Dealing with burnout and stress

So, last week I went to an amazing gathering of fellow campaigners in London where I attended various workshops on social justice, innovative projects, building social and environmental movements etc.

The workshop that stood out to me the most was one on burnout and stress- how to identify it and build resilience to it. When campaigning, heading towards burnout can go unnoticed and this workshop has really opened my eyes to things I hadn't realized were leading to burnout even though it is clear that they are. Therefore, I will try to summarize what I learnt here as I believe it can be very helpful not only to campaigners and activists but anyone in any circumstance.

At the start of the workshop, we defined burnout as the point where you are unable to continue with your usual work (may experience symptoms of those similar to depression or anxiety). Where you have reached the point where even everyday activities seem unbearable and you have to spend a significant amount of time to recover. This could be different depending on your situation, may take days, weeks or even months if not years to recover so preventing it from happening is crucial. To check if you are, or are in threat of burning out taking this quiz could be a good indicator:

Drivers of burnout

There are 5 main drivers that lead to burnout, ideals that you are making yourself reach. They may seem like positive goals in some cases, but often come from a very negative place, are impossible to actually achieve and nobody expects anyone to have these traits all the time. They are:

1) Try hard

2) Be perfect

3) Be pleasing

4) Be strong

5) Hurry up

We often feel like we should be doing all of these and when we fail at any we beat ourselves up about it. We say that we're not trying hard enough, that time is running out like this is the time we should be doing everything because we have free time, energy, the conditions are optimal etc. But again we have to realize that there is time, we shouldn't push ourselves too hard and we should be setting realistic goals, not striving for perfection that is unattainable or we will end up burning out. 

The next step in the workshop was to rate each of the drivers in relation to each other in terms of which ones were more applicable to you. This was done by drawing a bar chart where each driver was a different bar and the ones that affected you the most were larger than the ones that affected you less. (Please do this before moving on to the next part)

Now ask yourself these questions:

In what ways do the ones you rated highly operate in your life?

What effect do they have on your wok or social life?

How might they contribute to burnout?

Do you notice giving these kind of messages to others? (For example, telling someone to be strong in situations where they should be able to show their weakness, by expressing emotions and not bottling them up.)

Exploring causes of burnout

Causes of burnout can be split into 4 categories:

1) Personal context.

Your circumstances that affect you in various ways such as living at home or away form home, living with a disability etc. For example, being part of an active society where you feel like you need to be part of everything,  to make full use of the situation you are in.

2) Personal values.

This could include those drivers we mentioned previously, also other values that can cause strain such as putting others needs first, being there for others at your own expense.

3) Wider geo-social context.

Things like climate change and social injustices that can effect you as an activist as you feel the constant need to fight against them. Also, pressures to find work, a partner. Moreover, feeling guilt for being in a position of privilege which gives you opportunities to do more and you feel like you are not doing enough.

4) Daily responsibilities.

Everyday jobs such as paying bills, rent, self-care, keeping in touch with friends and family, maintaining your name in your social circle or on social media.

All of these things put pressure on you to try and do too much of everything which can be detrimental to your well-being. When looking at the causes of burnout it is important to understand whether it is a choice to let them affect you whether you cannot help them affecting you and how they are affecting you. Understanding that all of these things can and do affect you on a deeper level is the first step to building resilience to those effects.

Building resilience

Roots and fruits of resilience - what helps you to build resilience to burnout, where you get your strength and what the benefits are that you get.

Roots:
Letting go of negative thoughts, having a space to go to think (ex. nature), being realistic about time and energy, accepting yourself as you do others, recognizing your thoughts, close contact with loved ones, achievable targets, communal cooking, taking responsibility for your own well-being, meditation... Add your own ;)

Fruits:

Health (physical and mental), self-awareness, confidence, self-belief, sense of direction, clarity, feeling whole, better sleep, better attitude, being understood...

Decompression

1) What things help you leave work behind, unwind and help you prepare yourself for a different part of your life?

2) What things do you do or not do presently which impede your making this transition?

3) What are some other possibilities that you haven't tried?

4) What will you make a commitment to yourself to do in the next week?

So there you have it, hope this was helpful and please do comment anything else that comes to mind be it examples of causes, strategies to prevent burnout or any other ideas. Thanks for reading. :)

San Francisco

OK, leaving New Zealand was one of the hardest things I have had to do in my life, but luckily I planned a summer jam-packed with travel and activities to help me keep it together and have fun. First stop was San Francisco and I am so glad I included visiting it before coming back to VA to visit old friends.

I met up with a friend from VA there and spent 7 days exploring the city, meeting awesome people and staying out way too late every other night (so worth it).We stayed at the green tortoise hostel which was amazing, I'd say even best hostel I have ever stayed at so if you're ever in San Fran check it out, will not be disappointed. They had free breakfast, free dinner on some nights, night events and organized trips oh and a bunch of other super duper awesome thingamajigs.

So the first full day after arriving we stuffed ourselves with free breakfast bagels and made our way to the Golden gate bridge. Just our luck though we picked the only foggy day to do this... which led to taking this masterpiece of a selfie:

After tha,t we took a walk down the park and found this amazingly beautiful landmark (Palace of Fine Arts) which I hadn't actually known about... We then made our way to Fisherman's Wharf- the must see tourist attraction although somehow ended up missing the sea lions which still baffles us as we later came back to find how incredibly loud and obvious they are... Also, hit up Musee Mecanique, a museum of old arcade fortune telling and puppet machines that cost 25 cents to run. Loads of random fortunes and creepy laughing ladies later we were off to our hostel for a free dinner and an event that seemed promising- beer Olympics :D

Yup, I ended up buying That hoodie :P

Beer Olympics went well, our team won 2 out of 4 rounds and we met some cool people that we then continued the night by hitting a random Chinese bar for karaoke and climbing a hill for a panoramic view of the city at night. We took a cab back that was called for us by our new friends using a taxi app (this is San Francisco after all) which had a whole selection of snacks and water for passengers to make use off and of course we did.

The next day after only about 3 hours of sleep we were off on a day trip where we saw the giant redwood trees, pt Reyes and had complimentary oysters and fish tacos after seeing the marine rescue center where they nurse the animals back to health. 

On our third day, we decided to hit Haight Ashbury famous for the hippy scene in the 60's. However, we took a free walking tour that also taught us a lot about San Francisco's architecture and history. Had this song stuck in my head for most of the day too:

Good example of three distinct 19th-century styles of houses

Painted ladies

Painted lady victorian

That night the hostel had organized a dinner crawl that people from everywhere could take part in and where we met a couple of great friends to hang out with. Since one was a local we proceeded to go back to his place and ended up singing for half the night as he played the piano (he was a pianist/ electric engineer- a man of many talents). Definitely better than having joined the rest of the people who went on to do karaoke.

Yet again we got back to the hostel in the early hours of the morning this time there was no time for sleep as we had to rush to our tour that took us to Yosemite national park (the look on the guys face at the front desk as we rushed to our room and back down and out at 5 am). The park was incredible and I hope to come back there in the future and camp for a few nights, do more walks. We only did one that took us to the waterfalls, which was awesome as you had to climb all of these boulders to get up close to them.

The last couple of days consisted of fitting all the things we hadn't seen yet like the famous touristy things such as riding the cable car, winding Lombard street, Golden Gate Park, Coit tower etc. We also met up with some of the friends we met a few days back and had dim sum (our hostel was right by China Town) We actually had 3 ladies fight over which restaurant we will go to, there were four of us and each woman was making rounds between us to convince us that their restaurant was better and the other more expensive and theirs is 'yummy'. After 7 minutes of that we had enough and just went with the first one offered, but man was that a crazy situation. Had another late night and had a very slow day our last day, don't get me wrong though it was still packed with things to see, just how I roll.

Size discrimination

Also, the day we went to Golden Gate park as we were stopping to take a photo of this mole that was digging up the ground this guy  who was doing the same started up some small talk, but instead of parting ways with us he proceeded to follow us our whole time there... Kind of awkward. We did keep up some light conversation despite it being hard as he didn't speak much English, but truth be told just wanted to think of a polite way to say goodbye. Anyway, he ended up taking the bus back to town with us and added my friend on facebook. So, a few days later she logs in, goes to his fb page and guess who is featuring on his cover photo? Well, it's a picture of us taken from behind when we were walking in front of him. Creepy as, right? Anywho, safe to say she won't be friending him back.

Milford sound and around

Last few weeks in New Zealand, time to check off some tourist destinations I have been avoiding my whole time here. The top of my list was Milford Sound - a must see destination in NZ. So, not being able to find people who could come with me (ok, I did decide to go the day before...) I set of on my own. 

Only having weekends for travel due to my internship being prolonged I couldn't travel for too long which meant I would be spending most of the 3 days I dedicated to this trip on a bus. No worries though, long journeys mean lots of chances to meet new people and everyone likes that, right?

Upon reaching the first bus stop I was not regretting setting off on this incredibly long ride. We had our lunch brake at Lake Tekapo, which was the nicest I have seen it yet. With the mountains lightly dusted with snow and the pastel yellow and red trees surrounding it, it was simply postcard pretty.

After admiring the views from the bus window and engaging in some light conversation with a new bus buddy for the rest of the ride I arrived in Queenstown when it was already getting dark. Was very glad with the hostel I booked for my stay. Since I chose to stay in an all girls dorm I had the luxury of having a bathroom in the room and all shower toiletries provided. This pink walled girly room even had a large vanity mirror and a hair straightener! However, I was disappointed to not find anyone there when I arrived. No worries, went to get a bite to eat at the famous Fergburger where I met 2 travelling girls one of which is now staying with me in Chch (What are the chances right?) , gotta love bonding over food and travel :)

The next day was my Milford Sound trip. We made several scenic stops in Fiordland National Park where I fell in love with it all over again. Had many great photo opportunities which is good because as soon as I reached Milford Sound my camera ran out of battery... Not exactly what you want, when you've travelled so far, but what can you do. Luckily I had made another acquaintance on the ride down who offered to email me some photos (really hoping she will). Not that it was the best weather for them as it was a bit cloudy and rainy as we ventured through the clouds with the boat. However, the benefit of that was that due to the rain, many temporary waterfalls were forming on the mountains which was stunning to see. And a couple large waterfalls made this experience unforgettable. Maybe some day I will return to see it in the sunshine as well :)

That evening I met up with a couple girls I met on this trip and we went out to a few bars including an Ice bar which I had booked in advance as I caught a cheap deal (score!). In the bar it was -8 degrees so they provided you with winter coats and gloves with improved grip as you had to drink your cocktail from an ice glass (which you got to smash once you were done with your drink!). It was a small place, but filled with awesome ice sculptures including an ice air hockey table you could play on.

In the morning, I set back to Christchurch meeting another awesome traveller on the bus :) With loads more travel ahead of me as I spend my last days here and then set off to the US, UK and Lithuania for the summer. Was a great warm up for the days ahead.