How to enjoy your work even when you don’t

Photo: File Do you wake up not wanting to go to work? And even if you go, you are just downhearted despite putting up a happy face. It is important to detect what disrupts your positive presence at your workplace, writes Marcia Reynolds, who holds a Doctor of Psychology degree, for Psychology Today. It is easy to recognise and address physical pain. But you are more likely to ignore the pain when it is emotional in nature. You hide it and you push through as if it didn’t exist. According to Dr Reynolds, when you don’t feel like going to work or you are emotionally drained at the end of the day, “you are probably experiencing early to late stage burnout”. If the feelings have overcome your life, you might be suffering from depression. She recommends seeking therapy to rule out depression. However, she adds, burnout can be just as devastating. Burnout is an emotionally malignant disease, which starts when disappointments, unrecognised efforts, and stressful overwork build up, writes Dr Reynolds quoting other researchers.  “When there is no relief physically, socially, or spiritually, the suppressed emotions fester, attacking all your physical systems,” she says. “You don’t sleep well, your body aches, and you have difficulty controlling your emotions. Your confidence might slip. If you begin to lose hope, you might lose your desire to go to work.” Here are three ways the psychologist provides to ease your burnout:

1. Practice early diagnosis with emotional self-awareness.
2. Build and maintain your social support system.
3. Ensure you feel meaning, value, and purpose in your work.

She suggests taking an approach of “What inspires me?” instead of “What is the purpose of my life?”. Your quest for purpose should focus more on how you feel than on what you are doing, she writes. This article originally appeared here