Photo Credit: Yuris Alhumaydy on Unsplash

Burnout is a serious epidemic in our society that affects both men and women. But did you know that women disproportionately experience burnout compared to men? Although we're more vulnerable to it, we may be unaware of how invasive it is.

Would you be able to recognize when you're on the brink of burnout? Do you know what to do to recenter yourself? Knowing the answer to these questions is critical to preventing the downward spiral before it even begins.

This post will discuss why and how burnout affects women and what you can do to manage stress before it reaches a critical point.

What is burnout?

Burnout is an accumulation of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by a buildup of stress. Sure, we all get stressed from time to time. But burnout is more than a temporary period of increased pressure. It is associated with persistent feelings of hopelessness, cynicism, resentment, and helplessness.

People struggling with burnout suffer from decreased productivity and energy, mental exhaustion, and feelings of despair. Their negative and pessimistic outlook affects all aspects of their life, from work to home to social. They may feel like they have nothing left to give or all their efforts are pointless. Left unchecked burnout can lead to a range of issues that include:

Depression
Chronic fatigue
Gastrointestinal problems
Heart disease
Diabetes

Feminine energy and burnout

Burnout is a result of an imbalance between our masculine and feminine energies. Both energies are present in all of us, despite gender. Though these traits are fundamentally different, we need both of them to be complete.

Masculine energy is about "the doing." It's displayed when we take action, push forward, hustle to get things done or work towards a goal. While female energy is about "the being." It is conveyed through creativity, playfulness, enjoying the moment, moving with the flow of life, receiving, and nurturing.

In our society, masculine energy is encouraged and celebrated over feminine energy. The enforced message is that we need to be driven and goal-oriented, strong and confident, aggressive and competitive. And in such a male-dominated world, we need our masculine energy to survive. But, because we are constantly pushing, masculine energy creates little room for us to attend to ourselves, at work or at home. When we are in our masculine energy, we're ignoring the other side of ourselves, creating an environment where burnout becomes normalized.

We need feminine energy as much as we need masculine energy to feel whole and centered. And when these energies work together, we will experience more balance, flow, and alignment in our lives.

To counterbalance the abundance of male energy, we need to find ways to honour and increase feminine energy in our bodies. We can do so by taking time in our lives to:

Be present
Pause
Meditate
Receive the help we need
Slow down

Factors that contribute to burnout in women

Anyone can experience burnout, but certain stress factors are more common in women than men. These factors are worth identifying to consider the role they play in our lives.

Inequality in the workplace

Although women have been fighting for years for equality in the workplace, it still has yet to be realized. Women continue to face increased stressors at work such as:

· Receiving less pay for the same work.

· Working exponentially harder to shatter glass ceilings.

· Being overlooked for leadership opportunities

· Undervaluing of their ideas.

· Underappreciation of their contributions.

The work-life balance myth

A recent study shows that women spend two more hours a day doing household duties than men. There's no doubt that the blending of work and home life hits women harder. This especially rings true during the current pandemic, as women find themselves responsible for a greater portion of the duties while working from home.

But even on a regular basis, women are expected to balance it all—work, relationships, family, household—and give 100% to every task. This unrealistic expectation leaves women at a disadvantage and makes them more susceptible to burnout.

Neurological differences

Men and women handle stress in different ways. Men adopt a "fight or flight" response choosing to tackle the problem head-on or ignore it altogether. While women internalize stress, processing it over time and evaluating the problem from different perspectives. This inner struggle creates an additional burden for women and leads to more stress.

How to prevent burnout

Knowing that, as women, we are more vulnerable to burnout, what can we do to avoid it? We can take a three-step approach to try to stay ahead of burnout and improve our overall day-to-day well-being.

Step 1: Awareness

Burnout has become so normalized that we ignore the signs that we're reaching a breaking point. But awareness is the first step in prevention.

So, what warning signs should you look out for?

Burnout is characterized by both physical, mental, and emotional symptoms that include:

Extreme tiredness
Loss of creativity
Irritability and shortness with others
Feelings of isolation or need to withdraw
Lack of patience
Tasks seem pointless
Change in appetite
Loss of focus or concentration
Difficulty completing tasks
Sleeplessness
Headaches or stomaches

Step 2: Evaluate

If you recognize that you're headed down a path leading to burnout, it's not too late to turn things around. This is when you'll need to start looking at how best to manage the situation and bring more feminine energy into your life. Here's a few questions to consider:

Where am I pushing?
Where can I slow down?
Where can I ask for help?
What do my body and soul need?

By answering these questions, you'll discover those areas and tasks in your life that are causing you the most stress and where you can make adjustments.

Realize that you can't do it all. And that's okay. Prioritize what's important, modify or adjust timelines according to attainable goals, ask for help from friends or family, or revise expectations.

Step 3: Honour yourself

How we attend to ourselves during this critical juncture can be instrumental in avoiding burnout. This is when we need to turn to self-care practices that help us deal with daily stressors.

When we rest or pause during these times, we honour our feminine energy, bringing balance back into our lives. It is much easier to deal with stress on a day-to-day basis instead of waiting until we are in desperate need of a complete self-care overhaul.

Self-care is a practice. It doesn't have to be perfect, and it may look very different from what others are doing. What you do for self-care is unique to you. But knowing when you need to slow down is essential to managing stress in your life.

Start with these simple tips:

Try taking self-care breaks throughout the day to avoid a build of stress. Little moments are effective and add up.
Integrate self-care into your life and attach it to things you are already doing to help form a positive habit. For example, every time you get into your car, take a few deep and cleansing breaths before you drive off. Or, when you get up in the morning, take a few minutes to practice yoga poses or write in your journal.
When you practice self-care, think about nothing else but what you are doing.
Be caring and apply positive self-talk.

What you do is up to you. But what is key for your self-care practice is that you do something that brings you peace, grounds you, and lets you be present in that moment.

The demands of life can sometimes feel overwhelming, and stress is a natural response to those demands. But when stress turns to burnout, it can be damaging to your mental and physical health. Listen to your body, rest, and seek help before you reach your limit.

My practice centers around helping women overcome stress and trauma in their lives. If you'd like support in these areas, I'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me for a consultation.

How Burnout Affects Women and What You Can Do to Prevent It In Your Life