Burnout

For those of you who are not aware of what burnout is, it is basically a psychological term for exhaustion that is extended over a long period of time and leads to decreased interest and motivation. In the further stages it can also lead to depression. I learned about this concept after attending a presentation by Dr. Joan Borysenko, who wrote a book all about. She was a wonderful speaker and had many personal examples to share about burnout. At this presentation I ran into one of my friends, who I imagined was feeling similar to myself, exhausted and unmotivated by things that used to drive us.

There is nothing more frustrating than not being motivated to do anything (especially the things you care about the most) because you are burned out. I used to want to do this, this, and this, but now I’m just so tired.

Burnout offers the opportunity to step back and look at what is really important in life. Of course, this can be done far before burnout actually happens, but hitting rock bottom sometimes can help. For myself, I found that writing was important. I miss my creative writing class from several semesters ago, and I miss talking to people about what I am writing. When I am writing I feel awesome. There is joy to be found from weaving a story and creating characters. When I am not writing (no time, no ideas, no support to start) I feel miserable.

This might seem contradictory to people who know me as someone who doesn’t like to sit down or stop moving, and it is true that I like to have a “go” and “do” attitude. What’s lacking is a balance. In one of my classes my professor said, “If you don’t have at least ONE hour to yourself a day, then you are too stressed.” Unfortunately, that has happened so often to me that I can’t count the times I have still be awake in bed, answering text messages and emails in the dead of night.

The best way to stop burnout is to stop. Stop what? Stop everything. Turn off the phone; turn off the television and computer. Go take a nap. Go take a walk. Relax. Eat some fresh food. Take a deep breath. Stop. Now, what is really important? Do it.

Here is an article from Dr. Joan Borysenko with some more remedies: This is the link.

Mary Writes A Blog Post

So I decided that I wanted to write a blog. Lots of my friends do it! No, that wasn’t my reasoning. There are topics that I sometimes feel need some acknowledgement, or things that irk me, or things I love so much I can’t stop talking about them and swooning (Greek food and Aussies).

But then I find myself running into the problem of too many topics. What do I write about first? How do I condense it and stop babbling? I feel like there isn’t enough time in the world to write about everything I can imagine writing about. This post is me starting somewhere. Actually I’m starting nowhere. This is my first blog post and it’s about writing blog posts.

In an effort to narrow things down I thought maybe I could have a theme to my blog. Like only write about food, or traveling, or college. I didn’t like that idea. I occasionally like the discussions about chaos theory and quantum physics. I read Michael Crichton books!

It comes down to me just writing about whatever random crap I feel like writing about that day. That’s fine with me. Here are some topics I have been thinking about: Baklava (I’ll have to make some for this blog won’t I?), Group Projects, General Education requirements, Perry the Platypus, Pirates, The Hobbit, My Garden, Marketing, The Politics of Party Planning, Farmer’s Markets, 90s music and more!

Is four paragraphs a decent length for a post? I think it is… especially for one that is not about a particular topic. Blogs aren’t essays. I think I am done for now. I need to go shower and get to class anyway. Until next time!