So, there is no cure for burnout. Why? Because you are not sick, nor broken. You feel terrible yes. But you don't have a disease. You should never think in terms of 'curing' yourself. Because you ain't broken. In the end you are 'just' burned out and very much still alive and healthy. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. You do however require some treatment. And most of all you need time.
As by now most of you will know, I always recommend taking a highly personal approach. Essentially you pick and mix what works for you. Those solutions may be anything. They can come from my book but they can also come from all kinds of other sources, including medical avenues. There is however a rule of thumb I’d like to share with you: please don’t feel sick or broken.
It's in the wording, the phrasing of your condition that a lot of answers can be found. You are not sick. You are not broken. You are not experiencing a medical condition. Ergo, you don't need a 'cure'. What is happening, is that you feel bad because of stress, anxiety, a little too much of the cortisol hormone and above all, tiredness. You are not in the worst of shapes truly. You feel like you are. And that's a big difference.
Feeling this is of course bad enough in and out of itself. You need to pay attention to the signals and work to improve your life significantly. It's not easy. Burnout is a condition that occurs when your body and mind is extremely tired. Your body and mind put you into the burnout-state in order to give you time to recover from either too much stress or a traumatic event that you have left open somehow. In other words, burnout is a necessary event. Just like sweating is when your body combats the flu or cools you down in hot weather.
This extreme fatigue, often accompanied by high levels of anxiety, feels absolutely terrible and excruciating. So the feeling is really, really bad. But the actual condition is not as bad as the feeling. It will even move you to improve your life significantly. So, the condition itself feels worse than it is. Knowing this will help you keep your mind clear on what you are experiencing.
And take it easy. Love.
(Check out the book Restart here and check out my book The Whole Story - The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling here !!!)
Rogier van Kralingen