‘Self care’ (as most of us know it – spa days, reading a book, going for a walk, dinner with friends etc) is simply not enough and alone won’t give the outcomes you crave. The truth is that behaviours, choices and beliefs are where it’s at – a focus on these will bring more far reaching results for you in the area of burnout.

Burnout is set to be the number one wellbeing topic in 2021

With the stresses and strains of working through the global pandemic, many of us have had to juggle much more than we have ever had to in the past.  Experiencing potential emotional and mental overload as we have had to work from home, we have had to deal with business challenges, the parental challenges of working from home and homeschooling and so much more.

This has seen a rapid rise in people struggling and unable to bounce back with their energy levels, so much so that the World Health Organisation identified that employee burnout as an issue, describing it  “as a syndrome conceptualized as a resulting from chronic work placed stress that has not been successfully managed.”

I’ve suffered burnout on a massive scale several years ago – I know what it’s like. Whilst the pandemic has caused more people to become burnt out, burnout is not a new phenomenon.

Boundaries are critical to recovering from being burnt out

Boundaries play a massive part in protection from burnout, the famous quote “If you don’t make time for your wellness, you will ultimately make time for your illness” becomes true with burnout.  The pandemic has certainly made many people’s boundaries become blurred. The fact many have been working from home and home schooling children for example. Being unable to disconnect to switch off – people’s homes were no longer their sanctuaries. Setting boundaries brings balance – for example deciding when to switch off from work (knowing you’ve done your bit for the day).

The NLP Cause-Effect Equation

In NLP we have the cause and effect equation where we say that people either sit at the effect side of life (where we are affected by everything externally) or we sit at the cause side of life (where we take responsibility of our lives, actions, and thoughts). 

To be at cause, means you wholly accept responsibility, you recognise you have a choice about who you are, what you do and how you react to others.  You can ask yourself the questions like –  what can I do, what could I do and what are the options I have to change my current situation or improve it. You have choices, you choose your behaviour and you choose your beliefs.

Part of many people’s solution to beating burnout requires them to take responsibility – this is very much a tough love concept, but the only person who can change how things are, is the person themselves. 

Taking responsibility and managing ourselves consciously is a skill. Saying no to others or activities we live in order to great time for rest can be a real issue for those at risk of burnout. We often find ourselves saying yes to things in our lives where we really wanted to say no. If you want to get better at saying ‘No’ to people, take a look at Laura’s Youtube video here. You can find the Saying No PDF download here.

Stepping back to get a different perspective prevents you burning out

When we are in the midst of burnout, we often don’t take time out.  To stop and take time out and look at the bigger picture helps us, we can often see smarter ways of working, we can see other choices or opportunities that we miss when we are head down lost in our work. We also reduce the time spent resting. Now resting is not ‘self care’ are many people practice it … rest means rest .. nothingness. 

In the Burnout Podcast I’ve created I have included a relaxation exercise – called the body scan. You can listen to the podcast HERE you can find the instructions in the free PDF EBook “The Burnout Field Guide” which you can find here.

Want to learn more? – listen the FREE Burnout Podcast Laura created!

You can access all the links for the various podcast platforms HERE and listen on your platform of choice. You’ll be glad you did! (we’ve had rave reviews about this podcast episode). 

If you’re ready to take back control of your life then get in touch. Join our NLP Practitioner course and let me show you have YOU CAN change these unconscious thinking processes so you can take back control of your life!