Burnout Support Group: Time to Break The Burnout Cycle and Get Out of Isolation
January is often pushed as the time to start new habits, take action to become the NEW YOU! This is shown by the increase of 12%-50% in gym membership purchases in January, all the social media posts about how easy it is to change everything about you, how this ONE HABIT will change your life (just get up at 0500 every morning and journal). BUT…how often do you start a new habit after the First of the Year to only not be doing it by February? Why do you think this is? It’s probably not what you have told yourself for your whole adult life. You’re not lazy. It’s not because you are self-sabotaging to stay in your same patterns. In burnout, too often any change is overwhelming when you are already chronically overwhelmed and ANY changes are not sustainable to continue beyond a week, or three if you really push yourself (I once did the SCD diet for a month in 2020, felt great but still couldn’t maintain the change, even with working mostly from home).
Part of being in burnout is chronic overwhelm, even if you don’t realize you’re overwhelmed. But think of how many new habits and changes you have tried to make in your life to only go back to what is comforting and familiar to you? Any change can overwhelm your nervous system, even if it will help you feel better in the long run and create new nerve pathways. Your nervous system wants to keep you safe and what is familiar is safe. No matter how the pattern may be keeping you feeling stuck or no longer serve you, your nervous system doesn’t know that as it’s familiar and has kept you safe in the past.
How do you create sustainable change in burnout?
Don’t jump to change. Use the start of the New Year as a time to reflect. Take January to PAUSE. Create time to think about where you are in life. Take long walks. Nap. Ask yourself questions and wait for the answer. Is this where you want to be? Are you showing up how you want to be for yourself? Is how you currently feel how you want to feel in one year? In five? Ten? A huge catalyst for me to change my career was that I realized at 45, I didn’t want to be who I was for the next 20 years or be doing the same thing for another 20 years. I didn’t want to feel exhausted EVERY DAY and dread going to work anymore.
Journaling Prompt: How do I feel? Do I like how I feel? Is this how I want to feel in 6 months? How do I want to feel in 1 year? Am I happy? Do I experience joy? Is dreading work how I want to show up every day? How do I show up for myself? What would make me happy? If I wasn’t doing my current job, what would I want to do (with no financial restrictions)? How does my perfect life look? What am I doing in this life? How do I feel?
*BTW EVERYONE DESERVES TO FEEL HAPPINESS*
Goal Setting: How do I WANT to FEEL in 6 months in my ideal life? How does that look? What do I feel like? What does my every day life look like? What is a concrete outcome I want? What big steps do I need to take in order to make this happen? What small steps can I do today to achieve this big goal?
If part of what you feel is isolation, I have created that small step for you! Creating and maintaining community can be very hard when you feel exhausted and overwhelmed. I know! I remember and I see it in ALL my former colleagues. If you say you want to get together with other people but no one actually has the energy to make it happen, I got you! I’ve created a twice monthly online support group for healthcare workers (HCW’s) in burnout. These will be held the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at 1900 Pacific Time over Zoom. All you have to do is sign up using the button below. You will get the Zoom link in your email. Show up as you are with your bevvy of choice for an hour.
Upcoming Support Groups:
2/8/2024: Exhaustion
2/22/2024: Hopelessness & Joy
3/14/2024: Hopelessness & Joy
3/28/2024: From Coping Strategies to Increased Awareness & Choice
Community is important (even when you hate everyone-I see you my peeps) as it can gently ease you out of self isolation patterns. Creating connection with other people (positive supportive connection-let’s call that out) will remind you that there’s more to life than work and your house & couch/bed plus streaming The Witcher. Humans need connection and community in order to survive. Interacting with people helps us regulate our nervous systems. Regulating our nervous system will lead to building resiliency in ourselves. Having resiliency will give us space to create change. Unless you are truly satisfied where you are, change is what you crave.
In these twice monthly support groups we will discuss topics including (but not limited to) exhaustion, joy, getting beyond survival mode and learning tools that will help you get Beyond Burnout. It’s truly about creating sustainable habits to calm your nervous system. Then creating community to help you learn, support you while you make changes and be accountable. The whole goal is to break the cycle of burnout, reframe how you think about it and create community amongst HCW’s who have a unique experience and point of view.
My newsletter, Spilling The Tea On Burnout, is another resource for tips on getting Beyond Burnout. I’m curating different resources that you may not be aware of for you to explore regarding calming your nervous system and nurturing yourself. There is not one action that you will do to stop the cycle of burnout that will create resiliency but many different actions that will move you towards your goals.
Working with me as a burnout coach is always available for 1:1 support if you struggle with creating the vision of your life without burnout or being consistent in your steps to break the cycle. Working together we will identify where you want to be, how you want to feel, create steps to reach your goals and identify what tools that will support you. Possible areas you may struggle with include sleep, nervous system regulation, boundaries or emotional health. Coaching creates accountability and a partner in your journey to help work thru barriers that happen when you start creating change. Overwhelm when you start creating change is common and can cause you to shut down, a coach keeps the forward momentum towards your goals.