www.lifehack.org: It’s way too easy to get swept up in the daily grind of work. Bringing home that stress cuts into your family time, and you already have enough going on with your home life. Trying to balance a social life and more on top of all of that only adds to the weight on your shoulders. When all of this adds up, you might feel like you can’t tackle anything, even the simplest of daily tasks. These tips will help you avoid mental burnout and all the unhappiness it can bring into your life.
11 comments:
This was a really good reminder that even with all of the stresses that come with being a student here, making sure to take care of yourself is of utmost importance and will affect all of the work that you do. I feel like sometimes we sacrifice sleep and health in order to have more time to do good work-when in reality our work will be of higher quality if we are physically and mentally strong.
This is an important article to read and take into consideration. If your burn yourself out you are not going to do good work. You need to watch out for yourself and make sure that you take care of yourself so you can keep going and doing the work you want to do. In the school of drama it seems like many of us forget to do the simple things like take a break and eat because we are so enthralled in what we are doing that we forget to make sure we are doing just as good as our assignment is.
Thing 1 lists all the signs of normal high stress. This doesn't mean it is a burnout, it just means that you are stressed so it could lead to a burnout. Saying that these are signs of a burnout is like saying every time your left arm hurts you are going to have a heart attack. Thing 4 seems a bit silly. You should always do what you can get done in the now and not put it off to when you might not be able to get it finished or have to rush and stress yourself more. You need to spread out your assignments to get them all done in a timely matter without stressing at either end. Thing 7 we complete every single day! Creativity is the only thing we do here, both in artistic and intellectual divisions.
So in high school I kept being told that I would burn out, but nothing super dramatic happened to me. That does not mean that I did not suffer from physical stress due to mental stress. For me being 'on my game' turned into taking on too much work and responsibility and then more and more stress (which also resulted in less and less sleep). My body did react, I lost weight and I was actually pulling out bits of my hair without even realizing it. Reading about the symptoms of a mental burn out can be helpful to some. I personally think that students can benefit from information such as this. I also believe that people do not take advantage of their support teams as the article suggests. Sometimes people need support, but will totally avoid getting help. Just something to think about.
This article has great intentions, but it's a bit basic. Nevertheless, its accuracy is spot-on. Burning out is so common in this field that I think it takes a simple internet article to realize what we're doing in life. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten basic human needs because I've been so busy: one day I didn't have time to use the restroom until 7pm. Even taking time to do simple things like eat a normal meal can have stress-relieving effects. We, as freshmen, take our 5:30 dinner break pretty much every day. It's routine at this point, and it get's us all out of studio for at least a half an hour, creating a break between class and the work we have to do all night.
Overall, a good article in that it reminds us to be aware of the signs/symptoms of mental burnout, and thereby take actions to mitigate stress. However, the meditation suggestion in number three is glaringly over-simplified. A lot of people – myself included – have tried meditation numerous times without success. Also, taking one full hour out of every day for meditation alone is a lot when it already seems like there are frequently not enough hours in the day of a life of a student at CMU for adequate sleep. If I have to choose between exercise or meditation, I believe exercise is more effective, especially since you can simulate a type of meditative state while doing something simple like stretching or taking advantage of the trails in Schenley Park. My biggest hurdle is shutting off my brain from all of the tasks I need to complete for the week/month/semester before attempting sleep. Something that has recently helped me came from the book, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. In order to cultivate lucidity in dreams (something I have only infrequently been able to achieve), the book suggests experiencing waking life as a dream. The concept is that once in dream state, you may then be able to focus concentration by simulating the concentration necessary to function in the waking world, and thereby achieve lucidity. The other side of this is that before bed, it can help to view the aspects/situations of the day that are still troubling as the transitory elements of a dream. Believe it or not, this little trick has helped me quiet my mind before sleep. And a restful sleep can be one of the most important factors to regenerate our bodies and brains from burnout.
*Typo City, Let's try this again*
I think one big cause of burnout here at CMU (or in Drama, more specifically) is the comparison of your work strategies to other people's. It's taken me a long time to not feel badly or try and fight the amount of sleep I need, or how I need periods of time during my day to not be working. If I don't accept these things, I won't stop doing them, but I will feel guilty about not working all the time, which exacerbates the issue. I haven't taken the new Stress Management course being offered, but I'd really love to see a shift in CMU culture from "How much work are you doing?" to "How efficient are you being with your work time?"
I think this is a very important article, especially for people in our business. Far too often people dont last long enough because they stress themselves too much early in their career. I very much agree with the points this article is making, especially keeping yourself healthy. I dont think enough people prioritize this. I think this idea of not burning out can be difficult for cmu students in particular because we are so highly worked and stressed for 4 years in order to get us ready for the theatrical work force, but this doesnt mean that we necessarily need to keep working with the intensity of that for the next 30 years.
This is really good but all of these things are easier said than done. I think the easiest thing to do on this list is finding a creative outlet. Why I say that, finding support is hard, depending on who you are, it's sometimes hard to talk to friends and family because you don't want people to know you're stressed out. I think going to a therapist is really a great thing if stress is really getting to you. Everyone is different, stress is dangerous. Haha, I know from personal experience how bad stress can be and all of these tips can help, but honestly, you have to follow them to help, you can't just read this list and be like, yay! I can solve stress! I have a support system, I have a creative outlet, I'm healthy, I work out everyday, I do a lot of what is on this list, if not all of it and I still have problems with stress. It all depends on the person!
One of the things that I was worried about while deciding to come to CMU was if that I would burn out faster. Now going into my second semester I realize that I'm not on the track to burn out, but generating stamina. A lot of the tips that are given here are things that I've been doing. So, this article is correct because I'm avoiding mental breakdown.
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