Mental Health
Mind
Emotional Exhaustion: What Can We Do?
May 9th, 2022 at 3:59 am
Emotional stress is not a joke!
Have you ever found yourself zoning out in conversations with people you love, or even while trying to get through an episode of your favorite Netflix show? Perhaps you have found that you are having trouble sleeping, are more irritable, or are simply more prone to headaches and tummy aches than before?
If any of these symptoms sound like something you’re currently experiencing, you may be emotionally exhausted.
Emotional exhaustion is a state in which you feel burnt out physically, mentally, and emotionally. This could be sprouting from stressors you may be feeling from either your work or personal life. However, it often takes a lot more than a hard day at work or a petty argument with a loved one for you to experience emotional exhaustion.
The essence of experiencing emotional exhaustion comes from a build-up of multiple stressors over a period of time. The troubling thing is that you may not even notice it immediately.
So, what causes emotional exhaustion?
They always say that prevention is better than cure, so here are a few things that can cause emotional exhaustion:
- High-pressure jobs
- Intensive schoolwork
- Financial stress
- Raising children
- Grief over a lost loved one
- Loneliness
- Perfectionism
- Poor self-care
Being aware of the situations you are in and the symptoms you may be experiencing can save you from the long-term complication of having to recover. Evaluating your environment and your emotions often can help you be more mindful of what you are feeling.
With all this in mind, how can you then treat emotional exhaustion if you already have it?
Here are a few tips that you can take to help yourself:
Identify your stressors
Being aware of where your emotional stress is sprouting from can help you create solutions to reduce the exhaustion you may be feeling. It can help if you were to write it down in order to be able to create a clearer image of the changes you can make to help yourself.
Practice and prioritize healthy habits
Getting enough sleep. Eating mindfully. Drinking water. These are elements we often forget to prioritize in our lives. Yet, the reality is that if we were to be more mindful of keeping these habits, they would help sustain us better by reducing the stress we experience so that we may have a more well-rounded life.
Take a break.
Seriously. Take. A. Break. It can be as simple as opening a window and allowing yourself to breathe in that fresh air. Make yourself a cup of coffee. Or you know what? Go outside! Take a walk. Go to the mall. See your friends and give yourself the time to unwind, because even though we have heard it multiple times, you really do deserve to take a break.
Call your friends or family
Sometimes stress can make you feel isolated – like you’re the only one experiencing this tremendous amount of responsibility. Therefore, it is important for you to realize that you are not alone and that everybody else is experiencing burnouts similar to yours.
Inhale. Exhale.
Breathe. Be mindful of the way the air fills up your lungs and the way it slowly exits through a long exhale. By focusing on our breathing, you will be able to draw your consciousness back to the present moment and give yourself that time to recharge.
Everybody is prone to experiencing emotional exhaustion at some point in their lives. It is our own personal responsibility to be aware of the state of our mental health so that we may be better people for ourselves and the people around us.
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