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The end of the year brings about excitement and joy as we approach the holidays and wrap up a fantastic year in lieu of a brand new chapter. However, it’s also the time when most of us begin to feel the overwhelming tingles of burnout. Loose ends at work need to be tied up; perhaps kids have the last set of exams before engaging in the winter calmness.
And not to mention, travel plans during the peakiest seasons of the year which could involve dealing with flight delays and, of course, the tedious pressure of organising holiday gifts you can’t afford or simply putting up a facade to be around the people you’d rather avoid because it’s the polite thing to do! Experiencing burnout is a real possibility.
Feeling Burnout During The Holidays?
As defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO), burnout showcases three main symptoms- “exhaustion, loss of empathy and reduced performance at work.”
Michelle Felder, founder and CEO of Parenting Pathfinders, told Business Insider that holiday burnout is a term that describes “the mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that someone can experience during or after the holiday season.” Even the simplest tasks seem exhausting and overwhelming, causing individuals to feel restless or unmotivated when trying to get day-to-day tasks done.
The feeling of experiencing burnout was initially defined in terms of formal employment. However, according to The Conversation, “we now recognise the same pattern can be experienced by those meeting the needs of children and/or elderly parents – with such needs typically increasing over Christmas.”
How Do You Know It’s Time To Take A Break?
It’s easy to get carried away when you have a truckload of things to get done in the chaos of the festive season. It gets a lot easier to nudge ourselves, our mental health and physical wellbeing when we keep giving in to the demands and expectations of the season. According to the Times of India, neglecting rest and rejuvenation easily leads to a state of depletion. Yet, we avoid the exhaustion and continue to avoid the persisting question: how do you know when you’ve burnt your capacity from being productively busy to desperately clawing for a break?
- It’s hard to concentrate:
Emails are beginning to look like gibberish and deadlines are making you nervous. It might be time to ditch the denial phase and instead, declutter your mind with some TLC. Nourish yourself with good food, step out and get some movement, and engage in activities that spark you differently. Take a deep breath, step out, and watch how you ace those pesky tasks!
- More fatigued than festive:
The more prolonged your body is exposed to stress, the more time it takes to recover from the fight or flight response. According to Business Insider, physical signs of burnout include headaches, stomachaches, and sleep disturbances. Daryl Appleton, a New York City therapist and Fortune 500 executive coach, shared with Insider that though festive events like a Thanksgiving dinner or celebrating Christmas Eve just take place one day out of the year, celebrating can leave you vulnerable to “feeling physically exhausted, possibly due to the demands of holiday preparations, travel, or late nights.
- You find yourself easily annoyed and irritated:
Does tape sticking to your hand make you want to rip off the gift wrapping and do it all over again? A misspelt word makes you want to snap a pencil in half? Your sibling screeching along to Mariah Carey in the car makes you want to scream? If you are experiencing these low tolerance levels for clumsiness maybe it’s a sign that you’re burnt out and that you need to take the workload down a notch. Times of India suggests that “deep breaths, mindfulness moments, and saying “no” are your new best buds.”
Remember, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! So don’t let little things steal your inner peace, and instead take things a bit slow and spend time with the people you love. You deserve to enjoy this season as much as the person dumping the workload on you so saying “no” to any overwhelming tasks should be your norm!
