How To Manage Emotional Exhaustion?

Emotional exhaustion occurs when we are mentally overworked and no longer have control over activities and responsibilities. Therefore, you need to learn how to manage the emotional exhaustion and lack of motivation it causes.

Emotional exhaustion includes all those negative emotions that include stress, worries in everyday life, pressure at work, fear, negative thoughts about the past, fear of the future and existential crises.

We all know what physical exhaustion means. We know how to identify the symptoms and we know how to properly address the states in which our body is exhausted and forces us to take a break. However, emotional exhaustion is not easy to identify. In addition, we cannot always fight it effectively and we do not have at hand psychological strategies that are always useful and effective.

Unfortunately, most of the time we suppress our emotions  and put them in our personal “drawer”. We are not aware that it is filled to the brim. We do not realize their impact on the well-being and quality of life. We are advancing more and more slowly, with little enthusiasm, without motivation and without hope.

Find out below how to manage emotional exhaustion. You will be able to fight this condition and you will change your life for the better.

What is emotional exhaustion?

Emotional exhaustion is more than exposure to stress or anxiety. Emotional exhaustion mainly affects those people who, due to professional activity or a certain situation, are exposed to conditions that have an intense emotional impact on them.

• For example, the responsibilities of doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers, etc., often make them exposed to very intense emotions. These can be difficult to process, especially if the tasks become more and more demanding.
• Also, emotional exhaustion may be due to the care of sick or disabled, and a family environment and difficult conflict.
• Also, common situations, such as the loss of a loved one, the experience of disappointment or a traumatic event in the past, can lead to emotional exhaustion. If we cannot overcome suffering, it causes a lack of energy, which can have a profound impact on our lives.

Symptoms associated with emotional exhaustion

People identify physical exhaustion very easily, but they are not always aware of the emotional one.

These may be some of the symptoms associated with exhaustion, which we must pay attention to:

• Hypersensitivity: at some point, even the smallest details affect us. We are more sensitive, weep or get angry almost for no reason.
• Low attention: we have difficulty concentrating or memory loss.
• Feeling unreal: sometimes we feel that we are moving away from the environment, as if we are detached from the world and the present.
• Negative thoughts and lack of motivation: these are two elements that can lead to depression if we do not control them.
• Emotional exhaustion can also be manifested by physical fatigue. In addition, the feeling of physical exhaustion and lack of energy becomes constant, even after 10 uninterrupted hours of sleep.

How to manage emotional exhaustion?

Sooner or later, we will be able to realize that we are affected by emotional exhaustion.

For example, in the case of a condition, we focus on the physical symptoms and notice that the treatments do not help us. In this case, we can conclude that the origin of the illness is on an emotional level.

But what are the methods that help you fight emotional exhaustion? In fact, managing and healing emotional states is not an easy task. It’s not something you learn at school or from your parents. However, we have some resources and techniques that we can put into practice.

1. Mindfulness technique

The application of the mindfulness technique is becoming more common. Beyond a meditation technique, we must also look at it as a philosophy.

• The technique helps us to pay more attention to our body and mind.
• It allows us to become more aware of ourselves and the present. Here and now is what matters.
• Also, the mindfulness technique is very useful to stop the flow of bad thoughts and to reduce stress and negative feelings.
• We will be able to understand the importance of creating a dialogue with ourselves, a calm and harmonious dialogue.

2. Make more time for yourself

When was the last time you had time for yourself? We are talking here about special moments. For example, situations in which we can relax, in which we fulfill a dream or try something new. Also, sometimes try to disconnect from technology.

It can also be something simple, like a walk or talking to friends. They can improve our mood and are curative in terms of emotional exhaustion.

3. Learn to unload

Unloading emotions is like taking a little from a full backpack. In this way, you get rid of those “stones” that prevent you from advancing.

How to manage emotional exhaustion if all feelings are suppressed?

• You can ask for professional help.
• You can talk to co-workers, friends or people who are in the same situation and help each other.

• Another therapeutic method is to write a diary.
• Exercising, painting or any other activity that gives you pleasure will be able to help you fight negative emotions and daily pressures.

In conclusion, now that you have learned more about how to manage emotional exhaustion, you need to implement as many of these suggestions as possible. But it never excludes professional help.

Start right now, throw stones from your emotional “backpack”, you can do it!