Burn Out Webinar PinterestAs Helping Professionals, especially Speech Language Pathologists, we are no stranger to feeling stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted. But did you know that these can lead to a condition called Burn Out?

Most SLPs love their work and are passionate about helping people, young and old, to communicate, grow and thrive to the best of their abilities, but at some point this passion starts to fade. The stress of paperwork, productivity and managing a caseload can start to make it hard to really enjoy the work, continue to learn and grow as a therapist or to even feel supported and respected by your co-workers. As this stress and dispassion builds, it can become chronic and lead to exhaustion, overwhelm, and burn out. (more…)

SLP Work Energy Pinterest (1)

Have you ever had one of those days where you didn’t do anything physically, or even mentally, exhausting, but you feel completely drained and exhausted by the end of the day. These are the days that can easily make you feel like you are in the wrong job, aren’t good enough or are completely out of balance. I had one of these days recently, and just felt so exhausted by the end of the day. My caseload had been pretty easy, I had plenty of sleep the night before and I didn’t do any extra work that day. By the end of the day, though, I was too exhausted to make dinner, go for a walk or really be of much company to anyone.

It kind of sucked.

I often find that the days I sit at my computer, typing, for hours at a time are the most exhausting ones. The days where I am up and moving, or in and out of my office, are the days when I feel energized and ready to do more after work. Sometimes, it can also be a really tough caseload or overbooking my students. But other times, it has nothing to do with the work itself.

You might find that it’s not the work you are doing, but the way you are experiencing your work day that is taking a toll on you, physically and mentally. Your posture, the meals you are or aren’t eating, and what you are drinking might all be things that can zap or give you energy. If you often feel exhausted at the end of the day, try these 4 tips for more energy.

  1. Swap coffee for water, or at the least, tea.
    • Caffeine can be just what you need at certain times of the day. It provides a little invigoration, helps wake you up, and studies even show it helps to give you more mental clarity and focus. But overdoing caffeine can do the exact opposite. You might find your energy plummets, you feel jittery and nervous, and you suddenly feel scatter-brained.The best thing to do is to drink more water, whether or not you cut back on coffee. This will help you to stay hydrated and flush out any symptoms you might accidentally have from over-caffeinating. Try swapping out coffee for some caffeine-free or low-caffeine drinks instead. Tea is also a great option, hot or cold, if you need a little boost or flavor, without the huge crash from coffee. Go for a cup of coffee in the morning and a chai or green tea latte in the afternoons.
  2. Find some down time. 
    • Work can be all about productivity. If you aren’t helping clients and making money for the facility (or yourself), it might not seem like time well spent. Unfortunately, this type of go-go-go attitude can lead you to burn out, quickly. If you don’t have time to recharge at work, you won’t be able to keep up the pace, stay focused and get done what needs to get done, as efficiently.Have you ever had a day with no breaks and a million things to do, only to find yourself staring blankly at your computer screen, not focusing during your sessions and feeling completely disorganized with your paperwork? Instead of rushing around and doing a million things at once, take 5 minutes to grab a cup of tea, stretch, go for a walk, etc. You’ll be a little more clear headed, have more energy flowing through your body and be more ready to tackle the tasks at hand.
  3. Get up and move during the day. 
    • Sitting at a desk, in one spot during the day can really start to wear on you. NPR recently released an article showcasing just how many hours we sit during a day, and how it can affect your overall health more and more as you age. It’s not just your risk of heart disease, diabetes or weight gain, but also your body actually starting to age and tighten into a “sitting” stance. In yoga, sitting is done during meditation, with a tall spine, so energy and breath can travel through the body as you sit, and your digestive system is uncompromised and able to do its job. This is rarely the way we sit during the day at work. We tend to slump, slouch and cave in a bit. If you find it hard to sit with good posture, or find yourself sitting all day, you might notice your energy levels slump, you breath is more shallow and you feel sluggish and tired.To help combat this, take 5 minutes after every few sessions to get up and move. Walk to grab more water or tea or a bathroom break, do some push-ups and squats at your work station with your desk and chair or even just get up and stretch. You’ll release tension, lengthen your spine and breath deeper, so you start to feel more energized, focused and ready for the next patient or student to walk through your door.
  4. Eat Something.
    • When you are busy and stressed, one of the easiest things to forget is to take a break and eat. When I was working in the schools, I would often have just a few moments to grab my lunch, or eat a snack during my morning and afternoon. I was constantly hungry and has a stomach ache every day.  I also felt exhausted and foggy-headed on a regular basis. Most teachers and health care workers I know ate even less than that. Many would wait until the end of work to eat, or just drink coffee all day and have a really big dinner at night. Coincidentally, these were some of the people who were either super stressed or in really poor health.
    • Without nourishment from food, your body and brain are not able to maintain the energy and focus needed to get you through your work day. You r body needs the carbs and protein to maintain the proper energy levels throughout the day. Your brain needs healthy fats (like those in nuts) to function properly. All of these help to combat the feelings of mental fatigue and physical exhaustion we experience throughout the day. Not eating during the day, or not getting enough calories, can also send your metabolism into “starvation mode”. This means your body thinks you are trying to fast for the long winter, so it slows down and hold on to everything it can. It can cause you to gain weight or have a difficult time maintaining your weight, even though you feel like you never eat.  Make sure you have scheduled breaks for meals and snacks, even just a few minutes, so you are able to make a proper meal or snack to fuel you through your day. Have fresh fruits, nuts and whole grains nearby, so you’ll have something even on the shortest of breaks.

If you are feeling drained by the end of the day, give these a try. See which one might be affecting you the most and try to make a small change each day to increase your energy level. Leave a comment and share what works for you. You can help keep track of your energy levels with the “Daily Check-in” journal page found in the SLP Toolbox (subscribe below).

If you are still feeling exhausted and want to dig deeper into it, make sure to check out these webinars (certification hours and CEUs!) to reduce your stress, and increase your energy.

3 Common SLP Stressors and How to Manage Them  on Xceptional ED (1.5 CMH Hours)

Managing Common SLP Stressors before Burn Out Occurs on Northern Speech Services (2.5 ASHA CEU hours .025 units)

3 Biggest Stressors for SLPs and What to do About Them on SpeechPathology.com (1.5 ASHA CEU hours .15 units

The more awake and alive you feel at the end of a work day, the better you will feel after work and looking ahead to the next day.

Much Love,

1741931346171517140715

 

3 Ways to Beat SLP Burn Out Pinterest

A little over 6 years ago, I was a burnt out SLP. It was my 3rd year in the field and I had been lied to by a supervisor, laid off, hated my new job, was bitter, tired and completely dispassionate about my work. Every night I would start to feel an overwhelming sense of dread, because I knew that the next day would arrive too soon, too early, with too much I wasn’t looking forward to. My schedule didn’t work for me, I didn’t really feel like I was making a difference and, honestly, I just didn’t care about my work. I was miserable with every moment of my work day, and felt like a fraud trying to hide it.

I was also miserable in other parts of my life, because that burn out seeped through to things that had nothing to do with work. It was one of the loneliest points in my life and I felt like I was losing myself a little more each day to my burn out.

Burn out is no joke and is actually a recognized diagnosis by the World Health Organization. It is defined as exhaustion of physical or emotional strength usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration. The  Mayo Clinic defines job specific burn out as a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work. This means burn out, especially from work, is a real condition that can absolutely affect all aspects of your daily life. It can exhaust you, physically and mentally, due to long term stress and lead to a host of other health ailments. It can lead to insomnia, depression, anxiety, obesity, heart disease and stroke, just to name a few.

The SLP world is filled with many people who feel they have or are nearing burn out. If you have ever hopped on an SLP FB group , you have likely seen at least one post about someone who is starting to feel dispassionate about the career they once loved, or a grad student who is terrified they spent all their savings on a degree they don’t want to use. Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm, more than people discussing how much they love their current position and job. “Helping” professions in general are more prone to burn out, and SLPs, with the high demands from caseloads and often lower recognition, are almost set up for burn out.

When I was going through this 6 years ago, I didn’t know burn out was a thing. I thought I was just unable to handle stress or that I had made a terrible career choice for myself. I didn’t know that so many other SLPs felt the same way. My co-workers really seemed to love their job, or seemed to thrive off of the constant stress and high demands. I, however, felt like I was losing a piece of myself more and more every day that I was working in the field until I finally decided to quit.

At the time, I had no idea what I was doing, but I was actually taking steps to treat and heal my burn out. I thought I hated being an SLP, but I really just needed to figure out how to deal with the stress I was experiencing and find fulfillment again. It took me a long time, but if I had started when I first suspected I was getting burnt out, things might have been very different.

If you feel like you might be heading that way, here are 3 things to do before burn out begins:

  • Sleep:
    • Its no surprise that you might need more sleep, but are you actually taking steps to get more? Sleep helps you to restore you body and mind, aiding in recovery after a long and trying day. According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep not only aids in your physical health, but also your emotional health. When you sleep, your brain builds new pathways and restores tired ones. This helps you to problem solve, make decisions and even control your emotions. All of these will help improve your well-being and efficiency during your work day.
    • Burn out can cause you to feel exhausted mentally and physically, and it can also lead to insomnia. All of this means you can feel like you aren’t getting enough sleep. But it can still be hard to get 7-8 hours a night. To make sure you are getting enough sleep, try setting an alarm 20 minutes before you need to be asleep, have a nighttime routine that you follow each evening and set the mood for your room (make it cooler, turn off devices, play white noise, etc). Don’t aim for perfection, that can cause stress and less sleep, just try to get a few more minutes of sleep each night.
  • Gratitude Journal:
    • According to Positive Psychology, it takes 3 positive moments to balance out 1 negative moment in our day. Our brains are also hardwired to recall the negative things or “dangers” from our day, instead of the positive things that happened. It’s part of our survival mode. This can make it really hard to remember and feel like there was any good to your day. If you had a day packed with a difficult caseload, mountains of paperwork and tense IEP meetings, you might be feeling really negative about your work. Writing down some of the good things, even small moments like a smile from a student or an email from a co-worker. It could even be something like a really good latte or no traffic on the commute. This practice can help you to feel more uplifted about your day and remember the positive moments that happened.
    • It also helps to end on a high note. We tend to categorize moments from your day based on how they ended, no matter how great they were overall. If it ends on a bad note, we’ll remember it. If it ends on a great note, we’ll remember it as being better than it was.
    • Try to do this right before bed, so you end your entire day on a positive note. Take about 2-5 minutes for this practice and keep it simple.
  • Meditate : And perhaps take a few really good, deep breaths.
    • In the past, meditation was seen as something that was for the woo-woo’s of the world, the new age or old school, or the hippy-dippy, but in recent years, meditation, along with yoga and deep breathing, has gone mainstream. Research has shown that meditation is not only great for creating a few moments of calm in an otherwise hectic day, but it actually rewires your brain to handle stress better, improve your memory and perhaps even prevent diseases of the mind. This done by helping your brain function better. According to Mindful Magazine, a study from University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds shows meditation can increase your gray matter thickness, which can help you with everyday functions like problem solving, attention and memory. It also helps decrease activity in the amygdala, which houses our “fight or flight” response and be triggered from stress and anxiety.
    • It has also been shown to help you focus better, which plays a huge part in feeling like you are working more efficiently and making decisions with ease.
    • Getting into the relaxation zone also helps you to reduce cortisol, the hormone that releases when you are feeling stressed and burnt out, and is also a contributor to weight gain around your middle, increased anxiety, decreased digestion, sleep problems, heart issues and memory problems, to name a few. Meditating can help reduce and regulate your cortisol release, to help bring balance back into your body and mind.
    • Take just 5-10 minutes a day to meditate.  Find a quiet, comfortable seat and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and repeat a mantra (quote or saying), count down from 50 or 100, or pay attention to your inhales and exhales. Here are a few meditations from the Balanced SLP audio library: Free Meditations. You can also try one of these downloadable meditation practices from UVA.

*A few other things that might help are exercising and eating well. Preventing (and often treating ) burn out is all about treating yourself with a little more care. Fill up your cup, so you have enough to share during your day. 

Managing stress and preventing (or sometimes even treating) burn out is all about taking care of yourself. These tips might seem so simple, but if you take a moment to think, you might realize you are not doing them as often as you need to. You might be surprised to find out that you know to do them, but aren’t making it happen. When we are feeling overworked and overwhelmed, it is often because we have put everyone else before ourselves, letting our cup empty and dry up until we have absolutely nothing left to give. Try adding on one of these exercises at a time. If they don;t seem right for yo, simply make time to do something just for you each day. A cup of tea, a yoga class, a few moments with a good book. Try and find ways to connect with what you really want and need from your work and life, not just that is going wrong. It might make all the difference.

If you feel that you are not just heading in that direction, but are already there, you might want to reach out to a coach or to get some help moving beyond it. Here are a few resources to get help: Burn out. Depression. 

Have you ever dealt with burn out or feel that stress is starting to creep in more and more at work? Leave a comment below or share what you did to help it on someone else’s comment. I’d love to hear from you and see how we can support each other. Remember, you are not alone.

If you need more support, please email me to schedule a consultation and talk about starting The Balanced Life Coaching program. jessi@jessiandricks.com

Much Love,

1741931346171517140715

 

 

 

PS As always, this is not medical advice. Please consult a medical professional if you are experiencing burn out, depression or anxiety, or as needed.