My Story: Overcoming Burnout 4

So, I was sent to another organization named Indigo, again waiting time, mainly because I needed someone to speak English. 

My new doctor looked like Einstein, and during the first meeting, we agreed on no medication. I am going to follow all his advice but without any drugs. We have done some tests, and he gave me a recommendation to read one book titled "Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior and Feel Great Again" by Jeffrey E. Young, Janet S. Klosko.

First, I bought it in Dutch and figured out that I could not understand most of it because my brain couldn't handle more than five words in the sentence, and there were a lot of medical terms. However, I truly believed it would help, so I found the same book on Amazon in English.

It was a life-saver. I knew I had some problems that brought me into this condition of being a mentally broken human, but I didn't know what was causing them. With this book, I could identify my life traps. 

The first thing I did after was I told my bosses I wouldn't visit the office every week, only bi-weekly; if that's not going to work, I would talk to the company doctor and explain how it affects my recovery and my life. I've started to set my boundaries.

There are a lot of life examples of each trap, and I was able to identify 5, that caused my burnout. In the beginning, when I was reading the section from the authors about trap description, it was difficult to accept, that I had been in the same trap; however, when I read the dialog and story of the patient, I was surprised about my reaction or over-reaction and I've to confess to myself, I am in, in that trap.

Initially, I didn't read a book entirely; I just started from the most exciting section. But it cleared my view about my life. Usually, burnout is a conflict between your intrinsic self and your life, or if, say, when your real life does not correspond to your planned/dreamed life. When you understand your life traps, those two lives come close to each other.

The most challenging part was understanding who you are. Real one, not an image for society, how others want to see you. What are your fundamental values, real dreams, and plans? And how to overcome your life traps.

Even if you don't have burnout, read this book. It will open a whole new world and real life for you.

Stay tuned; in the next part, I will share my action steps and some stories from my experiments.