Mind Healing Counselling

Do you always feel emotionally and mentally overwhelmed? You could be experiencing mental fatigue.

Mental fatigue often follows prolonged and constant mental activity, leaving you tired, curbing your productivity, and slowing your thinking processes. This can lead to a degenerative cycle of you becoming more and more mentally exhausted, with less and less mental resources to deal with life’s everyday stressors, leaving you even more exhausted.

Common signs of mental fatigue can include;

• Mental block.
• A lack of motivation.
• Irritability.
• Stress/Comfort eating.
• Loss of appetite.
• Sleep disturbance.

If allowed to fester, mental fatigue can cause many issues, including burnout and anxiety, as well as having a negative impact on your physical endurance.

What Causes Mental Fatigue?

Decision Making:

Constant decision making depletes your executive function burning valuable resources. This can be especially so when you ask someone else for a decision and get back a list of choices rather than them making a decision themselves (“decision leeches”).

Overcommitting:

This is the mental equivalent of writing cheques you can’t cash. This is where you agree to take on every task requested of you, whether you have the time or not.

Clutter:

The more clutter you have in your life, both in your head and in your physical surroundings, the more stressed you’ll be. Prolonged stress leads to mental fatigue.

Procrastination:

When procrastinating or avoiding tasks, anxiety about what your avoiding will increase. It’s actually more stressful than working on the task.

Perfectionism:

Perfectionism can be a double-edged sword that can quickly turn into a self-sabotaging habit. Trying to make perfect choices and perfect decisions can lead to decision paralysis, and you’re more likely to worry excessively. Sometimes “good enough” is good enough.

Lack of Sleep:

Our brains process our experiences and rejuvenate during sleep. Lack of sleep disturbs this process, leaving you fewer resources to use the next day.

What Can You Do About Mental Fatigue?

Suggested strategies include;

Be Organized:

Now and again, we need to tidy up our mental space as well as our physical space. Declutter by cleaning and tidying as you go; clear your desk at the end of the day so you don’t come into a messy workspace the next day. Follow habits that automatically leave you organized - leave items in the same place each time (so you don’t have to try to remember where you saw it last!).

Be realistic:

Create a “To Do” list at the end of each day for the next day and keep it simple and realistic. This will help you sleep rather than running lists through your head when you’re trying to sleep. Keep personal and professional lists. Crossing items off these lists also feeds the rewards part of your brain, making you feel better about yourself and what you’re achieving.

Batch Tasks:

Do repetitive tasks in bulk. For example, do you have a form you need to print out regularly? Print a large batch one per month – that’s one less thing to remember tomorrow.

Rethink how you expend your energy:

Work on ways to do things better or more efficiently to reduce your stress levels in the longer term. A simple example may be having phone chargers for each of your home, work and your car.

Tackle Avoidance and Procrastination:

These promote worry, and excessive worry gets in the way of seeing solutions to your problems. Try to make a point of dealing with tasks as soon as possible after getting them.

Take Breaks:

Whether is frequent 10-minute breaks of weekends away, a little unwinding can be very therapeutic., giving your brain a much need break. Although it may seem counterintuitive, you will be more productive and achieve more by taking breaks.

Meditate:

Studies show that meditation not only improves focus and memory but also changes the way your body responds to stress. Meditation requires practice before becoming effective, so it’s worth persevering until it starts working for you. It’s not for everyone, though, and similar effects can be got from reading, creative writing, watching a movie or simply lying on the couch listening to your favourite music – anything that takes your mind away from your day-to-day stresses.

Self-care:

Practicing self-care, even if that seems self-indulgent, it sounds. Do one thing every day that makes you feel genuinely happy, whether that’s a long bath or having a good hearty laugh watching your favourite comedian.

Self-acceptance:  

Another way to free up your cognitive and emotional reserves is to practice acceptance. This can mean accepting certain traits in your partner, occasional mistakes, changes at work, or something as simple as your child liking a food one day and rejecting it the next.

Work on your self-sabotage patterns:

You could try to figure out patterns of behaviour that don’t work for you and then find creative ways to counteract them and form new habits. For example, people who experience anxiety tend to be hypervigilant to signs of threat and detect threats that aren’t really there. If this sounds like you, explicitly say to yourself, “my brain sees this as a threat when it’s probably an opportunity”, and most seemingly negative experiences present us with positive opportunities if we look hard enough.

Most importantly, get enough rest and sleep, eat healthily and follow a regular routine where possible.