Emotional Exhaustion

Emotional exhaustion can lead to the total standstill of all our activities, as the body tries to protect itself.

Since emotional exhaustion can be an obstacle that prevents us from moving forward, it is important to know how to identify it and look for activities that will help us relativize and neutralize negative emotions.

How does emotional exhaustion arise?

Emotional exhaustion occurs when we exceed the psychological quota of what we can direct, control, and channel. We naturally speak of all those emotional burdens, such as the stress, the worries of everyday life, the interpersonal tensions, the fears, the weight of the past, the fear of the future and even the existential fear.

We all know very well what physical exhaustion is; we know how to identify the symptoms and pay adequate attention to the state in which our body can no longer give itself and needs rest.

As strange as it may seem, emotional exhaustion is not that easy to spot. What’s more, we also don’t know how to respond effectively to it and offer a useful and effective psychological coping strategy ourselves.

What we very often do is “swallow” one feeling at a time. We put them one by one in our personal backpack, without paying attention to their weight and how they affect our well-being and our quality of life.

Every day we move more slowly, with less enthusiasm, with the motivation and the illusion on the floor. Today we suggest that you become aware of this kind of fatigue, emotional exhaustion. Identifying and managing them properly can change your life.

What is Emotional Exhaustion?

Emotional exhaustion goes beyond simple stress or fear. It occurs above all in people who experience high emotional stress due to their work or special situation.

For example, professional activities such as doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers, etc. often cause very intense emotions that cannot be processed in their everyday life. Facts such as caring for sick people and living in a very demanding family environment also create a high level of emotional exhaustion.

Symptoms related to emotional exhaustion

We said it at the beginning: people know how to recognize physical exhaustion, but we don’t always become aware of emotional exhaustion. The following symptoms indicate this :

• Hypersensitivity : A mood in which the smallest things hit us deeply and hurt us, we are much more sensitive, we cry for almost no reason, we quickly get angry at everything …
• Difficulty concentrating : We have trouble concentrating and remembering.
• Feeling of unreality : Sometimes we feel that the world is on one side and we are on the other, as if we are not part of the here and now, of what surrounds us.
• Negative Thoughts and Low Motivation : Two Aspects that, if not controlled, can lead us to depression.

Emotional exhaustion also results in physical exhaustion. It doesn’t matter whether you sleep 10 hours, because the feeling of physical exhaustion and loss of energy is constant with emotional exhaustion.

Learn to deal with emotional exhaustion

Sooner or later we do, we become aware that “something is happening to us”. Sometimes, after turning our attention to the physical symptomatology and seeing that ordinary medicine does not give us any relief, we realize that the source must be a little deeper.

Learning to channel, manage, and heal our emotional complex is not easy, it is not something we learn at home or at school. However, we have our own resources that we can all put into practice:

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is in vogue. Besides seeing it as a meditation technique, we also need to understand it as a kind of philosophy. Mindfulness helps us become aware of what is happening in our body and mind.

It allows us to be present. What matters is the here and now . Also, it is very useful to stop the flow of negative thoughts, stress, and negative emotions. With mindfulness we will understand the importance of promoting dialogue with ourselves in calm and harmony.

Quality time for yourself

When was the last time you took time for yourself ? We talk about the quality time in which we can relax, harmonize desires with actions, in order to align ourselves with our heart in a holistic sense …

Sometimes something as simple as walking or even talking to friends can be healthy and healing.

Learn to relieve yourself of pressure

Relieving emotions is like removing weight from our backpack, relieving it, throwing away those stones that prevent us from moving forward.

How can we free these stuck feelings in us and thereby relieve ourselves?

• We can ask for professional help.
• Conversations with colleagues, with good friends or with people in the same situation can help us.
• Keeping a journal is also very helpful.
• Exercising, painting, or other activities that distract us can help us put tension and negative emotions into perspective.

Start removing weight from your emotional backpack today. You can do it!