I remember that example I heard a few years ago: A teacher held a glass full of water in his hand while asking his audience how much it weighed. The answers were varied, but none of them took into account that the perception of the weight depended on the time that he had been holding it. The longer, the heavier. The metaphor illustrates very well the concept of stress and burnout.
The situations are what they are: the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis,... now inflation. This is the real weight that we all deal with, but to this we have to add the duration of these traumatic events (we have been doing it for months and even years) and almost more importantly, our perception of our ability to deal with them.
El burnout (feeling burnt out, breaded, without strength, without the ability to intervene, irritable, frustrated...) arises when problems last, are present for too long and when we don't know how to deal with them, often because we think we don't have the necessary resources
Difficult times are coming. We will be able to save, spend less, get vaccinated, help the Ukrainian population, turn off the lights that we left on before... there are always things we can do and things that we cannot change and we must accept. The truth is that what we can always do is manage our feelings and thoughts in a way that makes us more resilient. Let's stop ruminating about unchangeable things or things that may never happen, let's trust in our ability to face whatever comes (surely we've done it before), let's live more in the present, look to the past to learn, not to repent, and look to the future to be prepared, not to generate anguish. Let's be mindfulLet's practice mindfulness. Let's find support for that arm carrying a sometimes heavier glass.
Let's remember that making lemonade is in our hands when we get very bitter lemons.