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1-Page Summary of Burnout

Overview

There are many products that claim to help women relax and feel better about themselves. However, they won’t address the problems that women face on a daily basis like systemic sexism, unrealistic expectations, and all the stress and anxiety those things can produce.

Science has made some progress in understanding the reasons for burnout and exhaustion. The authors of Women’s Anatomy of Arousal have set out to help women with that information, giving them a way to understand their bodies and what is causing stress.

Although we might not be able to overthrow the patriarchy today, we can make progress in fighting against it by being informed and strong. To accomplish this, you should focus on reducing daily stress; why BMI is flawed (Body Mass Index); and how renaming your inner madwoman can help with that.

Big Idea #1: Emotional exhaustion is a component of burnout, and it can happen when we get emotionally stuck.

It’s common for women to feel exhausted. They’re often overwhelmed by life and can’t do enough.

When you’re constantly trying to meet your own expectations and those of others, it’s easy to become stressed.

Emotional exhaustion is a feeling of being drained emotionally. It’s caused by caring too much and when you can’t care anymore. The first component, emotional exhaustion, was identified by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in 1975 as part of burnout syndrome (the other two components are depersonalization and decreased sense of accomplishment). In order to prevent this from happening, it’s important to understand how we get stuck emotionally.

Emotions are like tunnels: they start, continue for a while, and then end. However, if you’re feeling the same emotion day in and day out, there is no satisfying conclusion to that tunnel. You’ll be stuck with that emotion forever without any relief. Therefore, it’s not surprising that people who work jobs where they have to care about others or help them (such as teachers and medical professionals) suffer from high rates of burnout. About 20% of teachers admit to it; 52% of medical professionals do too! It also makes sense that parents suffer from a lot of burnout because they often feel responsible for their children’s well-being 24/7.

Fortunately, there are ways to keep yourself from getting burned out. The author of this book is going to tell you about strategies that have been scientifically proven and will help you prevent burnout.

Big Idea #2: Stress can cause terrible damage to the body, so always try to close the stress cycle.

There is a scientific reason why we get stuck in the emotion of stress. Stress can be dangerous to our health, so it’s important to understand how and why we get stressed out.

Stress is a response to danger. It helps you run away from the threat. The body triggers it by releasing hormones that make your heart beat faster, your muscles tense and your breathing quicken so you can run away from danger. However, stress can be harmful if you’re not running for your life or otherwise in immediate danger because it slows down important bodily functions like growth and reproduction.

If you’re stressed all the time, your body will have a hard time healing and staying healthy. The stress can cause high blood pressure and other illnesses.

All of this means one thing: you need to reduce stress as much as possible. The best way to do that is by closing the cycle, which involves running away from something and then returning home safely.

If you’re thinking that exercise is a great way to relieve stress, you’d be right. After running or exercising for 20-60 minutes, your mood will improve and your muscles will relax. You’ll even cry from the emotional release. However, don’t worry about crying; it’s another sign that you’ve relieved some of the pressure in your life.