Kimberly - Uplift and Mend - Burnout Series Part 5

Emotional resilience

Energy is required to create - more than we realize.

Sometimes, as creators, we use too much.

Burnout is universal. It can impact any area of our lives. While this burnout series has been focused towards creator burnout, it by no means invalidates any other type of burnout. The intention here is to help creators rebuild their energy after a burnout experience, to enable them to return to the passion, joy, and “why” of creating.

In my previous 4 editions, we learned the following about creator burnout:

☁️ Edition 1 - Definition of burnout. Symptoms. How to self-support. Parallels with complex trauma challenges.

☁️ Edition 2 - Burnout myths. Why they are harmful. How to reframe them as helpful and useful.

☁️ Edition 3 - Joy and beauty in creativity. Burnout can be a result if these are lost. How to find joy and creativity again.

☁️ Edition 4 - Resistance in burnout. How it shows up. How to overcome it.

This final, 5th edition will highlight emotional resilience - its role and importance in reclaiming energy after burnout and how it can help creators move forward after a period of creative downtime.

What is Emotional Resilience?

Emotional resilience is the ability to adapt. Whether it is to stress, adversity, difficult emotions, dysregulation, or burnout, emotional resilience allows creators to restore (or maintain) a sense of mental stability, wellbeing, optimism, and equilibrium through a process of adaptation. It is not about the suppression of negative feelings, but rather the developmental capacity to face challenges (be present), recover from setbacks, and continue forward momentum with a balanced mindset.

It is also not just about "bouncing back", but proactively practicing the deliberate development of mental and emotional capacities to face challenges (i.e. burnout) while recovering energy and motivation after a burnout experience. Having emotional resilience in place offers creators a source of long-term stability for sustaining their creative flow during mental and emotional energy downtimes.

Core aspects of emotional resilience (as they apply to the "Self")

Adaptability to change (Self-efficacy)

Emotionally resilient creators look for ways to adapt constructively. They are flexible, able to refine their perspectives, and adjust strategies to new challenges. Instead of feeling defeated, they embrace empowerment.

Emotional (Self) Awareness

The ability to recognize, understand, and process our emotions. This awareness makes it easier to manage intense feelings, prevent them from spiraling out of control, and recover from emotional setbacks.

Self-Regulation

Creators with strong emotional resilience can manage their reactions. Instead of reacting impulsively to difficult emotions, stress, or frustration, they are more able to respond thoughtfully, even during tough times.

Optimism and positive reframing (self-worth)

An optimistic mindset is often where resilience is found. This includes the ability to look for positive possibilities in challenging situations. Reframing the situation to choose a positive and hopeful perspective supports recovery and growth. It does not imply that difficulties should be ignored, but rather acknowledged as part of the greater picture.

Problem-solving skills (self-explanation)

Compartmentalizing problems into manageable steps is one way of problem-solving. Emotional resilience lends a sense of ease in facing challenges when breaking them apart to be approached calmly and proactively, helping avoid overwhelm. This opens the door to a solution-focused direction.

Supportive relationships (self-transcendence)

Resilience is not singular or individual. Rather, it is often sustained through relationships with people who provide encouragement and perspective. Close relationships, especially, can offer a buffer against stress and lend a "safety net" of ease during burnout. Find - or better yet - create your “tribe”.

What is at stake without energy recovery?

Without emotional resilience, burnout can become more prevalent, run rampant, and have an increasingly greater negative impact. Creative work can suffer significantly and creators might find themselves in a creative black hole.

Risk of recurring burnout

Pushing through exhaustion (burnout) while ignoring the needs of your creative energy and flow can lead to a recurrence of burnout experiences. This creates a cycle of compounded exhaustion, drained creativity, dulled passion, slowed momentum, and lost purpose.

Impact on creativity and quality

A creator's work reflects their internal energy and emotional resilience. Without intentional energy recovery, quality of work can be compromised, leading to long-term frustration, lack of productivity, and mental health challenges.

How to develop emotional resilience: Two authors, Two perspectives

SIMPLIFY - Rajvinder Samra

I came to a realization, thanks to the help of author Rajvinder Samra.

Her answer to burnout? SIMPLIFY

In the context of this author's opinion, she was discussing common workplace burnout. However, content creators also experience a type of "workplace" burnout of their own, so the suggestion is just as useful. As we have learned, burnout is pushing yourself through exhaustion to keep going. Exhaustion can be caused by the overwhelm of too much to do. It can leave many creators feeling like their passion has turned into an unfulfilling job, chore, or pressing obligation.

Samra's argument is that the "complex, contradictory, and hostile work and personal environments" should be simplified and we should not expect ourselves to build resilience to merely tolerate these types of environments. She is focusing on the core of the burnout and I appreciate this approach.

Therefore, applying Samra's suggestion to content creators, instead of suggesting action steps to help build resilience and train ourselves to endure the environments, habits, and expectations creating the conditions for burnout, we should focus on preventing burnout through simplifying our work habits.

ROOTS AND PARAMETERS - Anne Helen Petersen, Ph.D.

Dr. Petersen also writes about burnout from the lens of it being all-consuming, a "chronic disease" and the byproduct of a greater, societal problem. (She acknowledges "hustle culture", and the "income source" of social media influencer, content creators, and "knowledge workers" - all of whom create a personal brand (and following) online for the sake of income and leverage.)

In her opinion, there is no "cure" for burnout and it not easily fixed with life hacks or self-care habits. She dives deeper in suggesting the first step towards treating burnout is by understanding its roots and parameters (symptoms, biological - risk - external factors), because self-care, bottom-line, does not encompass the goal to alleviate the burnout cycle in the first place. It can sometimes “band-aid” it instead.

PREVENTION - The big take away

While both authors lean heavily on writing about workplace and life burnout, we can still apply their insights accordingly to the aspect of energy recovery in creator burnout.

Applying Samra's suggestion, instead of piling on action steps to help build resilience and train ourselves to endure the environments, habits, and expectations creating the conditions for burnout, we should focus on preventing burnout through simplifying our work habits.

While Dr. Petersen does not believe there is a "cure" or "easy fix" for burnout, it is still a recognizable experience. She suggests understanding the roots of burnout and its parameters as a step towards treating it. While many people might share similarities in how they cope with burnout, it is a very individual experience and recovery is still in the hands of each creator.

By looking at root causes (such as work load, internal/external pressures and expectations, isolation) and simplifying our (work and personal) environments, we can use the suggestions of both these authors for energy recovery. Burnout prevention typically involves proactivity on some level - and utilizing emotional resilience - not in a way to endure burnout, but as a way to ease through it, lessen it, and if not prevent it.

The previous 4 editions of this Burnout series all included action steps for PREVENTING burnout.

Emotional resilience in my mental health healing journey

Without realizing it initially, I have been cultivating emotional resilience in my complex trauma healing. Part of the treatment process has been finding, understanding, and processing the root causes of my trauma. Other aspects of the process have included habits for simplifying my environment to help prevent me from re-traumatizing myself.

Of course, this does not negate the practices and development of habits of self-care. This aspect of mental health and creator burnout healing is just as important and complements exploring root causes, prevention, and simplification.

Healing is an all-encompassing endeavor that involves many moving parts contributing an important component to emotional resilience.

How to build emotional resilience

Building emotional resilience means instilling in yourself the ability to adapt, recover, and move forward.

Tools are useful and helpful. However, burnout is tricky and fickle to tangibly cope with because it is a very individual experience. You have to find what works for you. The goal, ultimately, is to regain your energy to return to your creativity.

The purpose of suggesting the practice and habit of emotional resilience is not to task you with "something else" to do. It can certainly feel like that when we already feel tasked with too many other obligations.

However, for those of you who thrive on action steps, here are a some suggestions:

Journal prompts

How might you proactively help prevent burnout in your creative work?

How might you simplify your creative work environment?

Reflect on your most recent creative burnout experience:

What caused it?

Can you pin-point something certain?

(Or just a chaotic cocktail of life events?)

Can you identify a root cause of your burnout?

Can you identify a parameter of your burnout? (symptoms, biological/physical factor, risk factor, external factor)

How can you strengthen your ability to adapt?

Energy self-check in - Reflect on how you are feeling mentally and physically.

Joy List Creation - List 3 activities that feel nourishing and energizing. This list can act as a go-to when you need a break but feel unsure of what would genuinely help.

Gratitude list - List 3 things you are thankful for. Focus on what you appreciate in your life, creative work, self, etc.

5-Minute Recharge - Spend five minutes doing something purely for relaxation. This could be breathing exercises, stretching, or listening to calming music. Completely detach and be present within yourself.

Focus on small wins - Emotional resilience increases steadily through the compounding of small accomplishments and wins, positive self-talk, and self-compassionate practices. Build a steady foundation of resilience by recognizing and celebrating these small wins on a daily basis.

Re-cap

In this creator burnout series we learned the definition of burnout, how to identify it, how to support ourselves through it, myths, the importance of joy and beauty in creativity, the role of resistance, and how to rebuild our energy with emotional resilience.

In this edition, we learned about the core aspects of emotional resilience, how it manifests in burnout recovery, what's at stake if we do not recover our energy, 2 unique perspectives for approaching burnout treatment, and action steps for building emotional resilience.

This wraps up the creator burnout series. Be on the look out for my next series about impostor syndrome!

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