Let’s Talk About Burnout

 

02.26.2021 LET’S TALK ABOUT BURNOUT There’s avoidable burnout, and there’s non-avoidable burnout. If you’re going through non-avoidable burnout — perhaps you’re a low-income single parent, or you’re the only person available to advocate for your medical needs and you have cancer — then you’re likely not reading this. Your back is against the wall, and I hope with all my heart that you’re able to get what you need. But, for those of us who can pull back from overload and overwhelm, now is the best time to make some choices toward more sustainability and joy.   A couple of tips (and I’m reminding myself as well):   First: If you feel exhausted and depleted, I invite you to have a cup of tea with yourself this weekend and remind yourself that you are a resource for your communities. When you show up grounded and rested, with a joyful, balanced mind, you are contributing to the strength and resilience of your communities at work, at play, and within your family. As has been said: self-care is community care. Second: If someone you know is headed for crash-and-burn, intervene. It’s possible to be both pushy and loving. I recently got a text message from a friend who happens to be a life coach. It said: “I demand that we go to a park and sit on the grass.” I was overworking, ironically, in order to clear my desk so I could go on vacation for a week. I said “Okay,” and ended up blissfully lying on my back, looking up at clouds in the sky, for an hour or so. If you need more encouragement and insight, try these three selections from the Lion’s Roar archives.   — Mushim Ikeda, guest editor   Mushim Ikeda is a social activist and teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California. She also works as a diversity and inclusion consultant.

How to Be A Bodhisattva The antidote to burnout is spiritual renewal. “To be transformed by the practice of love is to be born again, to experience spiritual renewal,” bell hooks says. “When we commit to love in our daily life, habits are shattered. Because we no longer are playing by the safe rules of the status quo, love moves us to a new ground of being. We are necessarily working to end domination. This movement is what most people fear. If we are to galvanize the collective longing for spiritual well-being that is found in the practice of love, we must be more willing to identify the forms that longing will take in daily life.”

What Can I Do About Burnout? Burnout is the feeling of exhaustion that helpers sometimes experience when they have taken on more than they can handle. But, says Karen Kissel Wegela, there is much we can do to prevent it, and to work with it when it occurs. Burnout refers to the kind of exhaustion or feeling of overload that professional and other helpers sometimes experience when they have taken on more than they feel that they can comfortably or appropriately handle. Physically, burnout can manifest in exhaustion, muscle tension, clumsiness and dizziness. Emotionally, we might find that we have hair-trigger reactivity. Feelings of anger, sadness and even depression are not uncommon. We might feel hopeless and inadequate.

I Vow Not to Burn Out Mushim Ikeda says it’s not enough to help others. You have to take care of yourself too. How many of us who have taken the bodhisattva vow are on a similar path toward burnout? Is it possible for us, as disciples of the Buddha, to engage with systemic change, grow and deepen our spiritual practice, and, if we’re laypeople, also care for our families? How can we do all of this without collapsing? In my world, there always seems to be way too much to do, along with too much suffering and societal corruption and not enough spaces of deep rest and regeneration.

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