2 ms·

Your description of burnout is very relatable to my life right now. Thanks. Do the people you mentor also do Buddhism and meditation? What did they do that h

Your description of burnout is very relatable to my life right now. Thanks. Do the people you mentor also do Buddhism and meditation? What did they do that helped (or did they just never recover)?

GoToRO 3y ago
My view is that if you overwork then your body resources are depleted. One way to recover is to just do nothing. The resources will start to accumulate back but it'very slow. One thing that worked for me was multivitamins. I could see a change in a week. Not sure if it was proper burnout or something else (bad diet) though. The simptoms look the same.
- thilog 3y ago
  It's interesting that you mention multivitamins. When I was burnt out I noticed that Vitamin B, D3 and zinc have a huge positive effect on my mood and energy level.
fnordpiglet 3y ago
Only a few do, mostly because Buddhism has a lot of baggage being classified as a religion and being couched in mysticism in popular presentation, but everyone who does finds a lot of value. It’s value is proportional to how much you practice meditation and take it seriously - but not mystically. There’s no magic or life after death or eternal happiness, it’s a very practical guide to being a human being in the way humans actually are rather than how we are taught to live by our society, culture, and instinct. My suggestion to most is to start with Gil as a teacher - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Fronsdal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Fronsdal He has an enormous amount of recorded teachings and does a daily mediation at 7am PST on YouTube. I would start with this: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq_lRuaNj50Nm-SRxYPFSTyTtyvdq3QHm https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq_lRuaNj50Nm-SRxYPFSTyTt... Regarding recovery I think most people do, but it does require dramatically changing your lifestyle in some way. You’re there mostly due to how you view life and your situation, as well as the situation. I think no one is ever the same and their limits in life are closer than before. You have to be more gentle with yourself, and more aware of yourself. A lot of vipassana meditation is learning to detach your “self,” or awareness from your thoughts and feelings and sensations and being able to observe them without becoming entangled in them. For instance I feel anxiety in my chest. By letting my thoughts and feelings be as they are but holding the tightness in my chest in awareness without judgement, the tightness eventually dissipates because it never really existed somatically. Concurrently my anxiety does as well, and I can then let the thoughts go as well as they’ve lost their power. It’s taken me two years but at this point I am fully engaged in my life, learning and loving more than I ever have all that life has to offer. I’ve got a great job at a late stage startup and switched from senior leadership roles to distinguished engineer roles. Good luck man. Find friends too, friends are hard to engage with when burned out, but it is helpful.

Your description of burnout is very relatable to my life right now. Thanks. Do the people you mentor also do Buddhism and meditation? What did they do that helped (or did they just never recover)?

GoToRO 3y ago

My view is that if you overwork then your body resources are depleted. One way to recover is to just do nothing. The resources will start to accumulate back but it'very slow. One thing that worked for me was multivitamins. I could see a change in a week. Not sure if it was proper burnout or something else (bad diet) though. The simptoms look the same.

thilog 3y ago
It's interesting that you mention multivitamins. When I was burnt out I noticed that Vitamin B, D3 and zinc have a huge positive effect on my mood and energy level.

fnordpiglet 3y ago

Only a few do, mostly because Buddhism has a lot of baggage being classified as a religion and being couched in mysticism in popular presentation, but everyone who does finds a lot of value. It’s value is proportional to how much you practice meditation and take it seriously - but not mystically. There’s no magic or life after death or eternal happiness, it’s a very practical guide to being a human being in the way humans actually are rather than how we are taught to live by our society, culture, and instinct. My suggestion to most is to start with Gil as a teacher - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Fronsdal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Fronsdal He has an enormous amount of recorded teachings and does a daily mediation at 7am PST on YouTube. I would start with this: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq_lRuaNj50Nm-SRxYPFSTyTtyvdq3QHm https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq_lRuaNj50Nm-SRxYPFSTyTt... Regarding recovery I think most people do, but it does require dramatically changing your lifestyle in some way. You’re there mostly due to how you view life and your situation, as well as the situation. I think no one is ever the same and their limits in life are closer than before. You have to be more gentle with yourself, and more aware of yourself. A lot of vipassana meditation is learning to detach your “self,” or awareness from your thoughts and feelings and sensations and being able to observe them without becoming entangled in them. For instance I feel anxiety in my chest. By letting my thoughts and feelings be as they are but holding the tightness in my chest in awareness without judgement, the tightness eventually dissipates because it never really existed somatically. Concurrently my anxiety does as well, and I can then let the thoughts go as well as they’ve lost their power. It’s taken me two years but at this point I am fully engaged in my life, learning and loving more than I ever have all that life has to offer. I’ve got a great job at a late stage startup and switched from senior leadership roles to distinguished engineer roles. Good luck man. Find friends too, friends are hard to engage with when burned out, but it is helpful.