My tips on how to avoid burnout, maintain balance, and achieve inner peace
Being stressed out, overwhelmed, and overworked with no time to yourself is not the vibe. Not only is it not healthy, it’s not how we’re meant to live. We are surrounded by a culture that demands our attention, pressures us to hustle, and glorifies a cookie-cutter vision of success.
No amount of chasing these ideals will make you feel happy or at peace if it doesn’t start from within, and you’re far more likely to burn-out trying to do everything at once than if you slowed down and created time to check in with yourself. Here’s how I give both my body and mind the care they deserve:n
Make Time for Yourself
You simply must prioritize yourself. No one else is going to do it for you. This can involve scheduling out self-care activities or just saying no to plans. Creating boundaries around your personal time is essential, and not just when it comes to other people – you need to respect your own time as well.
It’s easy to brush off taking care of yourself when there are “more important” tasks at hand; I’m guilty of it, too. Going out to dinner with a friend when I know I’m exhausted and don’t have money to spend. Staying up late to watch TV (or to write this blog ) instead of getting the rest my body craves. Sometimes what we need to do to take care of ourselves is stay in and watch TV. Other times, we need to be social and get out of the house.
Whatever the case may be, it’s important to treat the time you set aside to take care of you – whether it’s a meditation session, a workout class, an evening walk, or a spa day – as non-negotiable. Act like it’s plans you’ve made with a friend that you really can’t cancel on again.
Don’t Take on More Than You Can Handle
I’m known for biting off more than I can chew and packing my days as full as possible to maximize my time without fully considering if I can handle it. I tend to make plans on top of plans, even if I’m already starting to feel the strain of what’s on my plate. Part of it is people-pleasing; it’s hard to say no.
But to find peace, it’s essential to recognize your limits and set realistic expectations for yourself. It’s harder to let yourself down and feel like a failure if you’re honest with yourself about what you can accomplish. Don’t choke on your food just to prove how much you can fit in your mouth.
And by setting limits for yourself, you can focus on being proud that you accomplished everything on your to-do list instead of berating yourself for not getting everything done. A little reframing can go a long way, especially when it comes to how we talk to ourselves and determining our self-worth.
Check In with Yourself Often
Something I learned to do is check in with myself frequently. Asking myself, “How do I feel? What do I need to change?” helps me gauge my energy levels, my overall satisfaction with your life, and my trajectory toward hitting my goals. Reflecting on your emotions and stress levels helps you build a better life for yourself by giving you the opportunity to make the necessary changes.
Once you determine the problem areas in your life that are causing you stress or dissatisfaction, you can better address the issues. For me, there have been times where I recognized I wasn’t in a good place so I made an effort to spend more time outside, get more quality time with my friends, and focus on honing my creative skills because I recognized that those areas in my life were lacking at the time.
Without regular self-assessment, you may be stuck feeling frustrated, sad, or stressed out. You also lose the opportunity to get to know yourself in a more intimate way and grow as a human. Learning how to analyze your emotions and make intuitive changes is crucial to improving your mental and physical well-being.
Acknowledge That You Are More Than Your Output
It’s easy to convince yourself that that your worth is determined solely by your achievements and that you are completely defined by arbitrary numbers like how many followers you have or how much money you make. You don’t need to earn the right to rest your body, calm your mind, and unplug & unwind.
It’s not possible to be productive 100% of the time, and in fact, getting enough rest is imperative to maintaining the energy needed to be productive in the first place. Don’t see downtime as a waste, but as an opportunity to find peace and rejuvenation.
Celebrate your accomplishments but also find ways to value yourself as a human being beyond getting all the laundry done, having a side hustle, putting in overtime at work, or whatever other self-imposed metric you feel like inserting into this sentence.
Find Joy in Your Hobbies
When we take away the pressure to perform, we can focus on enjoyment. When an activity isn’t predicated on making money or getting views or trying to accomplish anything at all, you’re brought face to face with pure joy. The thrill of doing something simply because you want to, it interests you, you care about it. No other pretenses, no wooden stick propping up the mouse trap. You are free.
Engaging your hobbies simply because you want to promotes a sense of purpose and satisfaction that keeps you grounded, motivated, and inspired. It helps you maintain a well-rounded identity and takes the pressure off defining yourself solely by work or school or your relationship status or ability to fold towels into swans.
What it boils down to is that in order to find peace, you must create it. You must carve out your own little section of the world to be by yourself and take care of yourself. Inside that little world, let your internal voices have a conversation; listen to what they tell you needs to change and don’t be so hard on yourself. You are more than a number and deserve time to rest and enjoy the things that make you happy. Nothing is more valuable than your well-being and ensuring you live a balanced lifestyle.