Mental-health researcher Ishan Shivanand explains occupational burnout as depletion that damages your heart, brain, and cardiovascular health. Three evidence-based fixes: journaling to reset your values, meditation and yoga to build resilience, and finding a support network when your workplace or family is toxic.
Good day. My name is Ishan Shivarnath. I'm a mental health researcher and a professor, and I teach IKS-based mental health management that is non-theological, non-pharmaceutical in nature. I'm an expert in workplace mental health, and today we are going to talk about burnout. Now, occupational burnout can be classified as a situation where we are not capable or we do not have enough mental resources to deal with the workplace challenges. Over time, this leads to low performance. It leads to heightened states of stress and anxiety. It can also lead to situations in which a person may feel cynical, negativity, hopeless, and that slowly, gradually starts to have a physiological impact where our heart health, brain health, cardiovascular health will be affected in the long term. This state of stress and anxiety that the person constantly faces when faced with burnout can lead to a person having insomnia and a low quality of life. That increases isolation and lack of motivation. Hence, it is very, very important that we recognize the signs of burnout and we prioritize our mental health and personal care. One of the ways that we can help ourselves if we face this situation where we are feeling a disconnection from our job and isolation from the workplace and lack of motivation is we must learn to reprioritize our personal health. And what that looks like is, as a strategy to combat burnout, try journaling. So in that journal, prioritize what matters to you in life. And in those priorities, if you can have your own mental health and your physical health, your interpersonal relationships as top priority— if every day you are writing that journal, and in that journal you're just reminding yourself what matters to you most, it will help you reprioritize your motivations and in turn give you more strength to deal with burnout. The second beautiful strategy that you can bring in your life is the concept of resilience training. So resilience training is when a person practices techniques like meditation, yoga, breathwork, and the whole concept of this training modality is when we do this contemplation, when we do meditation training, we become much more capable. Our mental resources increase and give us the strength to face the challenges of life without having a need to burn out. Our inner strength increases manyfold. And time and time again, through our research, we have seen a person who has some form of resilience training protocol, some form of wellness ritual, is much more capable to have a healthy mental health, a healthy outlook towards life, than somebody who does not have that wellness ritual. So please prioritize some form of resilience training in your life. And the third and final strategy is seek out positive networking. Whenever a person gets burned out, or whenever a person is having mental health issues or substance abuse issues, that is the time when consciously, unconsciously, a person may start to alienate and isolate himself. Slowly closing them in that cocoon of misery. And it is seen, if at that time we have some form of a positive network on which to rely upon, a support system, then we are stronger and much more capable to swim as the trials and tribulations of life continue, rather than sinking. If you are blessed with a family that supports you, gives you the psychological needs that you are looking for, then that's fantastic. You're very lucky. But if by chance you find that you have a toxic environment at home as well as a toxic environment at the workplace, it is very, very important to seek out communities that can help you develop skills or that can help you feel good or that can empower you in some form of, uh, positivity that you need in life. So these are the 3 strategies that can help you combat the workplace burnout. The first strategy being reprioritize your brain by journaling. Second can be resilience training through developing a meditation practice. And the third is seeking out a positive network. Okay, so thank you so very much, and I hope you can take care of yourself because you matter. Have a beautiful day. This is Ishan Shivonand.
