Burnout Patterns: Understanding Internal Patterns
What are Internal Patterns and how they lead to burnout
Have you ever felt like there are some unconscious things that influence the way you live and drive you into a state of burnout without you realizing why and you don’t know what to do about it?
In this newsletter, I’ll explore the significance of identifying and addressing internal patterns and how doing so can promote well-being and reduce the risk of burnout.
I haven’t felt the best the past two weeks and this weekend had a small breakdown: I experienced some burnout symptoms and had to take some time off, disconnect, destress, and recharge more.
I’m a very analytical person so my default mode is to start looking for patterns. What brought me to this? What caused these burnout symptoms? What did I do wrong?
This analytical approach to things is the reason I was able to learn so much about myself and burnout over the course of the last few years and why I’m sharing and writing about burnout in the first place.
I’m always learning and growing my knowledge about tiredness, exhaustion, burnout, and well-being: either from books, studies, content online, or other people, but mostly from my own experience. Sometimes I learn entirely new things, other times I relearn a lesson I’d learned some time ago but had forgotten.
Remember the Lessons
A few days ago I saw a post on Instagram from Erick Godsey, where he talked about the importance of taking care and paying attention to his inner child and how he usually forgets about it, but when he remembers it and starts doing it it makes his life much better.
Erick wrote:
“One of the great jokes (joys) of my life is what it feels like to remember him [the inner child]; because to remember him is to notice I forgot him…again.
And all I can do is laugh at how often I forget. That I forget that I forgot. And that I can go weeks, months, without noticing I forgot.”
This is an eternal problem, the human condition: we forget.
First, we forget the lessons and insights we have learned, and then we forget that we have forgotten them. Then something happens and we remember that we forgot them and that we forgot the forgotten. After that, what we remember sticks with us for some time until we forget it again. And that's the cycle of life.
Progress means reducing the gap between forgetting the lesson and remembering it again.
So this past weekend, after some reflection and seeing Erick’s post, I remembered a huge burnout lesson that I’d forgotten: It was my internal “destructive” patterns.
The Role of Internal Patterns
I believe that for me and a lot of people one of the primary reasons for burnout are our own internal patterns.
Internal patterns are the intricate web of conscious and unconscious internal processes - thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors - that shape our daily lives and influence our overall well-being.
These patterns are deeply ingrained in our psyche and unconscious behavior, often developed over the years through repeated experiences and responses to various life events.
Internal patterns serve as the guiding framework through which we perceive and interact with the world around us and can be both constructive and destructive. Constructive patterns help us navigate life, make informed decisions, and adapt to changing circumstances. However, destructive patterns can be detrimental, leading to issues like burnout.
For instance, perfectionism, people-pleasing tendencies, and overcommitment are internal patterns that can drive us to work excessively, often neglecting our own well-being and boundaries.
Over the past few months, I’ve come to realize that I can operate and live out of two modes within myself: out of my “Ego Self” and out of my “True Self”.
Since previous weeks were very busy and I forgot about this realization, I slipped into the first mode of being. It’s my default mode since it’s more ingrained and has been with me for longer.
When I operate and live out of my Ego Self, I’m doing things in a rush and living out of necessity. I have a sense of pressure and tension, I feel that I’m not good enough and that I have to earn love and validation, which drives me into workaholism. Since I’m not doing things and living with passion and purpose, I end up energetically empty and depleted. I also end up not prioritizing my needs and my own well-being and also not taking enough time to clear up and process accumulated stuff and emotions.
When I’m in that mode, I eventually crash and burn: after all, it’s this mode of living that first brought me to burnout.
This weekend I realized that I slipped back into old patterns and it made sense why I was feeling so bad and burned out.
You have to step out of the situation you’re in to see the whole thing and analyze it.
After this realization, I made the commitment to reinvent my life and live in the second, better mode of living: My True Self.
So I made the commitment that in the future I will:
Be more gentle and compassionate to myself and put less pressure on yourself by lowering the expectations for myself,
Remind myself to do things and operate with a sense of joy, passion, purpose, and love,
Remind myself that I’m enough the way I am and that I don’t have to prove and compare myself to anybody,
Release and let go of the things that I’ve been accumulating in my body, mind, and soul more consistently,
Cultivate Self-Love practice and transfer Self-Love into my thoughts, actions, and behaviors.
Changing patterns is never easy: it requires a lot of commitment, daily work, persistence, and patience. But it’s only by recognizing these patterns, understanding their origins, and learning how to manage and reshape them is crucial for achieving a healthier, more balanced life and preventing burnout.
You’ll be able to learn more about internal patterns and how to change them in my upcoming course Mastering Fatigue, Exhaustion, and Burnout. I'll give a hint: one of the strategies to master internal patterns is to utilize the power of positive affirmations in specific ways and times to make them more efficient and our brains more susceptible to change.
if you’d like to be one of the first to get the course and a special limited offer, join the course waitlist below: