Clair Norman
Less than five years ago, your work and personal life used to be separate entities with a distinct time and place. Individuals would go to their workspaces for a set number of hours and return home to engage in personal activities. With the dramatic rise in remote working, flexible in-office work hours, constant connectivity, and social media – the line between work life and personal life is more blurred than ever. These unclear boundaries result in burnout and have risky negative effects on our mental health.
What is Burnout?
Burnout is an emotional, physical, and mental reaction to constant stress. When work and life are not in balance over a long period of time it can lead to anxiety, distress, exhaustion, depression, lack of motivation, and a negative outlook on life. We have all felt overwhelmed in one or another area of our lives. It can be dangerous when this lack of balance hits us all at once.
The Price of a Flexible Work-life
There is a beautiful freedom in the flexible work opportunities of today. Freedom not only for those performing the work but it also allows the work itself to flourish with less rigid, predictable attention. On the downside, employees can feel more attached to their work – that one more email before carpool, the impulse to get out of bed to revise the report when sleep should silence it, the preoccupation with a looming deadline when friends are over for dinner. Without clear lines of separation between work and personal life and a lack of self-awareness of the problem, burnout increases, and mental health declines. Self-confidence, relationships, work performance, and life satisfaction will be the first things to suffer from these grey areas.
Self-Awareness: Can You Spot the Burnout?
Self-awareness equips us to identify our stress triggers and employ coping strategies. It helps us set boundaries and balance work and life. The real question is, ‘How do we develop or enhance self-awareness?’
Here's what mental health experts recommend:
- Be curious about who you are...
- Let your walls down...
- Look in the mirror — literally...
- Keep a journal and note what triggers positive feelings...
- Substitute some screen time with people time...
- Ask others how they see you...
- Angry at someone? Take the ‘third person’ perspective...
- Keep Checking in with yourself – and list of feelings...
- Keep learning, the journey never ends...
A Proactive Force for Change
At the Cameron K. Gallagher Foundation, we focus on creating original engaging mental wellness educational resources to enhance mental wellbeing for teens and their influencers. Self-awareness forms the bedrock of our approach, guiding individuals toward better mental health through skill-building and resilience
They include:
- Understanding stress from a physical, mental, and behavioral lens
- Enhanced self-acceptance – we all have a brain. We all have mental health.
- We are not alone on the good days and the more challenging ones
- Identify trusted adults or develop a support system
- Uncovering and growing our mental strength – promotes resilience.
- Mindfulness concepts, skills, attitudes, and benefits
- Develop a toolbox of practices, resources, self-care, and positive coping skills
The over-arching idea is to foster balance amidst life’s chaos, equipping individuals with the tools to thrive - no matter what stage.
Achieving balance, whether in the workplace or life, requires deliberate effort and a commitment to mental well-being. It takes intentionality, contingency planning, transparency, compassion, nonjudgement, and adaptability. These are just a few virtues embedded in our personal IOS.
When out of balance, take a pause.
Trust your virtues and stay curious about what is possible.
And how do you do that? Stay tuned for more during Mental Health Awareness Month to answer that question.
There is a certain virtue in promoting a flexible work environment. It is a shared commitment amongst a group of people with a common goal built on trust and respect which enhances mental wellbeing. Staying alert to work-life balance in a flexible environment can be tricky. With focus, discipline, and clarity we can find the sweet spot of balance.
With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, we invite you to join us in celebrating our community’s dedication to mental health at our first-ever Community Day on Tuesday, May 14th at our office, CKG Foundation: 3200 Rockbridge Street, Suite 102 Richmond, VA 23230. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE.
