Alternative medicine is just about the last thing a person thinks about as a way of managing burnout. In fact, most people are so busy feeling the impact of burnout that they don’t stop to think about possible ways of counteracting it.
Burnout has a way of feeding back on itself. The more burned out we feel, the more hectic things get, the less we take care of ourselves and the greater the burnout becomes. It can be a never-ending cycle that it is hard to break.
People who choose to use alternatives to conventional medical care to counteract burnout realize that it is time to get off the treadmill of stress and take charge of those things that are causing them to feel burned out. It becomes a conscious choice not to continue on lifestyle ways that only make burnout worse.
One example of an alternative to conventional medicine in treating symptoms of burnout is insomnia. Instead of taking a doctor prescribed medication, one can choose to do yoga, aromatherapy, acupuncture, mediation, or visualization that offer natural relaxation options to get a better night’s sleep.
Meditation and Burnout
People can turn to meditation as a way of counteracting burnout. Meditation can be practiced at anytime and anywhere once you learn the habit of it. Meditation is all about setting aside the worries of the day and practicing mindfully focusing on your breath. You breathe in and out and let your mind float to happier places of solitude and tranquility.
Meditation includes guided imagery in which you imagine yourself on a beach, in a forest or on a mountaintop. You focus on the sounds, smells and visual image of being in that special place as you focus on your breathing.
A few minutes of meditation won’t take a lot of time out of your day and yet will leave you feeling refreshed and less burned out? You can do this at your desk space or on the bus. You can do it in the morning to set the day off right or in the evening to calm the worries of the day. Meditation is a quick and easy way to reduce burnout and make the rest of your day go better.
Yoga and Burnout
Yoga is a great form of exercise that also helps reduce burnout. You can take yoga classes, which may take some time, or you can learn yoga from a DVD. Yoga involves doing some poses called asanas that are tied to breathing exercises.
Besides improving strength and flexibility, yoga is a good way to fight burn out. It increases the body’s endorphins so that you can feel better during the rest of the day. Yoga can be your only form of exercise or you can mix things up, doing yoga alternating with some form of aerobic exercise like walking or running.
Yoga allows you to take time out of your hectic day and spend some time working on improving your body. Yoga can be a part of a program of good eating and relaxation that can reduce feelings of burn out almost immediately. Yoga isn’t just for people wanting an alternative way of life. It can be done by businesspersons and other people who spend their day doing stressful things.
Yoga can be refreshing and can help you function better for the rest of your life. It’s also important to note that yoga has more than 50 other health benefits for the mind, body and spirit and is one of the most healthy forms of exercises known to man.
Herbal Remedies and Burnout
You can choose to partake in herbal remedies that can counteract burnout. While reading up on the day’s news, you can sip on relaxing chamomile tea or tea made from valerian root.
There are other herbs you can add to tea to make a relaxing substance you drink or take as a supplement. Herbs have been around for millennia and yet now is the best time to use them. Our lives are so stressful that it can’t hurt to use some of these herbal remedies to calm the mind and relax the soul in the process.
Bottom Line
Don’t let burnout ruin your life and your health, nothing is more important than self-care, so take the time!
