How to avoid burning out? - Part 1

It’s December, and it’s snowing outside of Kirkland as I’m writing this; everyone has left campus and gone home for the break.

I stay to finish up some experiments for my senior thesis in the lab. As classes and the final period ended a week ago, I’ve had some time to sit down to reflect on my second to last semester as a college student. Here we are, flipping back the book to fall 2020 when my senior fall began. There are moments not to be forgotten and I hope that by documenting my thoughts in this blog post, I can always go back and remind myself of my young college years. As college is coming to a close. Here are some lessons I’ve learned over the past years about success/productivity and mental health:

Lesson 1: Embrace the moments and do something new every day

Each year, I’ve beaten myself up over managing my time and getting the most work done to meet my own not-so-realistic goals. I refused to spend time to hand out with my friends, enjoy the college traditions, and explore things beyond the Harvard bubble. I had not had much time to take care of my own health and really cherish my social circles.

But this year, I focused on nourishing my mental health and making memories with all my close friends. I don’t study all day now, I go out more, explore more food places around Boston (I have really missed out on a lot of things), do things I never thought I could on top of a busy workload and a senior thesis. I feel more energized and fulfilled while realizing that these experiences are much more enjoyable because of the people I am spending time with. I still work hard to meet my goals, but when the work occupies my whole day and becomes too much of a stressor, I stop and took a break, go to the gym, or stop by a friend’s room. I am not at all good at stopping myself from continuing the grind, but when I do, it changes my whole mental state and productivity afterward.

“Sometimes you just need a good break; a day (or moments) to just exist and get your mind right.”

Lesson 2: Cherish your close friends and check in with them more often

Things are not always easy, and I hope that you realize that there are still people around you to offer support, cheer you up, and do whatever silly things to brighten your day. Especially during exam times, it’s ok to not meet your daily goal, it’s ok to not study all the time, in fact, you can’t really do that and be productive, so don’t force it.

I decided to stop being too hard on myself for slacking off, fueling myself way more than I need to, meditating when my mind can’t handle any more of the anatomy vocabularies, gathering with friends, or napping instead of studying. I realize that my body and mind deserve to rest and that socializing with people is important for me to maintain my mental health. I used to think that prioritizing my health means eating healthy and working out more often, but changing the way I frame my thoughts around things is also important, or actually even more important as a matter of fact. Prioritizing health to me now means improving both my physical and mental health. Whether it’d be enjoying a warm meal with friends, hanging out with my AADT dancers every Friday, or escaping from campus to go hiking, I’m glad I took that break. 

Lesson 3: Giving back makes my heart and mind happy and at peace

Spreading my peace and positivity to other people is a way that I nourish my mind and mental health.

Giving back makes looking back on my past journey much more fulfilling and meaningful. It also distracted me from potential negative thoughts and unproductive grind sessions. In a few years’ time when I look back, those negative thoughts and unproductive grind sessions aren’t the ones I hope to remember.

It’s crazy to realize that the things we take for granted, the simplest, most everyday things, those days serving the community with my colleagues, late nights or days spent fooling around with my friends, giggling in the dining hall at 3 am, these are things that I would give anything up to relive again many years down the line. 

Dear reader, as you are watching this right now, I encourage you to try to sprinkle some random acts of kindness into your day, such as paying for someone groceries, helping someone who is lost on the street, or compliment someone and pay attention to how they make you feel afterwards :) 

Lesson 4: My sleep is so important, yet I’ve not done a good job at prioritizing it.

“I slept at 4 today because I stayed up to write a 10-page paper that is due at 9 AM.”

“I binge-watched an entire movie series on Netflix overnight”

“I had to finish this project so I can hang out with my friends over the weekend.”

I have heard and witnessed so many excuses my friends and myself made as we ranted about how little sleep we got as the semester progressed. I myself was also guilty for not sleeping enough. I had many sleepless nights as a fall semester senior, and it was definitely not good for my health and productivity. We all know that getting enough sleep is super important for your health, yet we ironically prioritize other things we should do less oversleeping more. Lack of sleep is dangerous, for so many reasons. As young people, we might not realize these consequences until later on. So I urge you, friends, to start sleeping more and prioritize your sleep more. I myself still have to work on this a lot, and I hope you will join me in improving this habit too!!! 

Lesson 5: I can change my perception of stress

The busy schedules, back-to-back deadlines, failed experiments in the lab, wore me out this semester. I learned in my Anatomy class this semester that these stressful situations elevate the hormone cortisol, which can, in turn, suppress the immune system, leading to inflammation and many harmful diseases. Cortisol shunts sugar and fats into the bloodstream and leads us to crave sugar-rich and carb-rich food that can cause fat gain and storage in our bodies (Lieberman, 2020). I also learned that this much-misunderstood hormone does not cause stress but instead is produced when we are stressed, and it evolved to help us cope with threatening situations by making energy available. 

Now you might question: why I am boring you with all this scientific information? It shows that being stressed out has harmful long-term consequences to our health, but we have a choice to acknowledge or not acknowledge, to take actions to resolve or exacerbate the stress. Little things add up, like lack of sleep, physical inactivity, unhealthy eating. If prolonged, these little things can lead to bad health outcomes. However, we all have a choice to change and improve on these things, for example, prioritize our sleep, meditate, spend less time on social media platforms, and focus more on healthier habits to reduce stress.

To be continued….

References

(1) Lieberman. (2020). Exercised : why something we never evolved to do is healthy and rewarding (First edition.). Pantheon Books.