Have you felt drained after a difficult patient encounter?
Then chances are you have encountered the effect of emotions and triggers on your energy levels.
Which brings us to the link between our emotions and burnout.
By the way, as we dig deeper, may I remind you that my deepest wish for you is to be an Enlightened MD?
An enlightened MD is a physician who has transformed her burnout into a radiant world of purposeful living and nurturing relationships, abounding in time and financial freedom. She shines in her glory, inspiring others in her situation to step into their bright future.
One of the strengths in her arsenal is the Emotional Rx.
Emotional Rx refers to enlightened emotions – you follow an enlightened path of working with your emotions, an enhanced awareness of your emotions, as well as the expert skills to handle triggers and manifest ideal work and home relationships.
What do emotions have to do with burnout you may ask…..
You may have noticed that certain emotional triggers can cause stress. If you try to remember the microaggressions in a difficult patient encounter or even in the difficult interaction with that non-collegial colleague, you’d probably know what I mean….
Well, that encounter is behind us now, but how is it related to burnout?
Each time we go through a microaggression, it creates a mini-stress scenario, with the famous adrenaline cascade.
And each of those times, our body spends energy on getting us back into our normal state.
A series of microaggressions later, there is a strain on our healing reserve from such events. Almost similar to our adrenals firing repeatedly with each stressful event, and ultimately not being able to mount an adequate cortisol response. The adrenals get fatigued/ tired. In other words, we just described the evolution of adrenal insufficiency and fatigue.
Similarly we spend energy, healing with each of those events, till we are unable to mount an adequate response back to our baseline. Losing a little bit of energy each time. But hardly gaining it back.
When this continues, we have a fertile breeding ground for actual burnout. No wonder burnout can look and feel like adrenal fatigue interestingly..
When we zoom out, whoa! It looks like a toxic environment can be easily linked to burnout.
Another interesting fact: as much as big life changing events can lead to burnout, a series of long drawn out minor aggressions can also lead to burnout.
Yes, you don’t need big bummers as in my life to experience burnout, even small everyday bummers add up over time and CAN lead to burnout.
What if we were able to identify the emotional triggers as soon as they happen, before it leads the way to burnout?
For that, we need to be aware of our emotions. Let me ask you lovely, how easy is it for you to identify your emotions in the moment?
Hope to share a few tips on handling emotional triggers in the next few posts. Meanwhile, let’s do a self-discovery practice to help you tune into your emotions…
Self-discovery healing practice for today:
- Take a few moments to yourself where you will not be disturbed.
- Notice how you feel in general
- What is the main emotion in your mind at this time?
- Now close your eyes and take a few slow deep calming breaths
- Is there any change to the main emotion in your mind?
- If you would like to make it a little more challenging, set a timer for 1 minute as you start the practice, and notice the emotions before the practice, and the ones after the practice.
I would love to know your experience and any insights you gained from this practice. Please leave your answer in the comments below.
