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Could you be suffering from burnout?

Your alarm rings; it’s time to get ready for work. But that’s the last thing you feel like doing. You’re strung out and even the thought of facing your day is just too much. Is this just normal stress, or could it be burnout?

Think of burnout as a car running out of petrol, and the engine giving out. This is your body, packing up, giving out, and yelling, “Emergency!” It’s a state of physical and emotional exhaustion, as a result of long-term stress. Unlike normal stress, burnout doesn’t allow you to leave the negative feelings behind once you leave work and head home. It spills into every part of your life, leaving you drained.

Although burnout can be difficult to spot, there are a few warning signs.

  • Taking your frustrations out on others
  • Isolating yourself
  • Procrastinating
  • Skipping work and other responsibilities
  • Feeling trapped and helpless
  • Having a cynical and negative outlook on life
  • Feeling tired and drained most of the time
  • A sense of failure and constantly doubting yourself
  • A change in appetite
  • A loss of motivation

Get back on track

Burnout is not a permanent condition, and making a few changes in your everyday life can help you climb out of the rut.

Get some balance

If you’re constantly working overtime and find yourself practically living at work, it would make sense that you’d feel frustrated and worn out. Find a healthy balance between your work and social life, and make time to do things that you enjoy like hobbies or spending time with friends.

Relax

Try some new ways of relaxing which will ease stress from both your body and mind. You can try yoga, meditation and even deep breathing which will activate your body’s relaxation response.

Avoid negative people

If you’re burnt out, you’ll have a negative outlook on most things. Try to surround yourself with positive people who will help lift your spirits. In cases where you can’t avoid negative people, such as challenging family members, be proactive about not getting caught up in the toxicity. Limit your time with them, choose not to engage in drama, and simply walk away if it gets too much.

Catch some Z’s

Nothing will help you to feel like yourself again like sleeping well. Quality sleep helps your overworked body and mind to heal, so aim for at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night. Try going to sleep and getting up at the same time every day, wind down by doing something relaxing, and invest in blackout curtains for a restful slumber.

Find value

A lack of motivation could be because you don’t see value in your work or personal life. Focus on the aspects of life that you do enjoy. This will help you find motivation and purpose again. For example, do you enjoy writing poetry in your spare time? Does painting make you feel relaxed? What makes you smile, even if it’s once in a blue moon? Focus on that thing and do more of that to make you smile more often.

Reset

For some of us, even these small tweaks aren’t enough to get your mind and body back to a healthy space. In these cases, you might need time off from work. A longer break, and even some sessions with a therapist could be just what you need! The main thing is to not go at it alone – reach out and ask for help: our doctors are available 24/7!

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Six stress-free holiday hacks to give you peace of mind

Tis’ the season of delicious food, relaxation and bonding with your loved ones. Unfortunately, it’s also the season of dealing with your grumpy uncle’s complaints about your cooking, trying to make your budget stretch and cleaning up after many people. Before you get your fairy lights twisted in a knot, here are a few holiday hacks to help you out.

That’s a wrap

If you have a big family and tons of friends, gift wrap could become more expensive than the actual gifts. You’re probably tempted to buy specific wrapping for each person and cute gift bags, but it’s really a waste because most people just rip the paper off anyway. Instead of splashing out on pricey wrapping paper, get a large roll of brown paper to wrap the gifts with and finish off with a bow made of string. It’s chic and minimalist, and your budget will thank you.

Be kind to your pockets

It’s tempting to splurge on fun, fancy and fantastic gifts for your loved ones, but don’t forget that January is a long way off. Be honest with yourself about how much money you can spend and create your budget from there. There are different ways to make your money stretch. Keep an eye out for bargains, get creative by making homemade gifts and buy some gifts in bulk.

Befriend your freezer

Cooking can be fun – and time consuming. Hack your way through the hassle by cooking batches of food in advance and freezing. For example, cook dishes like potatoes and certain veggies, and then freeze, defrost and reheat them in the oven on the day that they’re needed.

Chill out your drinks

After a hearty meal, a lukewarm drink is the stuff evil is made of! If you’ve forgotten to chill your drinks in the midst of the cooking madness, don’t stress. Wrap the bottles tightly in a damp kitchen towel, and pop them into the freezer. Heat travels more quickly through dense materials (like wet cloth), so your drinks will soon be ice-cold and ready to pour in roughly 20 minutes.

Throw tradition out the window

Some traditions like giving gifts are timeless, but others aren’t worth the effort or stress. If having the festivities at your home every year is stressful, suggest rotating houses every year, or going out for lunch. If making Christmas pudding after cooking a big lunch is too much work, serve ice-cream instead. You might feel anxious about suggesting or making changes, but you’ll benefit in the long run, by saving time and effort – and your sanity!

Drive safely

Family road trips, rushing around for last-minute gifts and late-night fast food runs… you spend a lot of time on the road during festive season so be extra mindful of being safe. Pack an emergency kit into your boot, don’t drink and drive and always wear your seat-belt. Also, remember to keep track of your petrol tank to prevent running out of petrol when you most need it.

And last, but not least: Make sure you’ve installed the Hello Doctor app, and you are signed in. This way, you’re only be one click away from a doctor’s advice, anytime, anywhere!

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Have health, will travel

Getting your passport stamped, packing for that exotic locale, and setting foot in another country… it doesn’t get more fun than that. A whole new adventure awaits, but it can quickly turn sour if you aren’t well prepared.

Whether it’s your first or fifth time travelling abroad, there are a few things you can and should do to ensure you have a healthy, safe trip, and come back in one piece.

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Six ways to kick off your new year

We’ve all experienced the new year downer. You haven’t planned your budget so you enter the first month with empty pockets. You’re running around like a headless chicken trying to get the kids enrolled in school, and your exercise routine and meal plan is a bust.

When holiday season kicks in, so should planning for the new year. It’s easy to get caught up in buying gifts. So, in order to prevent falling into the new year grind and rut, here’s how you can organise your life before the party starts.

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Party the smart way, this season

You know the drill. Late nights, a bottomless bar tab and food that makes your waistline cringe. Taking on the new year is hard enough, without the added mission of getting back into shape and piecing your routine back together, blurry memory in tow. You can have your fun and healthy living too, if you find a balance.

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Your best night out: hangover-free!

It’s the weekend, and you want to go out with your friends. You don’t want a hangover, but you also don’t want to be the one who orders soft drinks all night. You want a good time, without the down-time tomorrow.

Well, if you want to drink alcohol responsibly, here’s the scientific way for you to drink ‘just enough’, and really have the best night out!

The average night out

Most of us have had one of these: you’re like a puppy let out of its cage. In your enthusiasm, you order your first, second and third rounds, all together. You celebrate victories, drown out your sorrows, and basically find excuses to get drunk. The rest of the night is a write-off, and no one can tell you exactly where you left your new jacket, who dropped you off or if you finally got that cute girl’s number. ‘Did I take an Uber?’; ‘Did Jon drop me off?’ ‘My HEAD!’

The best night out

You get to the bar, and order the exact amount of drinks to hit “that sweet spot”. Suddenly, you feel your body relax – your muscles melt away like jello, as music pulsates through your veins. You’re grooving. Your jokes are hilarious (objectively); and your new-found charisma even gets the waitress to flirt with you. Your inhibitions drop just enough for you to let your freak flag fly, but not so much to make you obnoxious. You have become the most suave, enjoyable version of yourself, and the people around you can testify to that. In fact, you can testify to that, because you will remember every glorious moment tomorrow, when you wake up: hangover-free.

What’s happening here? This is known as the Optimal Buzz.

What is the Optimal Buzz?

The Optimal Buzz is the ideal blood alcohol level (BAC), and it’s in the range of 0,4 to 0,6. It’s just the right amount of inebriation to adjust your body chemistry into the social zone, before you stumble over into the ‘get out of my face, creep!’ zone. It gives you those feelings of sheer bliss, releases your inner social butterfly and reveals that fun child your friends have come to love. If you can keep your blood-alcohol level at this level, you can enjoy the buzz all night long!

How to not overdo it

However, once your BAC goes over 0,6, you lose the Buzz, and there is no coming back. It’s that moment in the night, when you suddenly start feeling a little sad, down, slow. Things get a bit fuzzy and dull. You notice a drop in your energy. This is also when most people think they just need another round. Sorry, friend – you’ve overshot the buzz, and there’s only one way now: DOWNHILL, and that can be dangerous.

Why can’t I get the buzz back?

There is a myth that ‘the more you drink, the better you feel’. The truth, though, is that your body processes alcohol in a biphasic way. This means that when you start drinking, the feeling of euphoria increases, but only up to a point (about 0,6 BAC). After this, the more you drink, the worse you feel.

How can I keep riding the wave?

The strategy to the Optimal Buzz is to “count drinks” – and know what counts as a drink. By using this online BAC calculator, you can figure out exactly how many drinks you can have during the time you are drinking according to your gender and weight. Adjust the types of drinks and quantities until you have the ideal strategy to ride the Optimal Buzz like a pro, and make sure you don’t go over your limits.

A note to regular drinkers

If you’re used to write-off weekends, you’ve probably developed a tolerance to alcohol. This means you won’t have as much of a buzz as your Sober Sally friend. Also, if you overshoot 0,6 you will feel much worse than someone who doesn’t normally drink. To get your tolerance down, make sure to keep your BAC below 0,6 for 2 months. If your tolerance is high because of genetic predisposition, there’s unfortunately no way around it. We’d advise against you drinking at all, since a naturally high tolerance puts you at risk of developing alcoholism.

Last word of caution: The Optimal Buzz does not make it safe to drive, so catch a lift or a taxi, have fun, get your friends to join you and make tonight the optimal night out!

Does social media change our behaviour?

It’s almost impossible to imagine our lives without social media! Even if you aren’t super-connected with all the latest devices, you’re probably on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter – even if it’s only for work – and for teens, social media is the norm. But has this shift in how we meet, greet and interact with each other impacted our behaviour as people? Let’s take a look.

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The top 5 habits of super healthy people

Everyone wants to be healthy. If you’re reading this then you probably have regular access to the internet and the ability to find out what you need to get and stay healthy.

But it’s not always about the latest diet, food combinations, fitness fad or super-food. No, being healthy is often much simpler than that. Speak to the healthiest person you know, and you’ll probably find that they’ve made small, vital changes to their lives which have become daily habits.

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I’ve lost my appetite!

“You’ve lost your appetite? I wish I could lose MINE!”

Maybe that’s how people react when they hear that you don’t feel like food, but just not feeling hungry is often a sign of something else. Whether your loss of appetite is caused by lifestyle, emotional or health issues, let’s see if we can help you get it back.

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