You're a little teapot

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“In many industries, burnout isn’t the exception – it’s the rule.” (Cool cool.)

That’s a quote from Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, MD, a Harvard physician and NBC News medical commentator who I spoke with for this week’s edition of Foolproof to get her insight on how we can prevent burnout & better manage stress.

I’ve been burnt out as a result of glorifying being busy. And a little bit as a result of a toxic workplace that praised making your work your life. My recovery time on burnout was long and the day-to-day effects made me feel like I wasn’t myself: tired, lethargic, unmotivated. 0/10 don’t recommend.

So how do you avoid it? Dr. Nerurkar pointed out that while some stress is actually healthy and productive, too much stress over a prolonged period of time is the kind that leads to burnout.

The clinical practice for the Yale School of Medicine has a fact sheet with the symptoms of chronic stress; it includes insomnia, low energy and unfocused thinking.

Dr. Nerurkar used an analogy of a tea kettle: “We can’t change the heat of the moment, as many stressful events are external. Instead, focus on ways to open up the lever of the tea kettle to blow off some therapeutic stream,” she said.

Ok but how do you do that? “Protect your sleep like the vital resource it is, move your body a little bit everyday, minimize your time engaging in social media, spend time in nature or with loved ones,” said Dr. Nerurkar. “These are just some of the ways to redirect your biology of stress away from unhealthy stress and back to healthy stress, which is how you prevent and even treat burnout.”

It might seem obvious; we’ve heard these tips before. But actually implementing them requires being kind to ourselves.

I’m reading a really great book right now recommended to me by a mentor: “On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good" by Elise Loehnen. In it, Loehnen cites Dr. Kristin Neff, who studies self-compassion. She says that often people feel like self-compassion is the “gateway drug to indolence, that we will become lazy or self-indulgent unless we propel ourselves forward through hate and judgment.”

I’ve been there. I pushed myself so hard that eventually all of my energy was being used to just cling to the metaphorical cliff. And it wasn’t worth it. I’m just one piece of evidence, but I’ve found I’m actually more productive during my work hours when I take time to meditate, work out and make time for friends.

But just in case that isn’t compelling enough evidence to chill out, this fun fact from the Elise Loehnen book blew my mind: “The conscious brain can process sixty bits per second, while the unconscious brain can process eleven million bits per second. We are so busy trying to focus, to do everything that needs to be done, that we not only leave our full potential untapped but burn ourselves out.”

So, basically: don’t beat yourself up for taking a walk around the block. A lot of the power of your mind actually relies on you taking a break.

I hope you take a moment or like, ten, to chill out this week. Maybe during oune of those moments you can shoot me a note to let me know what you thought about this week’s newsletter! You can find me on IG or just reply to this email. Or if you have any other questions about literally anything, send those, too. Getting your emails is still my favorite part of the week, so please keep them coming 🙂