Velocity in the modern-life makes our lives easier and harder. We could arrange many things, be at different places, see more than one friend and be social by the velocity in the modern-life. Yet, velocity and being fast could be a disadvantage for our mental health as well.
Most of us could not even believe how and when we do end the day while trying to be at different places and managing more than one program in a day. We could not even be mindful and attend to current moment, place and person because of checking the time all time. Of course, each of us wish to have adequate time with our loved ones and be succesful in our carriers yet trying to be “good enough” in more than one thing make us tired as well. This tiredness is not only physical yet psychological where the burnout starts.
Burnout does not ocur suddenly and immediately. To experience burnout, the emotional needs of the individual shoul be not meet propoerly for a while. (For more information on emotional needs, visit the blog post “Emotional Needs”). Thus, we could say that burnout is occurring step-by-step. An individual who experience burnout feels exhausted and tired. Performance anxiety, anxious thought about being failed, lower self-esteem, sleeping problems, concentration and memory problems, physical tiredness, increased heart-rate, sudden anger etc. could be seen.
One of the reasons of burnout could be the unmet or inproperly met emotional needs. Individual may be overloaded by the duties and could not spend time by him/herself or with loved ones. Overloaded duties may not be only related to work, but could be related to public roles as well. Try to be on the same pages with duties is also mentally exhausting. Individual may not be able to meet the emotional need of spontaneity. Think of that, could you really be spontaneous when you have lots of things on your to-do-list?
Besides the need of spontaneity, being overloaded by duties may be also an obstacle for meeting the need of having realistic and healthy limits. One may easily bend his/her limit if duties are overloaded. For instance, if one has over duties in a job, then he/she could easily cancel the evening programs with friends if duties could not be completed during the day. Bending the limits could be also emotional in which one may say “Yes” to over duties just because he/she could not say “No” and have a personal motivation to make others happy.
Thus, it may be concluded that, the ultimate way to deal with burnout is saying “Stop” by understanding that the emotional needs are basic, not luxurious. In a life where the emotional needs are met properly and constantly, experiencing burnout would be less common.
In order to meet emotional needs properly, one needs to have proper and functional sources (working pattern, relationships, family bonds etc.). If the sources are not adequate and functional, those should be revised, and if revision is not succesful then new sources could be thought. In those cases, getting help from a mental health practioner would be needed.