Feeling emotionally exhausted, drained and overwhelmed? Perhaps you are dealing with one or more life challenges that are consuming your emotional energy.
Life challenges, whether personal, professional, or relational, can take a significant toll on your emotional wellbeing. When faced with difficult situations, such as conflicts in relationships, family responsibilities, high stress at work or the loss of a loved one, it’s easy to become consumed by these stressors. Over time, the emotional energy required to navigate these challenges can leave you feeling depleted.
Our emotional reserves are finite, and when we’re constantly giving without replenishing, burnout becomes a real threat. Taking a step back to assess the sources of your emotional drain and learning how to manage these stressors is important for your mental and physical health.
Following are 5 ways to find mental rest and restore your emotional energy:
1. Focus on restoring your emotional energy
We can experience overwhelm when we are thinking too far ahead or trying to solve a complex problem that will actually take time and planning to resolve. If possible, put your problem on the shelf for now and release the pressure of trying to fix it all. Instead, focus on restoring your emotional energy. Find self-care activities that will replenish your energy, mind and body so you can be in a better position to solve your problem later. This may include finding rest for your mind and body by unplugging and having some alone time, establishing a good sleep routine, exercising, getting a massage to release tension, saying “No” to additional requests right now and doing pleasant activities that bring you some joy. Keep it basic and small steps.
2. Acknowledge that things are hard right now
Show kindness and compassion towards yourself by acknowledging that things are hard right now. The problems you are facing may be leaving you feeling drained and fatigued like dealing with the challenges of parenting, a difficult person, a family member’s illness or a high pressure work environment. Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would offer a friend.
3. Talk to someone
Part of being human is that we have emotions. Our emotions are messengers giving us information about our experiences, helping us understand ourselves and connect with others. Our brain isn’t built to ignore feelings. Ignoring and trying to suppress emotions does not make them disappear, instead they can intensify and negatively impact our wellbeing. For this reason, we need to find ways to express our emotions to help process and manage them. Talking to someone is one way to express our emotions, gain support and discover new perspectives.
4. Change your environment
Being in a new environment can act as a “circuit breaker” by interrupting our habitual patterns of thought and behaviour that can lead to mental fatigue or stress. This can include taking some leave from a stressful work environment, getting out of the house and going shopping, visiting a friend, going to the park or beach, or going on a holiday. A break in routine can help you step away from the triggers or stressors, giving you space away and a valuable pause. Additionally, the novelty of a new environment stimulates your senses and encourages mindfulness by prompting you to engage with your surroundings and be in the present moment.
5. Enjoyable activities
Shift away from your stressors and negative thoughts by scheduling in enjoyable activities to achieve some mental rest. Enjoyable activities can elevate your mood and release your body’s natural feel-good chemicals. This can include activities like sitting in the sun, going to the gym, swimming, playing golf, doing a jigsaw puzzle, reading, listening to music, spending time with your favourite people and watching a movie.
This article covered five ways to restore your emotional energy, though there are many other coping strategies that can be helpful. Whilst trying to improve your emotional wellbeing can feel challenging you don’t have to do it alone. Therapy can offer a safe space to process and understand the sources of your emotional drain. Through guided conversations, therapy can help you identify the underlying factors contributing to your exhaustion and help you discover personalised coping skills.
Feeling overwhelmed is a common human experience, and it’s completely okay to acknowledge that. If you are struggling with persistent long-standing and intense levels of stress, anxiety or other emotional distress, where it is difficult to handle everyday activities at home or work, it is important that you consult your doctor for assessment and support.
If you would like professional assistance and support to help restore your emotional wellbeing, I offer confidential, non-judgemental, individual therapy to support adults to address these challenges both online and in-person. To get in touch to see how we can help or if we would be a good fit, reach out at: https://drlinda.au/#Contact