Wow… such an incredible response from last week’s post about burnout. I heard from several of you! So many good thoughts on how hard (and real!) burnout is, which sent me on a quest to one, deal with my own burnout, and two, seek answers to how to best handle it.  

I talked with a friend of mine who is a mental health counselor. She confirmed that yes indeed, burnout is both common and debilitating. Burnout feels spiral-ry… it feels like you are spinning out of control. You spiral repeatedly until you’re so exhausted that you want to crawl under your desk and sleep for the rest of the year.

The good news is you can prevent burnout! It all comes down to the commitment to daily mental health practices that recharge and relax you, which is probably no surprise in principle but can be super hard to actually do. After all, it takes self-discipline to choose your mental health practice over whatever demands are in your face screaming at you. 

You...

• I’m soooooooooooo tired.
• What if I can’t do this any longer? 
• If I keep on like this, what will happen to me inside? Can I bear it?