SELF-CARE: The Top 5 Tips That Help My Clients Recover From Burnout + FREE Self-Love Weekly Planner

In my last post, I shared 6 signs that your stress or exhaustion is burnout and not just everyday fatigue.

When clients come to me showing these signs, my first step is to help them understand that they aren’t just tired, lazy, or unmotivated. Because as I mentioned in that last post, the signs of burnout can be very subtle. And as a result, many of my clients come to me because they feel “stressed,” “emotionally exhausted,” or “unfulfilled,” and they have no idea that what they’re really experiencing is burnout.

Recognizing that you’re experiencing burnout is very, very important. Because if you think that you’re just stressed, tired, or “in a funk,” you might try to make yourself feel better by doing things that help with everyday stress or general tiredness. And as you’ll learn below, these strategies won’t do the trick to help you recover from burnout. So if you aren’t sure whether the stress you’re experiencing is really just stress or could actually be burnout, I highly recommend checking out my post on 6 signs of burnout.

Okay, now let’s say that you’ve read that post and you’ve realized that you ARE experiencing burnout. What should you do? How can you get back to a place where you feel happy, energetic, calm, and motivated again?

Well, I’ve got awesome news! Because that’s exactly what I’m going to answer in this post!

Keep reading below to learn the top 5 tips I give my clients to help them recover from burnout.

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A Vacation Isn’t Enough

Now, before we start chatting about effective ways to recover from burnout, I want to mention a strategy that usually is NOT effective.

When you’re dealing with burnout, it can be easy to believe that you can just “get over it” by going on vacation or taking a week off from the responsibility that your burnout is tied to (work, caring for an ill family member, etc.).

It’s true that taking some time to rest and get away from the environment that’s linked to your burnout can provide some short-term relief. That’s why if what you’re experiencing is burnout and not depression, you’ll probably experience an improvement in your stress, energy levels, and even your sleep and eating habits if you take a break.

The problem, though, is that for most people, going on vacation or taking time off provides only temporary relief. Because once they return to the environment or responsibility that’s linked to their burnout, the burnout returns. And unless you’re in a position to quit your job or relinquish the responsibility that’s tied to your burnout, you’ll have to return to it sooner or later.

So what can you do to recover from burnout and experience lasting changes in your mood, energy levels, and joy for life?

Here are the top 5 tips I give my clients:

1. Create and Enforce Healthy Boundaries

Burnout often develops when you devote too much time and energy to a specific responsibility and don’t have enough time left over to care for yourself and do the things you love. For example, if you always agree to stay late at work and take work calls on weekends, you might not get much of a chance to spend time with your family and socialize. Similarly, if you spend all of your free time taking care of an ill relative, you might not have any time left to relax, unwind, and do things you find fun.

That’s why for most people who want to recover from burnout, setting boundaries is an important first step. Boundaries help you limit the amount of time and energy that a responsibility takes up so that you can still have time for the other things that matter to you—whether it’s time to unwind, spend time with loved ones, or pursue a hobby.

When it comes to burnout, there are three types of boundaries that are helpful to set and enforce:

• boundaries with others in the burnout-triggering environment (e.g., telling your boss that you can’t routinely stay late at work or take calls on weekends)
• boundaries with others in other environments (e.g., saying “no” to big requests from friends and family members that would only deplete your time and energy further)
• boundaries with yourself related to your time (e.g., deciding that you will stop working at a specific time each day no matter what OR deciding that you will spend only one evening a week making homemade toys/activities for your kids)

As you can see, when it comes to recovering from burnout, setting boundaries is about saying “no” to the things that drain your time and energy so that you can say “yes” to the things that allow you to love and care for yourself. That’s why it’s an essential thing to do if you want to successfully use any of the remaining tips for recovering from burnout.

2. Make Time to Pause and Catch Your Breath

Burnout is a state of chronic stress and exhaustion. So instead of relying on a single vacation or week off to fix your burnout, it’s important to make time for relaxation on a regular basis. This could mean practicing yoga a few times a week, setting aside 10 minutes every day to meditate, or journaling for a few minutes before going to bed.

What you do to pause, relax, and catch your breath might be different from what your partner, sister, or best friend does. And that’s okay. What matters is that you find the activity relaxing and restorative. This way, you’ll have something in your day or week to look forward to that reduces your stress and helps you recharge your batteries.

Now, keep in mind that when you’re experiencing burnout because you’re consumed with other responsibilities, it can be really easy to push your relaxation time to the back burner. For example, when you wake up in the morning, you might plan to do 30 minutes of yoga when you get home from work. But when you get home from work and realize how tired you feel and think about all the chores you have to do, it can be really easy to tell yourself that you’ll do yoga tomorrow or next week.

How can you make it easier to carve out time to rest and recharge on a regular basis and actually stick to it?

Put it in your calendar and treat it like an important meeting or appointment. Because think about it: What happens when you have a dentist appointment after work? Do you think, “I feel so tired and I have so many chores to do at home. I think I’ll just cancel the appointment and go some other time”? Nope. You drag your butt to the appointment even if it’s the last thing you feel like doing. And afterward, you probably feel good that you just went ahead and did it instead of cancelling.

It might seem like going to the dentist is WAY more important than taking time to do yoga or meditate. But the reality is that if an activity is going to help you feel happier, be more productive, and take better care of others, it’s just as worth making time for. So instead of just saying that you’ll do some breathing exercises or make time to meditate, add it to your calendar just like you would for any other important commitment.

3. Integrate Self-Care Into Your Daily Life

You might have only a very limited amount of time during your day or week to rest and recharge your batteries. But this doesn’t mean that these small scraps of time are your only opportunities to work toward burnout recovery. Because as I tell my clients, in addition to making time to rest, you can also integrate self-care into your daily life.

There are activities that are part of your daily routine by default—no matter how busy you are. These include eating, sleeping, showering, commuting to work, etc. And the reality is that you can do a tremendous amount of self-care just by doing these daily activities in a way that’s more fun or beneficial for your body. For example, you can eat healthy foods, prioritize sleep, invest in comfy bedsheets, splurge on a body wash that smells really good, or put on your favorite podcast or music while commuting to work.

Now, I get it. These might all sound like small things. And if you’re completely stressed out and exhausted, it might be hard to believe that using lavender body wash is really going to move the needle on how you feel. But the reality is that when you make these kinds of small changes to even just a few of your daily activities, you drastically expand your opportunities to do small acts of self-care. And when you have more chances in the day to do something enjoyable or beneficial for your physical and mental health, it can go a long way to helping you recover from burnout and feel like yourself again.

4. Do an Activity That Brings Joy, Purpose, or Meaning

It might sound counterintuitive to add something to your plate if you’re stressed and exhausted to the point where you’re burned out. But doing an activity that you find fun, inspiring, or meaningful can help to restore some of the passion, motivation, and fulfillment you might be missing right now.

Just like activities that help you rest and recharge, the particular type of enjoyable or meaningful activity will depend on your passions and interests. Some of my clients find it helpful to do creative activities that they enjoy, such as painting, writing, or even adult coloring. Other people like heading out to a scenic trail for a hike or bike ride. And for some of my clients, volunteering or giving back to their community in another way is something they find fulfilling.

Doing an activity or hobby you enjoy or find meaningful doesn’t just give you something to look forward to in your day or week. It also gives you the chance to feel inspired or like you’re doing something meaningful again. So even if you can’t change much about the environment that’s linked to your burnout, you might find that you can make it feel less stressful and exhausting if you have other activities and endeavors outside of it to focus on.

5. Get Help

The tips that I’ve shared above can go a long way toward helping you recover from burnout. But if you try them out and find that you’re not seeing much of a change in how you feel, you might benefit from working with a therapist.

A therapist can help you make sure that you are, in fact, experiencing burnout (rather than, say, depression or burnout plus depression). They can also help you identify what specifically is contributing to your burnout and help you select and tailor burnout recovery strategies accordingly.

In addition to helping you make better and faster progress in your recovery, a therapist can provide a safe, non-judgmental space to talk about how you’re feeling and what you’re going through. They can also validate your experience by reassuring you that what you’re experiencing is real and difficult and not just a result of laziness or lack of will. And for some people, it’s reassuring to know that they don’t have to work through their burnout recovery journey alone.

So whether you’re struggling to recover from burnout on your own or would like to do it with the help of an expert, working with a therapist may be a good option for you.

Self-Love Is the Key to Burnout Recovery

Did you notice something about the burnout recovery strategies that I shared above?

Yup, that’s right! They’re united by a common theme: self-love.

You develop burnout when you devote so much time and energy to something that you don’t have enough left over to take adequate care of yourself. That’s why the key to recovering from burnout is to make more time and space for self-love in your life.

Setting boundaries, making time to recharge, integrating self-care into your life, pursuing a meaningful activity, and getting professional help are all forms of self-love that have an enduring positive effect on your happiness, energy levels, and health. And they can help you regain the joy, motivation, or sense of purpose you used to have even if you can’t do much to change the responsibility or environment that’s linked to your burnout.

I mentioned earlier that recovering from burnout requires making time for self-love on a regular basis—not just once or a few times a year. But I also know that when you have a mountain of responsibilities on your plate, making time for yourself can feel hard and even overwhelming.

That’s why I created the Self-Love Weekly Planner. It’ll help you carve out space for self-love on a daily basis so that you can recover from burnout quicker and prevent it in the future.

And if you haven’t done so already, follow me on my Facebook page Vera Velini – The Assertive Happiness Coach. That way, you’ll be among the first to hear about new blog posts, resources, and courses.

Until next time!
Vera

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