Wellness Tips to Prevent Burnout
With the pace of life more intense than it’s ever been, burnout is a risk that we all face. When you’re including exercise as part of your lifestyle, you need to be careful that you don’t overdo things, resulting in a state of overtraining and burnout that leaves you exhausted and unable to function normally.
In this article, I’ll lay out 4 wellness tips to help prevent burnout.
Take Recovery Seriously
Preventing burnout requires that you take your recovery as seriously as you take your training. It includes getting your recovery nutrition on point, optimising your sleep, and balancing your training with everything else that is going on in your life.
Here are some tips to help improve your recovery …
Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
Establish a regular time to go to bed and get up
Keep technology out of the bedroom
Within 90 minutes of working out, have a 50/50 protein, carb meal
Drink 2 liters of water daily
Do some light active recovery exercise on your non-exercise days
Use a foam roller for self-myofascial massage after exercise
Set Realistic Goals
Burnout can also be avoided by setting realistic training goals. When your goals are unrealistic, you may be driven to do more and more in order to reach that goal. As a result, you will not be giving your body enough time to recover. This will lead to diminished performance, which is a classic sign of a lack of recovery. However, the goal-obsessed athlete sees the need to do more in order to bring up their lagging performance. This is the opposite of what they need and can easily tip a person into the overtraining zone.
Monitor Yourself
A key to avoiding overtraining is to be constantly aware of how your mind and body are responding. Keeping a journal will help you to do this. Take note of how your body feels after your workouts as well as your mental state in terms of motivation to train. If your training performance has diminished, you should try to discover why. Your immediate reaction to a diminished performance should be to do less rather than more!
Mindful Meditation
Mindfulness is the ability to concentrate, pay attention to your situation and be fully ‘in the moment’.
Through the process of mindfulness, you will be able to slow down your conscious thoughts. By doing this – slowing down the mind – you will be able to awaken the spirit within. It will remind you that there is more to life than the challenges with which you are daily confronted.
Mindfulness moments may occur at any time. They are designed to allow you to strip away the layers and discover the you that lies beneath. Here is a Mindful Moment that you can incorporate immediately:
Who Am I?
Simply ask yourself the following question . . .
Who Am I?
Listen to your response (likely a label like I’m a teacher)
Respond with . . .
Not that
Repeat this process over and over until you have produced a long list of labels. These labels will more than likely describe your position in society, your personality or your talents.
Keep uncovering layers until you arrive at the question . . .
Who is asking the question?
Your answer to this question will allow you to cut through the list of illusory labels with which we pigeonhole ourselves. You will then be able to become more insightful about who you really are.
Get into the habit of spending 10-15 minutes in mindful meditation each day.
Conclusion
By taking care of your body and your mind, you will be able to stay on track with your goals and avoid burnout. Take on board the four tips outlined above to continue giving your body the love and respect it deserves.
