Three signs to recognize mental exhaustion early and 10 strategies to combat it

The body often gives warning signals that are ignored. And after a year and seven months of the pandemic, more than one will have ignored the subtle alerts of a tired organism.

From the Argentine Association of Counselors, they shared some tools that can be helpful in recognizing tiredness before it becomes too unhealthy.

It is that this global health emergency imposed changes in daily life that, most likely, put people in the face of strong fatigue related to working too much, feeling stressed, living with the feeling of daily uncertainty, or feeling that they lost control of many situations.

“It is even possible that along with mental exhaustion, let us also observe lack of courage and motivation, fatigue, lack of attention in what we are doing”, said Cristina Palacio, a member of the dissemination team of the Argentine Association of Counselors, for whom “detecting it, recognizing it is the way to a new organization of times and spaces to be able to feel a little better every day.”

And he shared ten strategies that can help activate that change:

1- Give rise to fatigue: Pay attention to how we feel and detect signs: what are the feelings we are experiencing? Put them into words, acknowledge them. This can be of help to find the actions or tools that help us to change this situation.

2- Recognize personal limits: Keep in mind that all people have limits. We need to say no to certain situations to have time for ourselves. Limit the times of each activity and give a place to leisure and rest.

3- Rethinking our times: Along with rethinking the limits, re-planning the times we allocate to each of the actions or situations that generate well-being. Have a larger space for activities that are valuable to us and our general well-being.

4- Leisure as an ally: Many times we can think that leisure is a waste of time, but scheduled recreation can be fresh air for our day-to-day.

These spaces connect us with creativity, renew our energy, and help us to be more efficient in our activities. Having a collapsed schedule of to-dos with no time to rest can backfire, causing instances of extreme burnout, reluctance, and a lack of creativity.

5- Pay attention to thoughts: “Listen” to what we think and check if these thoughts are helping us or causing us discomfort. Giving them space can help us to detect:

How much of this that we think today is being useful to us? How much is connected with the concrete events that happen in our lives? And how many of them generate anguish and anxiety in anticipating uncertain futures that do not depend on us?

6- Connect with other people: In the way that is possible at this time (virtual/face-to-face). Give us moments of connection with other people, those who do us good, and generate a space for dialogue, recreation.

7- Select the information that we incorporate on a daily basis: Give more space to the information that generates well-being. It is very good to be informed about what is happening but many times we run the risk of over-informing ourselves and the latter can generate discomfort, discomfort, anguish.

8- Take care of yourself: Take care of yourself. Within this point, we can add several actions such as:

– Free up space in your agenda to connect with you. A space to rest, even if it is 5 minutes.

– Connect with a sense of humor, carry out activities that lift your spirits, and recharge you with energy.

– Generate some moment of relaxation.

– Have a good diet and an exercise routine.

– Reconnect with hobbies or activities that generate satisfaction.

– Keep in mind your strengths to put them into practice in the moments you need.

9- Exercise living in the present: Connect with today. Avoid connecting with future concerns that are outside of our actions.

10- Exercise gratitude, make it a habit: Although we go through difficult times, it is possible to find situations or things to be thankful for. We can start with the simple ones like having food, talking with a loved one, having a bed to rest in, etc.

“The key is knowing how to ask for help when we need it,” Palacio emphasized. Sometimes we go through situations that are difficult for us to go through and seeking help can be the key to improvement”.

And after ensuring that “fatigue is part of people’s lives, and it is not about denying it,” he concluded: “The challenge in this difficult time that we have to experiment is to find the right balance for each one. To give place to fatigue and also to the necessary tools to be able to reconnect with one’s own energy.”