Whether you are a student or a business owner or just someone who works a nine to five, you have probably experienced some burnout at some point in your life. If you are an exception to this… good for you, I envy you.
In this lil blog post, I’m going to discuss some things that help me pull through my burnout.
Vitamins
The biggest thing that I live by to combat my burnout is taking my vitamins everyday. If I forget to take them for a few days I feel myself fall into a deep deep pit of low motivation. I take a regular daily multivitamin, iron every other day, and probiotics. Here are some of the whys
Iron: when low on iron, your body has to work harder to get oxygen to your brain and systemic organs. This is because iron is one of the main ingredients of blood.
Vitamin d: vitamin d is vital for bone and muscle function. Low vitamin d can cause overall fatigue and make ya feel like the couch potato that you don’t always wanna be.
B vitamins: b vitamins are also a main ingredient in red blood cells. So when low, it can cause overall fatigue and other problems. I even used to give b vitamins to my pregnant goats to make sure they had energy and felt better.
Probiotics: probiotics help with digestion and absorption of nutrients. Not only do they make me feel better after eating a meal, they make my vitamins more productive because I can absorb more of them.
Other supplements: there are a bunch of other supplements that get raved on and some that may be specifically helpful to you! One that I absolutely love is mushroom coffee with pre and probiotics. It’s called beyond brew and I feel a bit less burnout when I drink it regularly (I mix it in my coffee). Amazon associate link: https://amzn.to/3Uok8hu
Dog/goat/chicken cuddles
There are four happy hormones that you can force your body to produce. Oxytocin is one of these. If you are a parent, replace said animal with actual child and it works the same way. I make my body produce oxytocin by snuggling my dogs as often as I can. You can get the same warm fuzzy effect of oxytocin by watching cute cat videos. I recognize that taking a break to watch cat videos doesn’t always sound like the best idea. “How am I gonna be productive if I am staring at my phone?” Look. I’m not saying to live on your phone or tv, but sometimes you may just need a break to pet or watch an animal.
Exercise
I hate running as much as the next guy so in no way will I be recommending that anyone go run a mile. If that’s you’re thing… good for you, I envy you. That being said, another one of those happy hormones is endorphins. Your body produces endorphins when you exercise. If you own a farm, just skip this one because you get enough endorphins from your day to day. At least in my experience. But if you don’t move very much on a regular basis, it will improve your mood and motivation if you do a few jumping jacks here and there or do ten minutes of stretching once in a while.
Another beauty with exercise is sweat. When you are stressed out, your body produces cortisol which is an anti happy hormone. Excess cortisol messes with your mood, weight, hormone balance, digestion and then some. The only two ways to get cortisol out of your body are crying and sweating. So when you decide to exercise, try to get enough of a workout to sweat. Or maybe play some sad music while you do it.
Pick something small
A third happy hormone is dopamine. You get dopamine when you finish a task. I always plan at least one mini task into my day that I know I can complete so I get a lil rush of dopamine. This can be as simple as completing your ten minute workout or scheduled cry session. Maybe you make a little to do list and you add showering or brushing your teeth to your to do list so that you still get that dopamine reward when you cross that normal thing off your list.
Ask for help
I’m so forking bad at asking for help. I know that you’re supposed to do it so I added it. Don’t do it all on your own, but don’t ask me for advice on asking for help. I’ll help my peers all day, but I need to get better at asking for myself.
Go to sleep!!
Your body does not work well on a lack of sleep. It’s not good for you, it won’t help you be productive. Sure you can squeeze out an extra knitting project, assignment, piece of paperwork, farm task if you stay up late. But tomorrow, you’re gonna wanna be a total bum. Everyone requires a different amount of sleep to function well so I will not say to get eight hours of sleep every night. But get enough. Set a schedule up so that you get a good amount of sleep every night! I personally aim for eight and a half every night. It doesn’t always happen but I do my best. Struggle to fall asleep? My classmate recommended this magnesium foot spray and I now sleep like a friggin baby every night (Amazon associate link: https://amzn.to/4fk7zM0)
Thanks for reading! I’m just one human with a lot of experience in burnout. Not a doctor… yet(;
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