Burnout is so common and normalized in this culture. For most of us it feels as if burnout is inevitable and sometimes even inescapable in our lives.
Feelings of failure, self-doubt, emotional detachment or disconnection, cynicism, lack of motivation, hopelessness, helplessness, dissatisfaction, and lack of purpose are all symptoms of burnout.
In the physical sense, your body is tired despite getting many hours of rest, and you seem to be unable to break through negative habits because your mind needs those habits in order to cope with whatever situation you are going through.
….Leaving the milk in the dish cabinet, or locking yourself out of your car at the gas station (with your dog still inside) are very detailed examples (that may have or haven’t happened to me) of the mental exhaustion that comes with burnout.
Apathy, despair, regret, anxiety, cravings (that can lead to negative coping habits), and anger are both the lowest frequency emotions and densest energies. You can see how they rank in Dr David Hawkins’ Consciousness scale:
According to research, Gratitude vibrates at 540 MHz which is similar to the frequency of Joy and above of that of Love (at 528 MHz).
The other thing about Gratitude is that is an energy we feel we can tune into with more ease in order to raise our vibration. And that is because most things that make us feel grateful are usually more tangible or visible to us than the energies of love and joy.
We can bypass and tune into Gratitude with more ease than Love and Joy.
Expressing gratitude for things we have and love, or for things we get to experience during our day to day, sets us up to attracting more of those things into our life.
Gratitude is energetic language to saying “I want more of this, please, because I know how it feels (and it feels great)” .
And one of the important things to manifestation is how we feel.
So how can we tune into the energy of gratitude and (hopefully) stay in it, specially in times when things in our life feel difficult and we are burnt out?
It feels very hard to get out of that mental and emotional state of apathy, detachment and hopelessness that keeps us feeling stuck in life. But there are a few effortless tricks that you can do in order to nudge you forward into the higher frequencies.
For that you’ll have to increase your awareness and “fake it until you feel it”
Gratitude practices that helped me out of the slump of burnout:
It starts every night at bedtime, when we are more open to be honest with ourselves, and moments before the ego detaches from your consciousness.
1) As soon as you turn the light off and get ready to drift off into sleep, tell yourself:
“Today I successfully:….”
and make a mental list of tasks/chores/things you were able to complete or at least put into motion during the day: from bathing the dog, to taking a nice (real nice) shower, to solving that thing you’ve been putting off for a while, like booking that doctor appointment.
The purpose of this list is to give you a pat on the back, help you feel empowered and in control, while nudging your awareness into the positive aspects of the things you do in your daily life.
2) “Fake it": Once you start feeling more empowered or confident, you can move on to turning that “list of successes” into a “list of positives”:
“Good things that I saw/experienced today:…”
Here you make a list of at least 3 things (literally anything) that made you feel good or nice during the day, even (and specially) fluttery moments in which you appreciated beauty around you.
Examples could be:
- all traffic lights were green on my way back home.
- I saw a rare bird (or butterfly) by my window.
- The cashier at the grocery store was nice to me.
- I have clean clothes ready to wear this week (because I successfully did laundry today).
- I found a $5 bill on the elevator at work.
Literally anything that lifted your mood for at least a second during the day, or improved your live even by a tiny bit counts.
At the beginning you’ll feel you are making a list just for the sake of making a list (this would be the “fake it” part), but repetition is key in order to eventually help you feel and stay in the emotions of those items you are listing every night.
3) “Feel it”: As you keep practicing these steps, you’ll notice that you are gradually feeling more empowered and more aware of the positive things that are happening around you. You’ll soon start noticing that you are taking note of these positives as they happen, instead of waiting for bedtime to run your list.
- you’ll start smiling whenever you reach the intersection and the green light is still on.
- You won’t feel as angry or frustrated when you spill something in the kitchen.
- You’ll feel more tolerant with your nagging coworker
4) Rinse and Repeat.
You’ll start appreciating more the little things, the good things in your life. You’ll start feeling more motivated, even inspired to make changes that improve your wellbeing and your life. You’ll also feel less affected by external negativity.
In Dr Hawkins’ scale, you’ll notice that you have been moving into the higher frequencies of willingness, acceptance, and feeling more and more of those frequencies of love, gratitude and joy.
Manifesting is like climbing a knotted rope, where each knot works an anchor to help you pull yourself up to the next level.
Gratitude is at each knot, and you hold on to that emotion to help you up into the next great thing.
