Scoopable inexhaustible resource – a little about emotional burnout

Emotional burnout can be compared to an empty well. And everything seems to be fine – and there is a place where inexhaustible springs gush from the ground, and there is enough depth to accumulate water for all needs, but then something happens, and the water disappears, and everyone around begins to feel a shortage of resources. And of course, this happens smoothly, gradually and often imperceptibly. Let’s think about what can lead us to deplete our inner well. Since man is a part of nature, all the physical mechanisms of nature are familiar to him and inevitably inherent. That is, the logic is exactly the same: the analysis can be carried out based on the mechanics of biogenesis. We have two factors of emotional burnout: it is either a lack of external or internal resources. Let’s draw an analogy with nature: if there is a long drought and there are no new inflows into groundwater, the well becomes smaller, but is slowly filled with deeper sources from underground. There are enough of them so that it does not dry out, but there is no water in abundance. So a person can function for a long time and self-preserving on his own resources, but at the same time he will not be able to resource others and share energy and strength. We in our nature need to be filled with external abundant resources. The well needs rain, and then it will filter fresh water from groundwater and in sufficient quantity, mix it with water from underground sources and be full-flowing. A person needs new ideas and impressions, pleasant emotions and inspirational events, and then he seems to be renewed in new streams of life.

So, passing through this metaphor, we extrapolate it into the reality of human life.

We experience burnout for two main reasons:

1. 1. When we lose contact with our inner sources of energy, we become depleted. What are these internal sources that you need to cling to so as not to be exhausted in the realities of life? First of all, it is interest. Interest is the driving force for all kinds of activity. If we are interested, then we want. Moreover, we want everything: to live, to change, to love, to learn, to win, to endure. But if you are constantly active in the “necessary” zone, then there are not enough resources for a long time. This is a symbolic violence against one’s nature as a creator. Therefore, here the axiom takes on full significance – do what is interesting, and you will not burn out. But if you are not interested, there are only two options: either look for something that is interesting, or make your activity interesting.
   2. When we don’t feel the rhythm Each of us has a unique and unpredictable rhythm of activity and rest. And if we start to exhaust ourselves beyond our efforts, then burnout is inevitable. And the purpose of this process is simply to save us. Save in order to simply give the opportunity to survive. And here you need to learn to trust yourself fully. If fatigue acquires a chronic quality and sleep, and a change of activity does not make it possible to restore the desire to live and create, one must beat the gong of self-preservation and take time out to rehabilitate oneself from exhaustion. And a sabbatical of doing nothing is just right.

How can creativity help to pump yourself up with the strength and energy of vitality when exhaustion has set in?

A few theses on how to create with exhaustion and emotional burnout:

1. 1. Create in nature. Nature is the resource that we absorb at the molecular level, unconsciously and uncontrollably, but always effectively.
   2. To create without a definite intention, in other words, is meaningless. Create something for the sake of the process, not the result.
   3. Create with inspiration. Choose those methods of creative self-regulation that inspire, and not force yourself with creative acts, because it is necessary.

So, let’s look at examples of creative self-regulation in emotional burnout:

1. 1. Clay as a plastic regulator. You can take pieces of potter’s clay and sculpt shapeless figures or just knead as long as there is a desire.
   2. Or another option with clay is to create unique ethnic beads. The simpler the process, the more benefit we will get.
   3. Creative collecting is an unusual and rather interesting method of recovery after emotional or any other type of burnout. You can walk around and look for something creative that will inspire you. It can be at least flyers, tree leaves or works of art. The instinctive search gives us the impetus to start the engine of our desires.
   4. Creative contemplation is, of course, a passive method, but only in appearance. Remember your childhood, when we, peering into the clouds, invented stories or images. With emotional burnout, it’s time to return it, and give a tired fantasy a chance to play with a non-existent reality.
   5. Exhibitions, museums, theaters, concerts are also indispensable sources of fresh energy, in which we seem to plunge into the creative energy of the author and swim in his ecstatic experience of the creative principle. And even though we don’t like everything and not everyone is ready to accept it, the very fact of accepting a new one gives a certain reboot in case of burnout.

The flight of desires, fantasies, ideas, thoughts, plans is an inexhaustible well of vitality and self-improvement. And it depends only on us how we will realize this resource sent by God for this material and tangible life.

©Victoria Nazarevich