (Why not?)
  • Repeat the next day.

The result will be even better if you complete all the exercises. More precisely, in the complete absence of gadgets and electric light and being in the fresh air. Well, or at least at the dacha.

An easy and harmonious morning stretching routine.

I have been doing the simplest harmonious yoga complex Suryanamaskar of 33 movements for 10 years now. (Not to be confused with Suryanamaskar of 12 movements).

You need to do this at least 3 times a day. Each approach takes approximately 5-7 minutes and a 1-2 minute break between them. At my trainings, I tell you in detail how to breathe correctly during the complex. How

The benefits of this complex can be described for hours. Deeply cleanses the body from the inside, gives energy, increases immunity, eliminates back pain, eliminates cellulite in 2-3 days, treats a lot of diseases. I tell you more at my trainings. Well, or look on my website. When I get there, I’ll lay out my hands.

Meditations for relaxation.

  1. The simplest and most relaxing is the rotation of the microcosmic orbit - from 15-20 minutes.
  2. The next one is quite similar - yoga nidra, when you “roll” energy balls across your body in turn with different sensations - warmth, tingling, cold. And different colored balls.
  3. Deconcentration of attention – has more than 5 varieties.
  4. Well, the most effective meditation is recollection, during which you remember your day in reverse order and let go of all the stress of the day.

Different meditations are suitable for different occasions. There are also options for reminiscence performed with a partner for particularly difficult emotional situations from the past, but it can only be taught in live trainings.

This should be enough for you to regain your strength over the weekend. Next, you need to lead an energy-efficient lifestyle and let go of the causes of emotional fatigue, which is discussed in the following paragraphs.

Remember that the best and quick way rest is don't get tired that is, lead an energy-efficient lifestyle with elements of recuperation every day. Be less tired and rest well every day, otherwise fatigue will accumulate.

14. Prevention of emotional stress and professional burnout.

You need to monitor your health every day, and not when “the rooster pecks in the ass.” And they also say: “It’s too late for Gogi to drink Borjomi if there are no more kidneys.” It's better not to let it come to this.

To do this, you need to create your daily routine in such a way that it includes all the necessary elements of economical spending of your health and restoration of strength every day.

  • Morning yoga – every working day. You can take a break on the weekends.
  • Drink enough water in the morning, before meals and every hour at work.
  • Work in blocks - remember to stand up and stretch every hour.
  • Be in the fresh air every day for at least 1–2 hours.
  • Minimum 1 hour of physical activity 3 times a week. Ideally 2-3 times a week for 2 hours.
  • After lunch, when you feel sleepy, meditate for 15–30 minutes. Or you can even take a nap.
  • Meditate before bed and during the day to restore strength for 15–30 minutes.
  • Let go of emotional clamps and so on... (in the next paragraph.)

Regarding morning yoga

Many will say that they get up early, don’t get enough sleep and go to work, so they can’t do yoga in the morning. I would say that this is self-deception and excuses. Get up half an hour earlier and do yoga every morning. It doesn't matter how early you have to get up. Go to bed half an hour earlier for this.

I know builders who started work at 5 am and left the house at 4.30. In order to have time to do yoga, according to my recommendation, they got up at 3 in the morning and went to bed for 19–20 hours. This is an unusual daily routine - but they like their work, so they adapt to it.

30 minutes of yoga in the morning is equivalent to 1-2 hours of sleep, plus eliminating back pain, maintaining immunity and the whole body in order, which leads to the elimination of 95-99% of diseases.

Is it possible to do without running?

Only a short-term replacement like skiing, skating, rollerblading, swimming and nothing more. But still, alas, you can’t do without running completely. I looked for a replacement for him for a long time, but found nothing. For a sedentary lifestyle, physical activity needs to be done through the legs and for the heart. It is our legs that are the weakest element in our body, not our breath. When you start running, you will feel that your legs are weakest, and your breathing quickly gets used to it.

You need to run ONLY at a low heart rate - meditative running with parasympathetics turned on. Run slowly, but run. Once you start running correctly, you will quickly begin to enjoy it incredibly.

15. Constant stress is the cause of emotional exhaustion.

When relaxing under stress, it is almost impossible to get enough sleep. And fatigue is guaranteed to accumulate, which sooner or later will lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout. It is stress that creates the tension that accumulates in the form of a “shell of tension.”

Letting go of stress requires additional learning. It would be great if we were taught this from childhood, but alas, it is the way it is. Few people truly understand why and how stress occurs, where and how it is deposited, why it arises and how to let go of stress. In our time, this knowledge is already vital.

First, get a notebook that will become your diary, where you will write all your thoughts.

Stress arises from accumulated grievances, dissatisfaction, expectations, feelings of guilt, fear of shame, anger, anger, jealousy, envy, and self-pity.

Yes, they are the ones who create emotional burnout and exhaustion for you. It is these emotions that create heartache, especially self-pity.

  • Write down in your diary all similar situations that you can remember.
  • Start with the simplest one and start letting go. Learn to let go - it's not easy. Then move on to more complex ones.
  • You will not confuse the moment of letting go with anything. You need to feel it. It feels like a very deep liberation, relief, as if some weight had been removed from the shoulders.
  • Letting go of grievances, expectations, etc. is a skill that needs to be developed.
  • First on release 1 difficult situation It may take you several hours or even days, but then it will take 1 second. It took me 3 days to deal with the first offense, but I immediately began to let go of the big one - don’t make my mistake.
  • In the evening before going to bed, mentally remember the day in reverse order and let go of all emotional situations. You will see that there are more of them than you noticed earlier. But they are small.
  • As soon as all the situations from the list are over, write the next set of similar situations. Repeat the practice until you have let EVERYTHING go.
  • Allocate 0.5–1 hour a day to this practice.

It is you who need to let go of such situations, not others. You let go of grievances for yourself, not for someone else. You will be surprised how much health and strength your grievances consume. And how much better you will feel. I guarantee you that you will have less gray hair, wrinkles and other signs of aging by doing this exercise regularly.

After letting go of emotional stress, you will sleep like a baby! If released correctly. I will talk more about this in a separate article. And at my trainings I teach this and give a step-by-step plan.

16. Meditation or how to get rid of deep chronic fatigue, professional burnout, emotional exhaustion.

What has accumulated over the years cannot be released through practices at the level of consciousness. Need meditation practices different types. And also “not to get caught during the day,” that is, not to get tired, not to stress during the day - is impossible without meditation. And also in order not to get tired during the day, you need to let go of the stress that is deep in the subconscious.

There are at least 3 “bioatomic” energy “reactors” in your body that could feed you endlessly if turned on correctly. One of them you already know is the parasympathetic system.

There are 5 meditations, and 3 of them have up to 5 different ways of doing them to let go of various fatigue, burnout, stress in different situations. To restore mental strength.

Meditation is an eternal or endless source of strength and health.

Because it brings back strength from your past. It was there that your strength was “lost”, starting right from childhood. This meditation will also teach you how to not stress during the day.

Another meditation temporarily turns off the armor of tension, which gives a powerful restorative effect to the entire body and relieves fatigue.

I cannot teach you all the intricacies of meditation through an article. I also cannot describe to you in detail all the plans for letting go of various fatigue, stress, and burnout. I will write a separate article about letting go of stress, but this will also not be enough to let go of the underlying stress that has accumulated since childhood. Everything is too individual.

Such situations require individual adjustment and direction, which can only be given through training. That is why I have compiled a detailed training for quickly eliminating fatigue, stress, burnout, exhaustion - for different stages of neglect.

There are 2 participation packages - and the simplest one - costs a penny and is affordable for everyone. However, the most expensive one is also available to everyone, with a strong desire.

How to quickly increase your strength significantly and restore the joy of life.

After completing this training, you will increase your strength and work productivity significantly, and with it, increase your income.

I am sure that even on medications you will save many times more than the most expensive training package.

Save your time and money. Choose the appropriate package and let's go through everything together. If you are in doubt about which training package to choose, choose the simplest one. And then, if you like it, pay extra and take the next one.

PS
If you haven’t read the Shaman’s Laughter trilogy by Vladimir Serkin, be sure to read it. I gave about 20 of these books and, on my recommendation, about 300 more people bought them or downloaded them on the Internet. Each time I only heard positive reviews and thanks in return for this book.

PS3
To quickly regain your strength, build an energy-efficient regime and double your productivity, I recommend taking my training -

There are several participation packages - the simplest is 5 lessons. Average - 5 weeks. Complete instillation of skills, reaching a new level of strength, health, productivity - 12 months = 1 year. Follow the link and register now. Prices are symbolic and will increase after the first flow.

Professional burnout is understood as a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that manifests itself in professions in the social sphere. Emotional burnout is a rather insidious process, since a person susceptible to this syndrome is often poorly aware of its symptoms. He cannot see himself from the outside and understand what is happening. Managers and HR managers should listen to employee complaints about deteriorating well-being and physical or emotional health.

At first, emotions are muffled, the acuity of feelings disappears. Everything seems to be normal on the outside, but inside there is a feeling of emptiness and boredom. Then the people with whom you have to work begin to irritate; among his colleagues, the professional who has begun to burn out speaks with disdain, or even mockingly, about some of his clients or subordinates. Further, during communication, he begins to feel hostility towards them. At first it is easy to restrain it, but gradually it becomes more and more difficult to hide the irritation, and finally the anger simply spills out. Its victim becomes an innocent person who happens to be nearby - a client, colleague, relative. At the last stage, there is a sharp drop in self-esteem and professional motivation. A person, out of habit, can maintain respectability, but everything and everyone around him becomes indifferent to him. Communication with people causes discomfort. At this severe stage, health problems, insomnia, abuse of alcohol, smoking, medications, and psychotropic substances are possible. It is in this sequence that, as a rule, the symptoms of emotional burnout occur, which are divided into three groups.

Psychophysical symptoms of professional burnout include the following:

* feeling of constant, persistent fatigue not only in the evenings, but also in the mornings, immediately after sleep (a symptom of chronic fatigue);
* a feeling of emotional and physical exhaustion - the development of a symptom is preceded by a period of increased activity, when a person is completely absorbed in work, refuses needs that are not related to it, forgets about his own needs, then the first sign sets in - exhaustion. Exhaustion is defined as a feeling of overexertion and exhaustion of emotional and physical resources, a feeling of tiredness that does not go away after a night's sleep. After a period of rest (weekends, vacation), these manifestations decrease, but upon returning to the previous work situation they resume;
* personal detachment - decreased susceptibility and reactivity to changes in the external environment (lack of a curiosity reaction to the factor of novelty or a fear reaction to a dangerous situation);
* general asthenia (weakness, decreased activity and energy, deterioration of blood biochemistry and hormonal parameters);
* frequent causeless headaches; persistent gastrointestinal disorders;
* sudden loss or sudden weight gain;
* complete or partial insomnia (quick falling asleep and lack of sleep in the early morning, or vice versa: inability to fall asleep in the evening until two or three in the morning and difficult awakening in the morning when you need to get up for work);
* constant lethargy, drowsiness and desire to sleep throughout the day;
* noticeable decrease in external and internal sensory sensitivity: deterioration of vision, hearing, smell and touch.

The socio-psychological symptoms of professional burnout include the following unpleasant sensations and reactions:

* indifference, boredom, passivity and depression (low emotional tone, feeling depressed);
* cynicism and callousness not only in work, but also in personal life;
* increased irritability for insignificant, minor events;
* frequent nervous “breakdowns” (outbursts of unmotivated anger or refusal to communicate, “withdrawal”);
* constant experience negative emotions for which there is no reason in the external situation (feelings of guilt, resentment, suspicion, shame, constraint, disappointment; self-doubt);
* a feeling of unconscious anxiety and increased anxiety (the feeling that “something is not right”);
* a feeling of hyper-responsibility and a constant feeling of fear that “it won’t work out” or the person “can’t cope”;
* general negative attitude towards life and professional prospects (like “No matter how hard you try, nothing will work out”);
* feeling of lack of support from family, friends, colleagues;
* awareness of a wrong choice. The joy of novelty has passed, and a moment of “sobering up” and disappointment has arrived. Often employees themselves admit: “I’m ready to discuss the position, but ideally I would like to leave this business - I’m tired, I’m tired of all this.” HR managers, being realistic, understand that these are symptoms of a very specific stage of burnout and that it is time to take concrete actions to help the employee.

Behavioral symptoms of professional burnout include the following actions and forms of employee behavior:

* feeling that the work is becoming harder and harder, and doing it is becoming more and more difficult;
* the employee noticeably changes his work routine (comes to work early and leaves late, or, conversely, comes to work late and leaves early);
* regardless of objective necessity, he constantly takes work home, but does not do it at home;
* the manager refuses to make decisions, formulating various reasons to explain to himself and others;
* feeling of uselessness, lack of faith in improvements, decreased enthusiasm for work;
* failure to fulfill important priority tasks and getting stuck on small details, spending most of the working time inappropriately on job requirements on little or unconscious execution of automatic and elementary actions;
* alcohol abuse, a sharp increase in cigarettes smoked per day, use of narcotic drugs;
* decreased interest in alternative approaches to solving problems (at work);
* formal performance of work;
* decrease in activity and interest in leisure and hobbies;
* limiting social contacts to work;
* Poor relationships with others, both at home and at work.

It has been noted that the symptoms of professional burnout can be “infectious” and manifest not only in individual workers. Such a fate can befall not only one person, but also an entire team. Professional burnout in organizations is often encountered when the vast majority of employees have an internal physical or emotional state with the same symptoms, as well as the same forms of behavior. In such cases, individual differences between workers are noticeably erased; they become unnaturally similar and identical, as if they were the same person. People become pessimists; they have no faith in positive changes at work and the ability to change something through their own efforts. The quality of work is decreasing, employee dismissals unmotivated by rational reasons (high staff turnover), decreased loyalty, low performance, and a negative atmosphere in the team are observed.

Stages of professional burnout

1. The first stage - at the level of performing functions, voluntary behavior: forgetting some points (for example, whether the necessary entry was made in the documentation, whether the planned question was asked, what answer was received), failures in performing any motor actions, etc. Usually, few people pay attention to these initial symptoms, jokingly calling it “girlish memory” or “sclerosis.” Depending on the nature of the activity, the magnitude of the loads and personal characteristics For a specialist, the first stage can take three to five years.

2. At the second stage, there is a decrease in interest in work, the need for communication (including at home, with friends): “I don’t want to see” those with whom the specialist communicates by line of work (colleagues, clients, bosses), “on Thursday feeling that it’s already Friday”, “the week lasts forever”, increasing apathy towards the end of the week, the appearance of persistent somatic symptoms (no strength, energy, especially towards the end of the week, headaches in the evenings; “dead sleep, no dreams”, increase in the number of colds diseases); increased irritability. The duration of this stage is on average from five to fifteen years.

3. The third stage is personal burnout itself. Characterized by a complete loss of interest in work and life in general, emotional indifference, dullness, and a feeling of constant lack of strength. A person strives for solitude. At this stage, he is much more pleasant to communicate with animals and nature than with people. The stage can last from ten to twenty years.

Phases of burnout syndrome

1. “Tension” phase. Nervous tension(anxiety) serves as a precursor and triggering mechanism in the formation of emotional burnout.

* Symptom of “experiencing psycho-traumatic circumstances.” It is manifested by an increasing awareness of psycho-traumatic factors of professional activity, which are difficult or completely impossible to eliminate. Irritation with them is gradually growing. The intractability of the situation leads to the development of other burnout phenomena.

* Symptom of “dissatisfaction with oneself.” As a result of failures or the inability to influence traumatic circumstances, a person usually experiences dissatisfaction with himself, his chosen profession, his position, and specific responsibilities. The mechanism of emotional transfer operates - energy is directed not only and not so much outward, but towards oneself. On initial stages During burnouts, they increase tension, and in subsequent burnouts they provoke psychological defense.

* Symptom of being “caged in a cage.” When traumatic circumstances are very pressing and it is impossible to eliminate them, a feeling of hopelessness often comes to us. We try to change something, we think again and again about the unsatisfactory aspects of our work. The concentration of psychic energy reaches impressive volumes. If it does not find a way out, then the person experiences a feeling of being “caged in a cage.” This is a state of intellectual and emotional congestion, a dead end.

2. “Exhaustion” phase. Characterized by a pronounced drop in overall energy tone and weakening nervous system. Emotional defense in the form of burnout becomes an integral attribute of the individual.

* Symptom of “emotional deficit.” The professional gets the feeling that emotionally he can no longer help the subjects of his activity. Unable to enter into their position, to participate and empathize, to respond to situations that should touch, encourage them to strengthen their intellectual, volitional and moral output. Harshness, rudeness, irritability, resentment, and whims complement the symptom of “emotional deficiency.”

* Symptom of “emotional detachment.” A person completely excludes emotions from the sphere of professional activity. Almost nothing excites him, almost nothing evokes an emotional response - neither positive circumstances nor negative ones. He gradually learns to work like a robot, like a soulless automaton. In other areas he lives with full-blooded emotions. Reacting without feelings and emotions is the most striking symptom of burnout.

* Symptom of “psychosomatic and psychovegetative disorders.” Manifests itself at the level of physical and mental well-being. Much of what concerns professional activity provokes deviations in a person’s somatic or mental states. Sometimes even the thought of them or contact with them causes a bad mood, bad associations, insomnia, a feeling of fear, discomfort in the heart, vascular reactions, exacerbations of chronic diseases. This indicates that emotional defense (burnout) can no longer cope with the load, and the energy of emotions is redistributed between other subsystems.

Prevention and cure

Burnout syndrome can be prevented in a timely manner and treated very effectively.

The first step to overcoming burnout is to understand yourself: not only to understand your goals and imagine an image of the future, but to answer the question of what is the meaning of what you are doing now, why are you doing it.

The most common way to cope with a situation is to try to rise above it, change your perspective, look at your situation and work from a more global point of view.

Another way is to move into a related field, when previous knowledge, skills and abilities find new application. A person makes a so-called horizontal career.

The third way is to, without abandoning the performance of duties, make them a tool for achieving more global goals.

The fourth way is that a person, remaining in the same situation, begins to focus not on what he already knows well, can do, or has mastered, but on what is a problem for him. This is how a new meaning is acquired in an old profession, and its transformation into a tool for self-development becomes a prevention of burnout.

Although there is no universal recipe for healing from professional burnout, this problem can be solved if it is dealt with purposefully. Every person needs to stop from time to time, look around, be alone with himself, think about where he is coming from and where he is going, at what speed and with what fellow travelers, and most importantly - why, for what purpose.



top