Therapy for Physician Burnout: No Time
“I have no time.” This is a common phrase I hear at the beginning of treatment from many of my clients. They have too many social and work engagements and don’t have the time to squeeze in the work for their mental health. In this blog, I’ll talk about making time for your mental health.
Therapy for Physician Burnout
Everyone has twenty-four hours in the day. There is no way to make additional or less time in the day. As an adult, you get to choose what you do with your time. You choose if you want to make your mental health a priority or not. No one else makes choices for you. Are you making your mental health a priority or not?
“I don’t have the energy to start something new.” I can’t dispute if you have the energy to start something new. If you don’t have the energy, you don’t have the energy. Most of the interventions people hear when they want to start self-care include triathlon training, a meditation practice, or the local yoga studio. Nobody has the time or the energy to start such big tasks. This is called activation energy. It takes energy to start new tasks. We are all tapped out over here. All of those interventions work and you will get to them later when we get the ball rolling. What we can do to take care of your mental health now are bite-sized interventions. These short interventions take less than 10 minutes and can help with your physician burnout.
Interventions for Physician Burnout
3 Good Things- Read more about the intervention here. At some point in the day, think about 3 good things that happened to you.
5 cycles of Box Breathing- Read more about the box breathing intervention here. A cycle of box breathing is breathing in to a count of 4, holding your breath to a count of 4, breathing out to a count of 4, and holding your breath to a count of 4.
Going for a Walk- Go for a 5-minute walk during your lunch break or after a meal.
These 3 interventions will help you improve your mental health and wellness. They will help with your physician burnout. Getting started on your mental health does take effort. It is not effortless. It’s going to take work. But not as much work as you would think. Get started with these 3 interventions. Once you are in a better spot, you’ll be able to handle bigger and more time-consuming interventions. Doing these 3 interventions will take less than 10 minutes. To say you can’t find 10 minutes in your day to work on your mental health is a cop-out. If you can’t do the bite-sized interventions, you might just be straight up avoiding working on your mental health. Avoiding your mental health is just as detrimental as avoiding your physical health issues.
If you’ve come this far in the blog and recognize you are avoiding working on your mental health, this would be a great place to start self-reflecting. You can talk to a professional about it. You can also journal about it. If you want to journal about avoiding working on your mental health, here are some questions you can answer to help get the ball rolling.
Why am I avoiding working on my mental health?
What am I worried about if I work on my mental health?
Am I happy with the way my life is?
What happened to me?
What needs to happen for me to work on my mental health?
What’s the downside of working on my mental health? What’s the upside?
What would it mean to me if my mental health was where I wanted it to be?
You are not the only one who says they have no time or energy to work on your mental health. Everyone has excuses as to why they haven’t been putting in the work on their mental health. If you’re tired of living life this way, it’s time to make a change. You need to do something. You need to take action if you want it to change. Someone said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Do something different. Reach out.
Reach out for Therapy for Physician Burnout
Learn tools and skills to overcome physician burnout Start your journey to overcome physician burnout with Chris Rabanera. Get started with a free 15-minute consultation. Offering online therapy in California, online therapy in Michigan, online therapy in Nebraska, and online therapy in Las Vegas, I specialize in addressing physician burnout, grief counseling, anxiety, depression, and providing tailored mental health treatment for men. Let’s get to work to make lasting positive change.
