We welcome you to the NEST blog – the place and space for us to share words and wisdom about the topics most important to you, when thinking about insurance, health and wellness and other important things when it comes to living and leading a happy and healthy life.

This week, we’re focusing on the wellbeing topic of Burnout.

Life in the fast lane. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

But is this detrimental to our own drive?

What if the desire to be “killing it” all the time, was actually killing us?

The truth is the age that we have grown into, is one of pace. Our acceleration through our days is proportionate to that of technology’s – we consume more data than ever before, but unsurprisingly more calories, relationships and jobs too. To name a few.

Burnout, as described plain and simple by Urban Dictionary is this: “A state of emotional and physical exhaustion caused by a prolonged period of stress and frustration; an inevitable corporate condition characterised by frequent displays of unprofessional behaviour, a blithe refusal to do any work, and most important, a distinct aura of not giving a s**t”.

The words that are of most interest to me here are:

Prolonged and inevitable.

What interests me a lot about the use of the word prolonged is that it’s not just associated with stress, but also frustration. Think about how often we’re “frustrated”. Sometimes things aren’t so easy, but you add up the little frustrations that may appear throughout your day and how many do you have? I imagine quite a few. The thing to hold in mind here, is that you are your thoughts. And your thoughts translate to your feelings, which translate to your emotions and your emotional state. Your emotional state is represented both mentally and physically. These frustrations don’t just play on the mind, they play on the body too, and this is where the concern of health becomes apparent.

And then there’s this thought of “inevitable”. How often are people around you struck down by colds and the like? How often do you hear of someone complaining about being tired or exhausted? But more importantly, how often do you brush off these comments from others? That is the pressing question here. Unless you give yourself the adequate time to release your body and mind from the stresses of the modern day – the inevitabilities of the fast paced environment are bound to catch up.

So perhaps it’s time to ask yourself, how fast are you going?

We’d love to hear your answer. Share your thoughts in the comments below, or give us a call.

From Onny and the team – cheers for reading.