Beat Burnout with Authenticity

(shaker sifting) (mouse clicking) (bright music) Headspace Studios. (serene music) (birds singing) Howdy, welcome to Radio Headspace and to Friday. We made it, y'all. Today, let's talk about the big B, the elephant in the corporate room, burnout. The last few years, I've been doing research on burnout, learning about why it's so common, but also what causes it. And I came across the usual, overworking, lack of sleep, high stress. However, as someone who loves to work and is energized by giving to the world, I knew that the source of my burnout was different. So I began to get curious. What I found was this term misalignment burnout, a type of burnout that's commonly overlooked. (light music) This type of burnout is caused by constantly engaging in environments and values that go against our own values and beliefs. And this creates significant disharmony and disconnection between our true selves and our professional selves. And this can be a major cause of stress. Being inauthentic, especially in our vocational pursuits, can have detrimental effects on our minds and bodies. Who knew? I sure didn't. Took me a while to realize that I was losing my sense of self in my workplace, and also losing my essence and life force. I went from being incredibly enthusiastic in making a change to resentful and cynical about the state of mental healthcare, and hopeless that change would never happen. (birds singing) I can say I definitely experienced this while working as a psychiatric nurse. When I graduated from nursing school, I was eager to revolutionize the mental healthcare system. (bright music) Shortly after, I realized that it's not exactly a one-woman job. And also, that type of change doesn't take place on an individual level. We have to look at the institution as a whole. Day in and day out, my personal and professional values and beliefs were constantly being challenged. There were things I was asked to do and expected to do in the name of treatment that I was fundamentally against. So if you find yourself in a similar predicament where your inner career that misaligns with your own beliefs or forces you to disconnect from your true self, here's a few things I started to do to recover from misalignment burnout. One, surrounding myself with people who reminded me of who I am. Community was and is still really important to me. There were people in my life who could sense my dis-ease working in the hospital and would remind me that I'm a person who is lively, who's often bright and radiant and full of joy. And this was incredibly helpful for me because I had started losing sight of that. The next thing to try is giving yourself grace. Sometimes we have to work in certain jobs in order to survive. Life is expensive. Career pivots, especially now, are a privilege and luxury. Practice that self-compassion muscle and see if you can offer yourself kindness. If you need...