Burnout - An Energy Loan without Self-Care Collateral
- Noora Kassem
- Mar 5
- 2 min read
To wake up one morning, as though almost out of nowhere and for no reason, experiencing probing aches that penetrate inside what feels like one’s bone marrow. To think, is that even where my bone marrow is? To have one’s chest burn with what can only be described as dread, with thoughts racing over speedbumps that scream, what if. To not want to react to any of it, but instead feel stuck, paralyzed by invisible arms holding down one’s body. How
could it be though? Just yesterday, plans were being made for projects one might have once prayed for, salivated over, and spent late nights dreaming about. Do I have COVID again? It can’t be. Oh God.
These can be just a few symptoms of good ‘ol burnout.
Burnout can be described as 'spending more of our collective mental, emotional, spiritual and physical energy than we have resources for.' Kind of like taking out an energy loan without self-care collateral; overextending and overexerting, sometimes even if only with the intentions we set and big plans we make. It tends to be quite a common scenario in today’s hustle culture, with recent research indicating that burnout affects roughly between 40% to 50% of employees worldwide. Some studies stipulate that as many as 75% to 76% of workers across the world experience burnout at least sometimes (cited in studies by Asana, and others by McKenzie Research).
Who can blame humanity for regularly feeling distraught over the mechanics of its own system? Walking past such a seemingly large portion of homeless people while on the way to work, or at the very least watching the news relay information on how many low-income families struggle to meet their basic needs, can itself perpetuate behaviour that leads to burnout. There seems to be a mobbing of our senses by messaging of scarcity, making most of us harbour subconscious, or even conscious, anxiety to overstretch ourselves for the sake of some abstract concept of security. Sigh.
So in a way, burnout is our body’s natural response to hustle culture. It lets us know that we’re out of steam, and rightly so, and can speak to us in varying signals such as lethargy or lack of motivation, flu-like symptoms and chronic fatigue, irritability and overthinking, sleep disturbances and longstanding reduced immunity, a heavy-limb feeling and gastrointestinal issues. Some signs can be difficult to allocate to burnout as they’re more ambiguous and appear slowly over a long period of time, such as a gradual loss of interest in hobbies, difficulty making decisions, neglecting basic self-care, and increased clumsiness or generalized indifference towards things we once were passionate about.
At the risk of repeating new age cliches, it must be said that self love really is the best preventative form of medicine, though it may take some effort to figure out exactly
what the right concoction and dose may be. Therapy can help organize thoughts and emotions and lead towards improved self care, but also offer guidance on how to make simple yet necessary changes to an overcrowded schedule. A commitment to gentleness towards the self could just be the ultimate revolution. Sometimes all it takes is a shift in perspective.
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