How to Avoid Burnout

Many of my business coaching clients are reopening, and they are excited and exhausted. Here are my top tips for avoiding burnout:

• Yoga

Here’s what yoga is: breathing mindfully.

That’s it.

Everyone can do it!

For me, doing a traditional asana practice 20 minutes a day is pretty powerful.

It roots me in my body and allows me to stay grounded.

You can find loads of my 20 minutes classes here.

• Meditation

Meditation is doing something that brings you to the present moment.

Yoga is a form of meditation. The next level is a seated practice.

I love tonglen meditations to deal with big emotions that come up during difficult times. Tonglen is the concept of breathing in the sensation of the pain and breathing out what you need to heal that pain. Here are a few guided meditations:

Tonglen Meditation to Ease Suffering, Pain, and Hardship

Daily Meditation

A tonglen meditation for anxiety

• Self-Study (Svadhyaya)

Everything has changed: you aren’t the same person you were three months ago.

You need to get to know your work self again.

Notice when you feel exhausted and where you feel energized.

Notice what happens when you take care of yourself with a solid morning routine versus rushing.

Notice where you feel flow and where you feel stuck.

Notice what you regret agreeing to do and what you’re looking forward to.

You don’t have to change what you’re doing. Just notice. Study yourself.

For me, I know that I need to spend about 2 hours in the morning taking care of myself: practicing yoga, meditating, walking my dog, tidying my home, cleaning. I reserve 4 hours in the morning for this 2 hour process, to give myself a grace period in case I need more sleep or want to add on a bike ride or self-massage or a morning nap 😊

• Charge More For Your Time

If you feel exhausted at the end of your work, you aren’t charging enough money for your time.

You need to give yourself a raise.

I can tell you how to do that in a free 20-minute call.

• Work Less

I can’t do my work for 8 hours a day.

If you’re being really honest, I don’t think you can, either.

But I can do solid, great work for 3 hours a day, and still have enough energy to live the rest of my life.

I have to put a lot of value into those 3 hours so that I can have the greatest impact, so I do.

Then I go and study so that I can create more value the next day.

• Sleep

Notice your caffeine and stimulant intake.

Here’s my favorite sleep hack: sleep cycling!

You want to wake up on a 90-minute cycle.

The body heals different portions of the body in a 90-minute cycle, like a washing machine going through its phases.

(If you wake up often between 1 and 3 am, it’s probably because you drank alcohol or ate a lot of sugar the night before and your liver is stimulated and wakes you up!)

Imagine if you were trying to wake up in the middle of the washing machine cycle, amidst all the dirty and grossness that’s been soaking in your clothes. It’s super hard to wake up cheerful in that!

No, you want to wake up at the end of the cycle, when the clothes are clean and ready for the dryer.

I chant myself to sleep as a natural alarm clock, about 15-30 minutes from when I first decide to fall asleep on the half-hour (so if it’s, like, 9:15 pm, I’ll count from 9:30 pm to when I want to wake up: “9:30 11:00 12:30 2:00 3:30 5:00” and then start again at 9:30.

Poof! I’m magically awake at 5:30 am, ready to start my day.

• Qi Gong / Taoist Meditation

This is a relatively new modality I’m studying through Yo San and the International Taoist Meditation Center. It’s simple movements to move your energy around, coupled with deep meditation connecting to your intuition.

Here is a short practice for lung strengthening and moving through grief.

Here’s a basic qi gong grounding exercise.

• Ride Your Bike

Go ride your bike!

It’s so fun!

So good for your heart!

• Walk in Nature

When you walk in nature, you stimulate your brain more so than just walking.

It’s true!

I think it’s because of the cleaner air.

It’s thought that walking on the beach, where there is a higher incidence of negative ions, stimulates the brain to produce serotonin.

Do it.

Every day!

• Express Gratitude

Write it down, all the things you are grateful for every day.

At least 5.

It’s not always easy.

That’s when I know it’s really important to do it.

Up Next:

1. 5 Ways to Improve Focus and Avoid Distractions

2. How to Build an Online Course

3. The Compulsive Need to Do More (or: How Do I Stop People Pleasing?)

Read more of my business coaching blogs here!