Why Japan is One of the World’s Safest Countries
Mairi McLaren
“What you seek is seeking you.” a quote made famous by Rumi. What you focus on and do in your life becomes your reality, and your decisions and actions have consequences. Feeling burned out is your brain’s way of signaling for radical change. Society pressures us to believe we are only successful by “hustling.”. But we all know it’s not beneficial for our long-term mental and physical health. So, why do we keep giving in to the pressures that lead to feeling burned out? Ask yourself:
Do I need to slow down more in my life?
The pandemic forced us to do so, but now more people are returning to work at their work locations. And this trend is slowly gaining speed. It might be a good time to audit your work life before your health forces change in your career. According to Kathryn Mayer of SHRM, “One in three U.S. employees say their job has had a negative impact on their mental health over the past six months, with 30 percent saying their job has made them feel overwhelmed and 29 percent saying it’s made them feel anxious at least once a week.”
Furthermore, she states, “The survey of 1,000 workers… also found that 27 percent of Generation Z workers say their job has made them feel depressed at least once a week in the past six months. That’s not only putting them at risk for other health issues, but it’s also causing many of them to look for a new job.”.
You may be doing too much each day like you were pre-pandemic to provide for yourself and your family. But what if you realize you’re doing this when it’s too late? Sometimes you only see the energetic train wreck heading your way shortly before you “crash and burn.” When you physically can’t do anything any longer because your energy has depleted, that’s the feeling of being burned out.
When you are heading towards feeling burned out
Everything you experience stems from your brain. Your body cannot properly function without a healthy brain. And you can only manifest your life goals with a well-balanced mindset and physical body of energy. The unraveling process of heading towards feeling burned out starts with two crucial activities becoming unbalanced: sleep and clean eating. They are vital for good mental health and successfully manifesting your dreams.
You may only allow yourself 4-5 hours of sleep per night. Or maybe you’re “grabbing something” instead of sitting for twenty minutes and enjoying the meal you prepared beforehand. Listen, I get it. And when I get into the above habits, I start noticing I gain more weight because I’m trying to substitute so much for buying another five or ten minutes in my day. Before I realize it, I’m up ten pounds despite constantly moving around.
Is exchanging five or ten minutes of each day worth the extra five to ten pounds, or more, gained? Was I doing so much because I wasn’t trusting the process of manifesting my goals? And why did I suddenly feel burned out?
Is life supposed to be a race to our inevitable death? Why is “success” a competition? And why are we competing with ourselves? Why are we allowing society to pressure us into constantly pushing ourselves to the brink? Why are we so addicted to the “going and going” like the Energizer Bunny and struggling with “not enough time in the day to…?”
So many questions.
What could happen if we relaxed more in life or had office-designated “nap” pods at work with more extended lunch breaks? Imagine what could happen to our work productivity and mental and physical health if we stopped buying into the current “success” story society has trained us to believe. If we stopped allowing ourselves to feel inadequate in life. What if culture and work environments adapt to practices designed to avoid feeling burned out?
What you can do to avoid feeling burned out
I challenge you through journal exploration to ask yourself why you allow your daily habits and what you could do instead to transform your energy. Through mindset journaling, I realized I was adopting self-limiting practices because I wasn’t 100% trusting the process of manifesting my life goals.
Remind yourself that it’s perfectly okay not to hustle, struggle, stress out, and try to be superhuman. You cannot manifest your dreams by adopting this self-sabotaging behavior that becomes a habit. You’ll only manifest more struggle and stress, leading yourself to burnout. As a master at manifesting both ends of the spectrum, I’ve learned this the hard way. I encourage you instead to:
- Take a mental break for ten minutes by setting your phone’s alarm three times per day to get into the habit of it.
- Meditate daily for ten to twenty minutes
- Do yoga, go on a walk, or garden daily and weekly
- Take a nap when you can (but don’t be like George Costanza and nap under your desk at work!)
- Color, draw, or paint as a hobby—it’s not just for kids
- Do your ManiFAST journaling daily for five to ten minutes to manifest faster
- Play with your pets—they will give you so much love in return for it
- Hang out with your kids, playing games and reading books
- Read a book you’re interested in
- Drink some herbal tea or water—throw some fruit into your H20, too
- Relax by doing nothing, literally
The Universe doesn’t communicate through languages. It reflects energy by responding to your mental, emotional, and physical energy. What you seek is seeking you. So, let’s chill out more, take care of ourselves, and trust the process of manifesting our life goals so we don’t get burned out.
