Newsletter #9 About Being Overwhelmed and Burned Out
If you're stressed out, know that you're not alone.
Welcome back!
For this week’s newsletter topic, I want to talk about the inevitable.
We all face burnouts and get overwhelmed by large chunks of responsibilities lined up in front of us. For these past few days, I’m experiencing exactly this.
Though my burnout and feeling of overwhelm weren’t caused by urgent tasks that needed to be done by me, but more so from the stress I put on top of myself trying to produce amazing personal stories.
If you remember from last week’s newsletter, I told you I was going to enter Medium’s writing competition. I plan to produce 2 pieces for 2 separate categories in the competition.
For preparation purposes, I read a lot of personal stories online, from Medium, from the New Yorker, from god knows where.
I stifled myself with reading material, trying to understand what made those stories so special, hoping to absorb those storytelling tricks as I read article after article.
Though I wrote many personal essays in the past and loved writing them, my writing career so far didn’t revolve around personal essays, that’s why I think I’m inexperienced in this area and need to evolve myself more.
I more so create content, shorter and not always too personal, to fit a certain criterion that requires me to be successful on Medium and online.
But I love this chance to be more creative with what I write and extend my normal writing capacities, thanks to this competition. I already feel some improvement in my writing trying to mold an immaculate piece of a personal essay.
Yes, I wrote some stuff, it’s lengthy and I’m trying to shorten it. I could only manage to write one piece and I will make the final touches and publish it before August 24th.
I hope I can muster the time and creativity to work on the second piece for the competition.
Wish me luck!
Back to being burned out and overwhelmed, yesterday I was dealing with stress headaches thanks to the experience. I was stuck at home and spent my whole Monday reading and writing and doing not much else.
Then I realized I was being hard on myself, once again, and I had nothing to stress about; it was just the automatic response of my brain to stress in whatever future task I needed to accomplish.
But this wasn’t urgent, I still had a week, and what worse can happen if my articles don’t make the final cut? It’s not a life or death issue.
Then I calmed myself down, and instead of obsessing over my writing and reading more and more articles to feed myself, I put on my headphones, opened some calming music of my favorite kind, and took a walk.
I didn’t think of what troubled me before while I was taking that walk. My headache settled.
When you feel stressed out, think about how little of a problem is the thing you are stressing over, and your happiness and mental health mean a lot more.
Also when you feel better, it’s more likely that you’ll work on what you have to work on anyways! Not on a stressed mindset.
That’s why it’s crucial to take breaks throughout the day. After working on something for hours, it’s only normal to experience headaches, burnouts, and mental exhaustion. Your brain needs a break!
Stand up from where you’re sitting every once in a while and circle around your house if you sat down for too long.
Stop looking at your computer screen or phone during breaks and instead take a walk, read a book, or prepare a meal.
Do whatever stress-free activity you like in your breaks and unplug. The importance of this can not be emphasized enough.
This week’s highlights
Last week I spent more time socializing than I spent writing. I went to 2 separate concerts in a summer festival and spent some time with friends and extended family.
And add to that my preparation for the writing competition, I couldn’t publish any articles this past week. But if you still want to enjoy the abundance of my writing on Medium, I’m leaving you this link.
What I am reading? I finally was able to read and finish my editor friend from Medium, Jordan Gross’s storybook What Happens in Tomorrow World?
It was such an uplifting and reflective story that you can read in 1-2 hours depending on your reading speed. For a slow reader like me, it was a refreshingly easy, flowy read which I like!
At the end of the book, you can also find exercises to work on yourself, as it’s a self-improvement book in the guise of a fun story. I would definitely recommend it to everyone who needs a refreshing read and a change in the outlook of their mindsets.
I’m also reading a psychology, therapy book; Disarming the Narcissist, Surviving and Thriving with the Self-Absorbed by psychologist Wendy T. Behary; a mouthful, I know.
I’m reading it primarily as a psychology student and because I want to evolve my understanding of different kinds of human psychology.
There is a publishing house in my country that publishes this series of informative psychology books, and this book is part of that series. This is the 3rd book I’m reading from that series and I aim to continue.
But this doesn’t mean that this book is aimed only towards psychologists, anyone can read them and be offered a toolbox of healthier thinking styles and get informed about how our minds work.
Its language is also fairly easy to understand! And again, the book is filled with very useful exercises to work on yourself.
And that wraps up my week! Wishing you a happy rest of your week, with no burnouts and stress!