Leonard Ng

What to Do Before You Burn Out

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Image by typographyimages.
Image by typographyimages.

You know what it feels like. You dread going to work. You feel tired all the time. You get upset about little things like people not saying hello to you in the morning.

You’re far too busy and overloaded to get the job done right, so you’re just phoning it in. You find it hard to focus. You stare into space a lot.

You used to love your job and you worked very hard at it. Now it seems like work never ends. It’s all-consuming. You no longer have time for former friendships and hobbies.

You feel like you no longer care about anything anymore.

All you want to do is escape.

And you hate it.

Welcome to Burnout

What is burnout, anyway? Here’s my definition:

Burnout is what happens after a period when your energy expenditure has been consistently greater than your ability to recover, draining your reserves to the point where you have no energy left.

That is, you’ve been draining the tank for too long and now you’re running on empty.

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Meditation for People Who Can’t Empty Their Minds

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snail
Image by Aaron Burden.

People talk to me about meditation a lot.

But what they say generally falls into two categories. The first is a question: How do you do it? And the second is a statement: I can’t do it.

Today I’m going to address both of these concerns. But first let’s consider a couple of more fundamental questions:

Why meditate at all?

And what exactly is meditation, anyway?

Why Meditate?

You’ve probably heard about some of the benefits meditation brings: inner peace, deeper calm, fewer worries, reduced stress.

All of these benefits are real. Meditation stabilizes my emotions and clarifies my thoughts. It helps to make me a calmer, happier, wiser person, and my life is better as a result of it.

But to me the greatest advantage of meditation is probably the one least talked about:

Meditation makes you significantly more effective at kicking ass.

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How I Fall Asleep Quickly (And a Note on Lucid Dreaming)

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sleeping cat
Image by Dan Gold.

Do you have trouble falling asleep every night?

Because I don’t.

I live by the simple Zen maxim “When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep.” In this I differ from most people, who eat when society says they should eat and sleep when society says they should sleep.

Instead of flowing with their natural energy and impulses, they try to force things into an artificially preset schedule. As a result most people end up frustrated, overweight, and bleary-eyed, while I’m fulfilled, well-rested, and in the best shape of my life.

Sometimes, though, it does take me a few minutes longer to fall asleep after I’ve gone to bed. So here’s the technique I’ve devised to deal with that situation.

It works for me, and hopefully it’ll work for you too.

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Don’t Force Things, Flow with Them (Part 3)

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Surfer at Sunrise
Image by Frank McKenna.
A Rhythmic World

Life on our planet is all about rhythm.

Everything oscillates: inbreath and outbreath, high tide and low tide, day and night, waking and sleeping.

Our hearts beat in rhythm. That’s what keeps us alive.

Rhythm is made up of rise and fall, activity and rest. Often we think only in terms of activity, measuring our days by what we’ve done; but rest is what shapes our actions and makes them meaningful, just as the pauses between notes allow us to make sense of music.

The same applies to our own energy.

Four Kinds of Energy

Energy is about much more than physical tiredness. Generally speaking we have four kinds of energy: physical energy, emotional energy, mental energy, and willpower.

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Why I Sleep So Much, And Why You Should Too

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sleeping cat
Image by Inge Wallumrod.
A Surprising Revelation

People often react with surprise when I tell them how much I sleep.

They wonder how I find time for everything in my life while still sleeping as much as I do.

And they also know that I can often be found awake at any hour of the day or night.

So how much do I sleep? The “surprising” answer: an average of 7-8 hours a day.

Matching Your Life’s Rhythms

Modern life often requires us to stay up late, whether because of major deadlines or because of major partying.

And forcing yourself to go to bed at the same time every night requires a level of regimentation that few of us are prepared to put up with.

That kind of strictness also fails to take into account the varying energy expenditures of each day. Some days we push ourselves harder, and so we need more rest. Other days we take it easy, and so we need less rest.

Trying to go to bed when you’re not ready to do so will only result in you lying awake for an hour or more, unable to get to sleep. And forcing yourself to stay awake after your mind and body have had enough will compromise the quality of your mental and physical performance.

Neither of these situations is ideal.

Instead, we need to become more aware and respectful of the unique rhythms of our individual lives, and then match our sleep patterns to those rhythms.

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