When Life Gives You Lemon

A few weeks ago when I felt overwhelmed, starting to have negative thoughts, behind on everything and just losing my overall motivation, I decided to step away from everything. It was refreshing but in the process, I also picked up new things to try and some new self-care tips which I will share later. I also attribute this to the things I learned from burning our recovery and prevention, just a long list of things that I find was very helpful whenever I am dealing with burning out. My tips will be similar to that but obviously with simpler approaches that I experienced. First of all, I learned that if life were symbolized as running, I would be a great sprinter but not a marathoner. I guess you have to ask yourself that question too, are you a sprinter or a marathoner? As you see, the sprinter is great for speed and power while marathoner is great for slow and endurance. What does it have to do with burning out? well you see, from my experience with explosive energy , it invites more responsibility. I find that when I have a lot of energy I make so many commitments, being on top of my game but once my energy drops, I start getting behind everything, don't really achieve the result I wanted,and even fail to deliver my commitments on time. Most importantly, perhaps I made people disappointed when I tried to overcommit that would really just lead me to a long burning out. Also, sometimes, burning out is inevitable, it just bound to happen but obviously it can be minimized too.

I realized very late that many things in life are continuous and it's not a sprint, it's more like a marathon. It's that continuous effort but consistency that matters. It's just like that common knowledge how being smart/genius sometimes does not really translate to success or having more money. I am pretty sure at least in life you know a few examples that fall under that category. I totally have great respect for people who are great with consistency. Not to mention, they are a great pacemaker/pacesetter to me. In sport, it means someone who is in the lead during part of a race or competition and therefore decides the speed or standard of the race or competition for that time. I think that people who are consistent, made me want to stay on top of my game and motivate me to be on their level or even outperform them. In life, professional life and many other things, I think we need a pacemaker. However, of course to minimize the burning out while having these pacemakers around as a sprinter, I remember to go back to the basics, which is sleep, get moving, personal care, and mindfulness.

As much as sleep is important, sometimes I am still losing it. I stayed up late wanting to work more, do something more, just to be productive. I ignored the fact that when I get a good sleep, my productivity would be higher too. I would exactly have 24 hours to spend productively rather than sporadically spending my time without a goal. These days, I try to get exactly 7-8 hours rest and do my best to sleep no later than 3 AM. I know, even yesterday I didn't sleep at all but after talking to my friend, I realized that it's what probably got me to the state I was in. Perhaps, if you are currently burning out, just ask yourself, " have you been sleeping well or have you been sleep deprived?"

The next thing that is new to me or at least something I recently realized is the importance of working out. You don't have to go to the gym though, maybe walking works for you. I prefer mine at the gym because I enjoy working with various weights that I don't have at home. With working out, I find that it helps me think clearer and even was able to vent out my frustration with life and many other things. When I am often about to be burning out, I either first go back to swimming or the gym. Although it does not completely solve my problem, it removes a bit of fog that clouds my thinking. That's my next tip, get moving, whatever that is.

Then, there comes personal care. I don't know how you do that but for me, it's getting that body massage and some feminine self-care. I got my nails done as you can see above and it just adds some joy into my life. Sometimes I listen to songs, discover new things and just go to a cafe and have a delicious lemon pie. Anything that will cheer you up and gets you busy, away from your regular life, just do that. Maybe watch a movie from the cinema instead of the comfort of your room?

The last thing really is about getting in tune with our mind. I find that helping someone, contributing to a cause or simply becoming grateful for what I did was also the biggest thing that really helped me slowly recover from burning out. While helping others, I find that it just turns my day into something better. However, whenever I can't get up from bed, just avoid everything completely, I simply go back to my photo galleries just to look at the things that I did. It helped me feel a bit better and somehow motivated me to get back up, just to go back to certain places, with certain people and experiencing something fun with them again.

Burning out and problems can be tough but with some small steps and simple approaches, you'll eventually come out of it. So, good luck and don't give up when you have problems :)

_{Ps : thanks to @incublus for inspiring to write out this one 😀}

	𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢. 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦, 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥.