Showing posts with label depression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label depression. Show all posts

Stop the Burn Out

How are you feeling lately? Energetic and jump out of bed, inspired to go to work? Or tired juggling too many things and exhausted. Yet, instead of stopping we just continue pushing, till we come to a dead halt.
  • Till you can’t get out of bed anymore
  • Till you feel so uninspired, you don’t know what to do
  • Till you don’t find meaning in your work
  • Till you are careless
  • Till there’s no ambition
  • Till you can’t push through the day anymore



Stop, take a break and introspect. 

You can take 2 months off  or realize sometimes doing a better job means not doing your job at all.

48% of Americans experienced increased stress over the past 5 years. So, if you are invested heavily in your work life, it also means we have to take measures to sustain it equally well. That can only mean considering vacations https://www.inc.com/lolly-daskal/4-scientific-reasons-why-vacation-is-awesome-for-you.html so you can enjoy your job.

In your regular work life, find out what triggers your stress the most- is it your co-worker, the commute, the inability to grow in your job and then come up with a plan and figure it out. Being able to be happy in your job could prevent the burn out at the every start and then follow it up with vacations and positive work environment, creating your hyggae at work etc.

If you are looking for great tips to bring in the balance in your life, try these:
  • Ariana Huffingtons book- "The Sleep Revolution" and the website that allows you to find out articles about the balance and keeping you happy. 
  • If you need to sort out your finances, try this out 
  • If you need to sort out your life, look no further than Vishesh Lakhani’s – "Code of the Extraordinary Mind". 
  • See what your interests are and ensure you can keep it up at an extent even in your very busy life that brings in some peace. Meet similar minds by joining meetup.com
  • Physical movement is equally important to stop the burn out, try couple of times a week to start with 
  • Learn through lots of free resources on the web and boost your career. 
  • Find a mentor and ask for suggestion on how they handle it. Observe in your own organization or read up on what’s the best thing to do. 
To sum up, stop the glorification of busy and then burn out. Instead take the time to feel okay and not always on the rush. If possible try working from home, couple of times a month (no commute at least and perhaps even healthier choice of food), get into your zone and just enjoy the flow, create a routine and keep on adapting to it.

Being successful and being able to achieve your goal, also means taking care of yourself and your thought process.

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Destress and Focus with Jazz

Work is fulfilling for a lot of us, however with it comes the stress and the burn out.

Consider this: Jazz music can lower blood pressure by causing blood vessels to expand by 30% (This change in blood pressure is like loosing 30 lbs).

It incidentally helps you to get better sleep.  Studies shows that just 45 min of soft, slow music (60-80 BPM) like jazz, before bedtime results in better and longer night-time sleep as well as less dysfunction during the day:
• After 1 week, 26% were sleeping better.
• After 3 weeks, 35% were sleeping better.

After finding out about Jazz, I decided to implement it in my own life and see the results. My work is sometimes stressful and while I enjoy it... working parallel in a lot of things sometimes leaves me burned out. I realize that I am not being as effective in getting things done, because I am worried about how much is left to be done.

So, I tried 2 things at work:

  1. When I start to worry/stress/get irritated I immediately walk out to refill my water bottle, or get a coffee. read the newspaper or sometimes just walk around. That momentarily relief and taking me out of that zone seems to work positively on the mind. 
  2. I also played jazz over the web via ear phones and I did work better partially because I felt more relaxed. It helped me to the extent that I now use it almost regularly specially when I have things to deliver in a tight timeline. 

You wont know what works for you, till you try it out yourself. So, my suggestion is to give it a go and see whether this is something that will work for you.

All I can say is, its definitely worth a try.

(pic courtesy: Google Images)

When you hit rock bottom- 5 ways to keep going

Work is not done in seclusion, our job part of our life and what’s going on in your life will affect your work. Everyday.

This often means if you are going through difficult times in your personal life, it will reflect in your work as well. Hitting rock bottom doesn’t always mean you have to stay put there; it does help to have supportive work space and friends.

Not everyone is lucky. If you have to drag yourself to work every day and start feeling tired and not focused enough, here are 5 things to try out:
  1. Accept the down time- fighting it is of no use, accept it and try thinking what can be done to ensure your work life takes the minimum hit. Get some help from your colleagues in sorting out your work, if possible take some time off or focus on a top priority everyday and get it done.
  2. Try creating a routine- this will help in navigating through the hard times, try putting on some soothing music, may be upbeat pictures or postcards around your work desk, plan a solo vacation, keep some time aside to grab a coffee and reconnect to yourself.
  3. Take the time and keep it for yourself- know that it’s difficult and don’t try to please others during this time. Use the time for yourself and to see how you can accept it and move on to the next step of your journey. Don't give up at work completely, try to keep personal matter private. 
  4. Use color therapy-  relax and use lighter colors around you, do anything and everything that will ensure you are calmer and your negative emotions are not triggered. 
  5. It can be only good now on- now that you have hit the rock bottom, nothing can go worse. Be there for a while and when you are ready, know that it will be from where you will rebuild again and things will only be better. 
Failure has its own advantage, hear J. K. Rowling talk about it:
 
             


If its any comfort in knowing, do know everyone in their lifetime go through some down time or the other, some cope better than the other but there's no escape. So, do anything it takes to heal yourself and find your peace again and once its done, march yourself back to your work and get things done like always. 

Additional resources: 
If you unfortunately are going through depressed state of mind, click here

Good luck and best wishes.

(Pic courtesy: Pinterest)