To test out the notion that positivity training in burned out or burnout-prone individuals could help increase resilience, Sexton recruited various groups of healthcare workers to complete a simple exercise every day for two weeks. Sounds a little cheesy, maybe, but then again I think we can all acknowledge that these are the sorts of moments that lift us up and keep us going when times are tough. The moments when we experience a tiny bit of joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, or love (and no, that’s not just a random list of positive words copy/pasted from, but 10 emotions that are associated with insulating us from burnout). Indeed, it’s super easy to get so focused on the difficult, frustrating, unpleasant, and stressful parts of each day, that we don’t notice the good parts. Noting that most interventions for burnout involve training people to develop more balanced thinking skills, so they can get better at perceiving positive emotions, he has suggested that “burnout, at its core, is the impaired ability to experience positive emotion.” Bryan Sexton is an associate professor at Duke University’s School of Medicine, and has a particular interest in resilience and burnout.
So what are we to do? Is there a way to increase our resilience in times like this? And ensure we don’t end up slumped on the couch, watching reruns of The Office while eating all of the leftover Halloween candy instead of working on the projects on our to-do list? Why do we get burned out? And can lead to a sense of detachment and loss of enthusiasm for all the important stuff on your plate. Which puts you in an even worse place the next day. Leading to some tossing and turning and difficulty getting to sleep. Which could make you worry about being unprepared, and increase your stress. Making it hard to work or practice as productively as you normally would. And maybe a little cranky too, with difficulty focusing. Where you may feel drained – physically and emotionally. Whether it’s the weight of papers and finals at the end of a really tough semester, a jam-packed schedule of gigs, students, and one-too-many Nutcrackers, the final stretch of months of intense audition preparation, or just the hustle and bustle and stress of the holidays on top of everything else, it’s the time of year when it’s easy to get a little frazzled and burned out.
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