Recent Research About Sustaining the High-Achieving Professional (Part 2)
Last week, I discussed how relationship science can aid in creating sustainable and high-performing companies through management and leadership. This week, I’ll be giving you the most up-to-date research on what to do if you are a high performer looking to sustain your performance level long-term, without burning out.
You are a high-achieving professional who gets called “workaholic” from time-to-time by your co-workers and family. Sometimes, it’s like they think work is your entire life, when in reality you actually are pushing yourself to take care of them whilst doing a whole lot to keep yourself afloat (generating income, pushing yourself to new limits, paying the bills, etc.). But here’s the problem--you know for sure that the pace you’re going at won’t last. Here’s what you need to know…
Research on burnout has identified that burnout isn’t just a short-term issue that impacts our mind and how we view our jobs, but rather a long-term problem impacting our physical bodies, mental capacities, emotional regulation systems, and even the ability to create meaning in our lives. Burnout can be linked to physical responses similar to that of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; and I might add, that burnout can be seen as a subtype of PTSD (or Peritraumatic Distress) due to the long-term impacts on our bodies and brains.
To keep it simple, when we are encountering long-term stress responses from our bodies at work with insufficient self-soothing practices, we become burnt out. What’s happening physiologically is that the parts of us in charge of logic and reason are shut down. In addition, the part of our brains designed to help us regulate and stabilize emotions is also shut down. What does that leave us with…
The Survivor part of our brain!
In a presentation to teachers (a population that often experiences burnout) by Eve Miller (2020), a people scientist, Miller discusses how there are three main parts of our brain’s function:
The Survivor
The Inner Self
The Regulator
The Survivor’s job is to (yes, you guessed it) survive! Here is where we maintain basic functions like breathing, eating, and the fight-flight-freeze-fawn response determinator. The Inner Self is basically the part of us that’s written like a narrative, helping us to see ourselves in the midst of each environment. Lastly, the Regulator is used to balance out our emotions and physical responses. All three parts are crucial to help us survive and thrive in the world as humans.
In her presentation, Eve Miller states that when an individual is burnt out, they have to rely on their Survivor to keep them afloat (2020). However, this can be devastating to our long-term health as chronic illnesses or diseases are born in these same conditions of long-term stress in our bodies.
All-in-all, we desperately need some fantastic-working self-care to be able to bounce back from the amount of stress we undergo in burnout. This self-care has to be focused on taking care of the body, not just the logical parts of our brain. Why? Because burnout isn’t even housed in the logic part of our brain! It’s formed and maintained in the Survivor section--which is where we also hold trauma.
Our burnout self-care models need to start with body basics, like:
Breathing
Meditating
Slow movement patterns
Yoga (specifically, Restorative, Yin, and Vinyasa Yoga types)
Vagus Nerve Stimulation
Taking a cold shower or bath
and more…
The models of self-care and self-soothing listed above all target relaxing the Survivor and getting our other parts of our brains turned on. From there, Miller suggests that we start asking our Inner Self some narrative questions, such as “What did you learn from [this situation]?”, and participating in interactive social events with our friends and family to keep us grounded (Miller, 2020).
And, “how do we get all of this done amidst a busy, limiting schedule?”
I’d say, it takes a whole lot of tiny steps in another direction and a foundation of self-compassion. Only from there will we be able to navigate burnout without losing ourselves.
Overall, burnout care takes a reframing of what we consider burnout to be. We need to step out of our considerations of burnout to be just a simple cognitive-based issue to a complex, physiological one. The care we give ourselves needs to have roots planted in somatic and trauma-informed care to be able to get ourselves out of the cycles that caused it, and see ourselves as vibrant, healthy individuals once more.
References
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “Exploring the Relationship Between Engagement & Performance”. CultureAmp.
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “Top 3 Ways to Engage and Retain High-Performing Employees”. CultureAmp.
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “3 Reasons Why Your Employees May Be Underperforming”. CultureAmp.
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “3 Ways to Turn Your Good Performers Into High Performers”. CultureAmp.
Miller, E. (2020). Research Conversations: Your Brain on Burnout the Neuroscience to Support Wellness with Dr. Eve Miller [Live Online Event Series]. LeaderInMe.