How To Deal With Emotional Burnout | Jack Canfield

Hi there. I'm Jack Canfield, co creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and the author of the Success how to Get from where youe Are to where youe Want To Be and Today I'd like to Know, how are you feeling? And if you're like most people, you might be feeling pretty burned out right now, which is totally understandable given everything that's been happening in the world. Now, we've been dealing with a lot of financial and health uncertainty and political, racial and religious divisiveness for months on end, and that's enough to deplete anyone's mental and emotional reserves. But that puts us in kind of a catch 22 situation. Because it's during times like these that we need mental and emotional energy and resilience more than ever. And because when we're mentally and emotionally resilient, we're able to make good decisions and thrive no matter what kind of chaos is happening in the world around us. So that's why today I'd like to give you some tips on how to deal with whatever mental and emotional burnout you might be experiencing right now. So you can find the energy, the willpower, the compassion, the creativity, and the strategies you need to stay healthy, achieve your goals, enjoy better relationships, and live the life you want. Because doing these things, you will inspire others to do the same. You'll also be contributing to making the world a better place. All right, so if you're dealing with mental or emotional burnout right now, my first piece of advice to you is this. You've got to get more rest. Now, this might seem obvious, but so many people overlook it. They think they have to work, work, work and always take care of everyone else and never themselves. And that taking time to rest is a form of self indulgence. But it's not self indulgement, it's self care. And it's absolutely necessary for your health and your well being. You can't take good care of others if you're mentally, emotionally and energetically depleted. All it will do is make you sick. And if you want to take good care of others, you have to take good care of yourself first. So your first task is to look at your schedule and figure out what needs to change so you can get more rest. Now, this means more hours of sleep at night. At least seven to eight hours is best for most people, as well as getting small periods of rest and relaxation throughout the day. Because when you're stressed out and you're stuck in fight or flight mode all the time, you'll never be able to replenish your energy reserves and and find the mental and emotional balance that you need to thrive. Now, one piece of this that I see for a lot of people is that they're using alcohol and television in the late evening to quote, unquote, relax. Now, first, alcohol can interfere with your quality of sleep so that you're really not getting the full benefits of the hours you're in bed, especially the deep sleep you need. And watching television often leads to staying up later than is good just to see the end of the movie or watch one more battle or, you know, on Blake's team, on the Voice or whatever when, which again, means less sleep. Now, also, spending time on your cell phone or iPad right before bed is not a good thing because of the frequency of the light waves that those devices emit that can lower the amount of melatonin in your brain, which aids in your sleep when you have the right amount. Now, my next piece of advice is if you're feeling mentally or emotionally burned out is to simply step away from whatever is causing the burnout. For example, if you're burned out because you spend all of your free time doom scrolling on Facebook or Twitter and bumming yourself out about the state of the world, just stop doing that. You're not doing yourself any favors, and you're actually causing yourself a lot of harm. It's not your job to act as a witness to every bit of craziness that is happening in the world. What is? Your job is to take good care of yourself so you're able to show up in the world as your highest and best self. That is how you create real change in the world. So if there's something you've been focusing on that has been causing you a lot of concern, a lot of upset or grief, it's time to change your focus. Now, if the cause of your stress is something you simply can't escape, like maybe you're a health professional and you're working in a hospital that's been struggling to deal with a huge number of COVID patients. So stress has been a huge part of your job for months. Or if you're dealing with an ill or dying family member, you can still find ways to alleviate that stress by taking better care of yourself. And that brings me to my next tip for dealing with burnout, which is this. Take some time to nurture yourself every day. Go for a walk or a jog outside. Take a hot bubble bath. Do some yoga or some Pilates. Maybe use a breathing technique. For a few minutes. And there are tons of videos on YouTube that will teach you any number of techniques you can use. Now, another important thing is to eat healthy, nourishing food that replenishes your energy and tastes good. Or spend some time reading a good book. You know, one thing that's great about the Chicken Soup for the Soul books is that all of the stories are short, just three to five pages long. So you can read just one or two or a few stories and lift your spirits in a very short period of time. And by taking the time to nourish yourself and decompress, even for just a few moments, it's going to help heal your frayed nervous system and replenish your well so that you have the resilience you need to keep going. Now, here's a quick technique for you. It's called the four, seven, eight breathing technique. And all you do is you close your eyes, you inhale for the count of four, you hold your breath for the count of seven, and you exhale for the count of eight. I want you to do that with me three times right now just so you get it. So we're going to inhale, we're going to go 1, 2, 3, 4. We're going to hold it, count to seven. I'll do that for you. Then we're going to exhale for the count of eight. So let's do that together. Exhale as fully as you can. And let's inhale. 1, 2, 3, 4. Big inhale. Now hold it. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5%, 6, 7, 8. Close your eyes when you do it. Inhale again. 1, 2, 3, four. Hold, 2, 3, 4, five, six, seven. Exhale, 2, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Last time. Inhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four, five, Six, seven. Exhale. One, two, three, four, Five, six, seven, eight. Now you've experienced that, you now know what to do. Just notice if you feel a little bit different just doing that three times. If you do that for a minute or two, it's guaranteed to relax you. There's all kinds of medical and scientific research, neuroscience research, that proves that that's the case. You can relax yourself very quickly. All right, good job. So, finally, my last tip on how to deal with mental and emotional burnout is to establish a daily meditation practice. When you become aware of your thoughts, which you'll notice as you're trying to. Trying to meditate, your thoughts will come through. You'll learn to be able to control them better. But you first have to be aware of what they are. So when you're meditating, you're able to identify the thoughts that don't serve you. It may even be creating negative feelings and harming you so you can release them so they no longer have that negative impact on you. And you can focus your thoughts instead on things that empower you and bring you joy. Now this is huge because your thoughts thoughts create your reality, including how you feel. So when you focus on what brings you joy thinking about those things, your entire experience of reality starts to become more joyful. Now the great thing is you don't have to spend hours meditating every day to get results. You can experience the benefits of meditation in as little as five minutes a day. The important thing is to make it a non negotiable part of your schedule. Do it every day. I do it in the morning. You can do it in the morning. Do it on your lunch break. You do it right before you go to bed. But that will de stress you. This regular practice will serve to make you more aware of your thoughts, how they're affecting you, which will make it easier to release those negative thoughts and focus on the positive. And the impact that that will have on your mental and emotional well being will be huge. I promise you. All right, well, that's it for today. Now what I'd love you to do is to choose one action that you'll commit to doing this week and to deal with whatever mental or emotional burnout you may be experiencing in your life and then share that action in the comments below. You give your comments huge power when you declare them publicly. Their commitments will be like that. Much more powerful then. I love to read your commitments as well. I get inspired by that. Know what you guys are doing, so go ahead and do that. I know you can do it. Take the time to do it. And if you'd like some additional tools and videos on how to improve your mental, physical and emotional well being, make sure to check out my resource page on my website@jackcampfield.com you'll find there's a ton of great free material there that can help you. So thanks so much for watching and have a great rest of your day.