Foundations of Burnout Recovery

If you're struggling with Burnout and you need something of a check list for how to recover from Burnout, or a step by step guide to getting back on your feet, this is the episode for you. We'll recap the initial 'Burnout SOS' process, what to do immediately to get yourself out of the boiling pot, and then take a closer look at the FOUNDATIONS of Burnout Recovery.

We need to get on top of our basic human needs before making any major life changes, so we can build a strong and stable foundation from which to recover. That foundation is what we're exploring in this episode!

Burning Out and need help right now? You can book in for a free 30 minute call with me whenever I have availability, with no obligation to sign up for any of my coaching offerings. Head to my website and book a free consultation call slot today.

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Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Your Supernova Moment, a podcast about Burnout.

After last week’s longer than usual episode with Siobhan Murray, we’re back to our usual short episode format this week, and I think it’s going to be a really useful one.

I was looking back at the episodes I’ve done so far, and we’ve talked a lot about what Burnout is, we’ve talked about symptoms, and what to do when you’re right in the boiling pot of Burnout - that SOS, intervention moment, when you say enough is enough and let yourself STOP and step back.

I’ve talked about getting on top of basic human needs, and that being sort of one of the first steps of Burnout recovery, but we’ve not really got into it beyond that. So I thought we could revisit it today, and talk about the Foundations of Burnout Recovery.

These are the things that I learned, and that I did, that helped me kind of break through the surface. And these are what I’ll direct you to get on top of initially, as a coach, when you work with me. It’s helpful to know, and it’s sometimes hard to do, so it’s easier with support. But whether you work with me as your coach or not, this is all going to help you get on the right path.

So let’s begin at the beginning - for a second, I’m going backwards for a sec. I’m giving you a little bit of ‘Burnout SOS’ talk right now, because as per usual, I’m going to remind you, that this stuff isn’t easy to just do when you’re right IN IT. So let’s just recap those first steps of breaking that Burnout cycle.

Step one, is to stop. To pause. To stop pushing, to step off the treadmill. And the thing I get back a lot of the time from people I talk to, is that they can’t stop. They can’t afford to stop, even for a second. But I know that the reality is that they can’t afford NOT to, because if they don’t then, in time, they’re going to hit their limit and then they will HAVE to stop. Tripping and falling and flying off the treadmill is a lot messier than letting yourself step off it to catch your breath.

Step two, is to breathe.

I’ve got breathing exercises here on the podcast (episode 5 I think, if you want to check those out) and it’s so incredibly important to start with that.  When you breathe deeply, slow and steady,, you’re going to struggle to be actively stressed. Your mind can be telling you that you should be, but your body is sending the opposite signals. It’s letting go. It’s releasing. It’s PROCESSING and REGULATING. And most of the time we’re not gonna do that on our own, we spend our days breathing all quick and high and tight. So we have to make that effort to slow it all down.

Which leads to step three, which is rest. To recharge however you need. It might be sleep, it might be time off work. It might be a long weekend, or a month signed off by a doctor. It might be restorative yoga, or a gentle walk, or a sauna, or just a SOFA. Let yourself stop, breathe and rest.

Step four, is to write. To get a pen and a notebook and get everything out of your head and onto paper. When our minds are super busy, all full of jumbled thoughts, a lot of the time it’s because we’re scared that if we stop thinking of everything, we’ll forget something important. We’ll drop the ball. We’ll miss something. So get everything down on paper, what you’re thinking about, what you’re worrying about, what you’re feeling. And then close the book, walk away, breathe, sleep, whatever, and come back to it when you’re ready.

Because Step five, is to reflect. When you come back to that brain dump, that download, it’s so much easier to see what needs addressing. Look at it objectively, like it’s someone else’s ramblings. If it’s work stuff, you identify the problems, set yourself goals, start working through them - ASK FOR HELP. Hand things back. Delegate. ASK FOR SUPPORT. Be realistic about what’s actually achievable. If it’s personal stuff, internal stuff, you need to carve some time out for yourself. Same thing; identify the issues, set goals, start working through them.

And sort of alongside, kind of mingling in with it, in different quantities depending on who you are, where you’re at and what your circumstances are,  is Step six - which is RECOVER. 

It’s really hard to make changes when you’re stuck in that stress cycle. So take care of those basic human needs, get yourself feeling stable. Take it slow and steady. Build a foundation.

And that FOUNDATION is exactly what I’m talking about today. Because the foundation stuff is about doing things, making changes, that help you to feel better. To get stable. Like, you’re going to build your dream house, as you navigate life after Burnout, but the way to give yourself the best chance of that house not blowing down in a storm the first time the weather turns is to start with a strong foundation.

So what are those foundations, those basic human needs? One, we’ve already mentioned.

It’s Rest. I’ll call it: Rest and Reset, because it’s not just about that one early night, or long weekend. It’s bigger than that.

Human beings are not supposed to exist in a permanent state of fight or flight. When we’re Burned Out, we’ve likely been stuck in survival mode for a long time, and the first thing we need to do is let our nervous system breathe and recover.

So rest, in this case, is about not just doing those breathing exercises once, not just getting that early night once, it’s about making it a priority. Doing those breathing exercises, or something else that helps you to relax your frazzled nervous system; like yoga nidra or mindful walking, or meditation, REGULARLY. Like multiple times through your day. Even if all you’re doing is sitting on your couch, thinking, worrying, avoiding, give yourself regular opportunities to BREATHE. And rest with intention. When I was in early Burnout Recovery, I would do this every hour or so. Just sit down with the Calm app, or set myself up in an anxiety releasing Yin Yoga pose, and just breathe. Set a timer, keep coming back to it. It’s about regulating. So yeah let’s call it; Rest, Reset and Regulate. It’s about feeling safe.

The next one is still under that rest umbrella, but it’s more specifically: Sleep

Sleep deprivation is a form of torture! If you’ve been surviving on minimal amounts of sleep, or disjointed sleep for a long time, then you need to prioritse getting good sleep. Establish a wind down routine, experiment with how long you need to sleep for. When I burned out, I was sleeping terribly. I had the worst boundaries with my phone and I was doing that thing that I know a lot of us do when we’re hurtling toward Burnout, which is staying up later and later, avoiding going to sleep because I didn’t want to have to wake up. Which ended up with me getting even less sleep. When I was in early Burnout recovery, I was going to bed at around 8.30, 9PM, and sleeping past 10AM the next morning. I needed that sleep, and it took me a while to need less than that. It helped my brain recover, and it helped me get some of the stress I was holding out. It helped me to process stuff too - I had VIVID dreams through the first year after Burnout, still do sometimes, working through a lot of stuff I’d just blocked out and not had enough deep sleep time to process. That’s what dreams are, isn’t it? It’s us making sense of the things that happen to us. If we’ve not had the time asleep to make sense of it all, then there’s going to be a bit of a backlog, so if you start getting wild dreams, that might be why!

Another thing that falls under that umbrella of ‘rest’ is Restorative Exercise

Intense exercise is not the way to go when you’re dealing with chronic stress. Switch out your spin class for restorative Yin Yoga and steady walks in the fresh air. Let your body rest, and release the stress it’s holding onto. When I was in recovery I did a lot of Yin Yoga, either classes or just a handful of poses that I knew worked really well for me and made me feel better. I’d just hang out in a yoga pose for ten minutes while listening to a meditation and breathing.

There will be variations to this, for everyone, depending on what you like and what you need, and what your fitness level is and everything else. But the main thing is to slow down whatever you do - don’t flood your body with more stress from intense, strenuous exercise while we’re building this foundation. 

Okay next one of these foundational things is nutrition - it’s not diets, let’s call it eating

Regular Meals

If you’ve been snacking, skipping meals, compensating with caffeine and alcohol, your energy levels are likely to be all over the place. You need to properly fuel your body for recovery, or just for life, frankly. Three meals a day; breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plenty of water, less caffeine, no booze.

Early Burnout recovery I mostly ate as simply as I could.

Breakfast was usually cereal. Super easy. Comes in a box. No effort.

Lunch was a frittatta, packed with veg usually

Dinner was a stir fry, or a portion of something I batch cooked

I stopped drinking alcohol - and switched to drinking a LOT of peppermint tea and hot chocolate.

I cut down caffeine slowly, because I was probably having like upwards of 10 cups a day, to like 2 cups a day at most.

But having that routine of the meals, regular and substantial. Not a diet, just relatively healthy. And most of all; easy.

I’ve known people batch cook, get ready meals in, or a meal subscription service or something. Whatever works for you - and of course whatever’s within your means - but start getting that structure in around your meals and it will help your energy levels level out.

And that’s the next one: Structure.

Structure and Routine

It doesn’t matter what it is, it just matters that it is. If you’re working through your recovery - which you might be, or you might not, everyone’s situation is different - Establish breaks throughout your day, to breathe, to rest, to step back from your stress. You cannot take too many breathing breaks. Ensure you have some time in the morning to exist before you plug into your work day, or your family responsibilities, and similarly ensure you have time to wind down at the end of the day, so you’re not just passing out when you can’t push any more. And even if you’re not working, if you’re off work and you’ve got time to recover and look after yourself, bring that structure in. Establish the breaks, the routine. If you need motivation, follow a simple model of achievement and reward - and that’s a whole thing, I’ll talk more about that specifically in a separate episode, but in its simplest form: recognise each thing you do as an achievement, and let yourself celebrate that with a reward. Mine used to be like; had a shower! Achievement! Sit down to enjoy my coffee: reward. But as I say, we’ll talk about that more another week because it’s a bit more involved than that.

So back to structure - 

Part of this structure is going to be setting yourself some basic Boundaries

Look, we all know that those of us prone to Burnout are also prone to having crap boundaries. Or no boundaries. And you’re going to need to work on that - for ages, probably - but when we’re talking about foundational stuff, it’s just about starting getting familiar with the concept. 

Build your initial boundaries around these initial steps, around covering off those basic human needs, so that you are able to prioritise rest, nervous system regulation, sleep, regular meals, restorative exercise and build those foundations. Let that sort of primal, animal side of you feel safe. Know you’re safe. Know you’re stable, before you start shifting your mindset or working through your internal shit. It really does help to get these foundations in place first.

It’s basically impossible to achieve the mindset shift that you need to recover and move forward from Burnout when your nervous system is fried, you’re exhausted and unmotivated for change. It’s essential to get on top of the basics first, so that you have a strong foundation from which to begin your recovery journey.

A mistake a lot of people make is that they ONLY sort out that foundation! Getting on top of these things will make you feel better pretty quickly, but it won’t last unless you make long term changes too. So recognise that this is the first part of the journey, but a really important part of it, prioritise it, and then keep going as you get below the surface.

When I first recovered from Burnout, I was entirely focussed on these foundations, and getting myself stable and starting to make these major life changes, starting to heal. About three months into my recovery, the early days of the pandemic kicked off, and my structure and routine went out of the window but at that point, everything had gone out of the window for everyone, and I sort of fell into the trap of thinking I was better and I stopped doing the things I’d been doing up until that point. I threw myself into coaching training and yoga qualifications and meditation, because I loved it and it worked for me, and I wanted to share it with other people - but pretty soon I was massively out of balance and feeling the effects of burnout again, and I needed my own coach at the time to bring me back to those basics. To remember that it’s not just about building that foundation, but it’s about maintaining that foundation, embodying the lessons you’ve learned, and everything else is built on top of it, on solid ground.

So, how about this week, you have a bit of a personal audit. Think about those basic human needs. Don’t skip over any of them. Don’t forget the value of BREATHING, so many people do. I can’t tell you how many times I ask the question: have you been doing your breathing breaks? And I get a guilty face looking back at me, wondering why they’re still on edge.

And listen, as with EVERYTHING to do with Burnout, there’s never going to be a one size fits all model. Everyone is different, everyone’s situation is different and everyone’s responses are different. If I’m working with you, I can help you troubleshoot what’s sticking and find the alternatives that you’re struggling to think of. We’ll always start with these basics, and get you feeling BETTER, and then the real work begins. And every moment is worth it, I promise.

So if you want to come and chat to me about stress and Burnout, about these basics, these foundations of Burnout recovery and what they look like for you, then you can! Book your free 30 minute zoom session with me via my website - there’s a link in the shownotes, or you can just head to MaggieSupernova.com and it’s pretty easy to find.

This month on my socials I’m all about these basics, so follow me @maggiesupernovacoach on Instagram, or find me on Facebook and join my free Facebook group. Get on my mailing list and OF COURSE, subscribe to this podcast: Your Supernova Moment, a Podcast about Burnout, to be notified when new episodes pop up, usually on Wednesdays, usually fortnightly, but you know, it’s all a journey and sometimes life happens, so I’ll just keep doing my best with that.

Until next time, keep breathing! And I’ll see you soon.

Bye!