Overcoming Burnout: Tips for Restoring Balance

Burnout is a state of exhaustion that’s most commonly brought on by sustained stress that carries over from day to day, influencing both personal and work life. It affects people across professions, backgrounds and lifestyles, yielding emotional, mental and even physical manifestations.

Signs and symptoms of burnout run a broad gamut, from a lack of motivation and persistent physical fatigue to chronic emotional and mental exhaustion. And while burnout rates are at an all-time high in the workplace, it can also be caused by relationships, parenting, finances or other life stressors.

When you’re experiencing intense burnout, it can feel insurmountable. Fortunately, by understanding how to overcome burnout, you can recover, rebalance and bounce back with a stronger and healthier relationship to your responsibilities and yourself.

How to Overcome Burnout: 9 Tips for Reigniting Your Productivity

Recovery from burnout requires a steady and steadfast course of daily actions, as well as a change in perspective, to effectively manage existing stress. Below, find 9 suggestions for rekindling your motivation and building personal — and sustainable — fulfillment for the long haul.

#1 Conduct a Personal Values Audit

Personal values assessments can help you build a life that’s genuinely gratifying. These deep self-reflection exercises let you pinpoint what fills your cup and gives your life meaning.

Here’s how to identify your core values:

Make a list – Write down 10 to 15 things you value most in life. Examples could be creativity, family, friendships, traveling or simply finding beauty in the everyday.
Rank them – Next, list each one in order of importance. You can also group them in categories ranging from A (for most important) to D (least important).
Make a list of life areas — Compile all of your “life districts,” like work, family, finances and dating. Then, consider in which districts you might be compromising on these values. For instance, does your chosen vocation make use of your creativity? Or, do you and your partner engage in activities that quench your thirst for adventure?

It’s seldom realistic to have every core value integrated into every area of life. However, when we can meet a need for one value in one domain, we tend to feel more balanced in other areas.

#2 Conduct a Fear Inventory

Burnout isn’t frequently linked to fear, but it’s an important piece of the puzzle. Many people are afraid of:

Being judged by others
Not being enough
Acquiring too much responsibility
Failure

These fears, while common, can often keep us from growing and perpetuate unhealthy attachments or behavioral cycles, contributing to job burnout and beyond.

Tackling your fears might look like:

Making them right-sized– Are your fears realistic, or inflated? Speaking in absolutes (e.g. “Everything is horrible”; “I’m terrible at everything”) often indicates the existence of a deeply embedded fear, rather than a provable reality, which can be a root cause of burnout. Try to check where in your life this self-talk arises, and ask yourself whether your fear is outsized.
Challenging the fear – Write down all of your traits or accomplishments that counter your irrational fear(s), no matter how small. For instance, if you’re afraid of not achieving your financial goals, recall instances where you saved or invested for the good of your future.

Identification is the most important part of a fear inventory. When you can label your fears, you’ll have the opportunity to confront them and effectively prevent them from getting the best of you. This process can be empowering in itself.

#3 Identify Your True Goals

Burnout can also arise if you’re working towards goals that haven’t evolved along with your sense of self.

The following exercise can help you clarify your true priorities and guide you as you reorient:

Reflect on the projects that have brought you the most fulfillment, joy or sense of connection.
List your top goals regarding these activities and review your values assessment to see if they align with your core values.
Make a list of aligned pursuits and move them to the top of your priorities list. If a current project you’re working on doesn’t align with your priorities, consider letting it go.

#4 Create a Timeline of Milestones

If your current life isn’t built to accommodate your aligned goals yet, looking at them can feel overwhelming. To avoid stress, it’s crucial to break them down into achievable, time-boxed milestones. This helps you build a roadmap — and momentum — as you recover your zest for life.

Start by writing down your top goals, then break them down into smaller tasks.
Plot these tasks along a timeline and give yourself deadlines you can realistically stick to.
Celebrate each victory as you clear your milestones to help maintain motivation.

#5 Pinpoint What You Can Part With

Burnout is often exacerbated when you have too much on your plate. Letting go of non-essential tasks can provide critical space to recover. Here’s how you can start:

List all of your current obligations (professional, personal, financial and so on).
Ask which ones are necessities and which you’ve taken on voluntarily. Reflect on whether everything on your list is connected to your core values and true goals.
If you find an obligation is out of alignment, consider delegating it, postponing it or asking for help.

#6 Prioritize Your Physical Well-Being

You can’t overcome burnout without meeting your physical needs. If it feels like a struggle to nourish, move and rest your body daily, CBD can be a game-changer in helping you look forward to these bare necessities.

Whether taken as an oil, an edible or topically, CBD and exercise recovery can go hand in hand. CBD can assist with relief from the physical discomfort of burnout, as well as promote relaxation and mental clarity.

#7 Rediscover Your Sense of Play

Grown-ups often forget how vital play is as both an attitude and a practice. From reducing stress to promoting a creative outlook (not to mention, simply being fun), joyful activity can upend the monotony of daily life and inspire a sense of wonder. It’s crucial to balance leisure activities to help cope with life stress.

Reconnect with your playfulness by:

Setting aside time every week for fun activities, exploratory outings or just hanging out with loved ones.
Experimenting with fresh creative pursuits like ceramics, improv lessons or a new sport (pickleball, perhaps?).
Maintaining a detachment from the outcome or result by focusing on the process.

Remember, there’s no need to perform. Your only goal is to have fun.

#9 Build In Time to Unwind and Prevent Burnout

Whether you’re a workaholic battling workplace stress or you just feel like you have no time to yourself, recovering from burnout requires building non-negotiable breaks into your schedule. In other words? Time to rest is a priority.

You can do this by:

Scheduling a mini-break each day devoted to a nourishing activity, like cooking yourself lunch or taking a CBD gummy before an at-home yoga session.
Creating an evening ritual to help you ease into unstructured time
Using sensory cues, like drawing a warm bath, using aromatherapy or performing self-massage with a CBD salve.

If friends are undergoing similar burnout symptoms, you might even try connecting with a “burnout buddy” who can help hold you accountable. Recovering together can also build assurance that you are entitled to claim your rest, whatever that means for you.

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Rates of burnout are at an all-time high, but it’s never too late to reconnect to yourself. Discover how CBD can help you break the cycle of burnout, meet your goals and find fulfillment in a life that’s true to you, and find more tips on how to destress today.

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