\n<\/p>\n
What do you do when you come to a hard stop? When work has got too much, even friendships feel like a drain and you feel like you simply can\u2019t keep going with your life as it currently is?<\/p>\n
For Emma Gannon, the answer was extreme but non-negotiable: an entire year of nothing \u2013 or close to it. Gannon, the London-based author of fiction, nonfiction and the Hyphen newsletter, burned out with a bang in late 2022. While on a spa weekend with a friend, she had a panic attack, her first ever.<\/p>\n
Gannon notes the irony of having \u201ca mental breakdown at a luxury hotel\u201d, but her fight-or-flight, apocalyptic feeling seemed to warrant extreme measures. After being diagnosed with anxiety and burnout, she pared her life and commitments back to the bare minimum and spent the next 12 months recuperating.<\/p>\n
With hindsight, Gannon says, her burnout was triggered by a pattern of people-pleasing, leading her off-track. In her new book, A Year of Nothing, Gannon reflects on the lessons of that transformative \u201cfallow year\u201d, forcing her to learn how to rest, build resilience and reconnect with what matters.<\/p>\n
Here, she shares her tips for coming back to life after burnout.<\/p>\n
When Gannon\u2019s burnout hit, she was enjoying success in her career, had strong relationships and had no sense of her reserves running low. \u201cIt really caught me by surprise,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
But looking back, there were signs that she\u2019d hit her limits, she says. On holiday that summer, she found herself glued to her phone, doomscrolling and unable to relax or enjoy herself.<\/p>\n
Back at home, she felt reluctant to see her best friends, even on New Year\u2019s Eve, and was made disproportionately angry by the fireworks. Her eyes ached, her body felt like a \u201cbig, heavy lump\u201d and her hairline showed signs of thinning.<\/p>\n
After that first panic attack at the spa, Gannon began experiencing attacks regularly, along with \u201ccompletely out-of-body\u201d feelings of dissociation, forcing her to confront her exhaustion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have a performative identity that we put on every morning \u2013 that side of me had been running the show,\u201d she says. \u201cThis very small voice inside me was saying: \u2018This is not the life you want, and we\u2019re going to shut this down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After being diagnosed, Gannon cancelled all but her essential commitments, even quitting the successful podcast she\u2019d hosted for six years and pulling out of a childhood friend\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n
Being able to step back was a privilege, reflecting her financial cushion and control over her career, she says \u2013 but the experience also reshaped her attitude toward money and what she considered necessary spending. One day, Gannon remembers, all she did was walk to the supermarket, buy a bunch of daffodils for \u00a31 and walk home. \u201cWhen you\u2019re going through this, make everything very small,\u201d she says. \u201cThere will be a time when you can be big again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graphic with three lines of text that say, in bold, \u2018Well Actually\u2019, then \u2018Read more on living a good life in a complex world,\u2019 then a pinkish-lavender pill-shaped button with white letters that say \u2018More from this section\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t afford to take time off, reducing expenses and building a savings buffer can expand your options, she says \u2013 for example, in the event that you should need to go part-time or search for another job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can you do in life to lower your overheads? Even now, I don\u2019t want to spend money on clothes, because I\u2019d rather save so I can do nothing a bit longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gannon stopped drinking alcohol after noticing how she used it to numb herself. She found drinking cast a \u201cchemical blanket\u201d over her unhappiness and the parts of her life that weren\u2019t working, as well as the particular pleasures of socialising and special occasions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with a glass of wine, but if you feel like you\u2019re blocking things out, I think not drinking for a bit is a good place to start,\u201d she says. As well as avoiding alcohol\u2019s depressive effect, \u201cit comes down to learning to take care of yourself\u201d, Gannon says.<\/p>\n
Nourishment was a cornerstone of her recovery, she goes on: \u201cWould you invite your friend round and just give them a packet of Pringles for dinner? Probably not, because you love them … You\u2019d make them a really nice soup, and buy the best bread \u2013 so do that for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having been in survival mode for so long, Gannon found it took some time to connect with her emotions. What helped crack her open was music. Listening to Max Richter on one of her many long aimless walks allowed her to \u201cfeel all my feelings, for the first time in ages\u201d, Gannon says.<\/p>\n
She had previously struggled to play the song all the way through \u2013 a sign of how shut down she had become, she suggests.<\/p>\n
Now Gannon recommends making a playlist of melancholy, reflective or meaningful songs likely to help coax out those suppressed emotions: \u201cYou\u2019re creating space to be nostalgic, and get back in touch with the side of you that you\u2019ve essentially lost track of.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you find it difficult to cry, a playlist \u201cputs brackets around it\u201d, she adds: \u201cI think there\u2019s a courage to it: \u2018I\u2019m not going to block anything out for a while.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the unexpected upsides of Gannon\u2019s burnout was the clarity it gave her on her friendships, she says. Without the social lubricant of alcohol, some connections faded away.<\/p>\n
The people Gannon treasured most during that time were those she felt comfortable doing nothing with. \u201cI only hung out with people that could just accept where I was at,\u201d she says \u2013 sweatpants, unwashed hair and all.<\/p>\n
Once, one of her best friends came over and watched both Sister Act films in near-silence, before going home. \u201cAnd it was amazing,\u201d Gannon recalls.<\/p>\n
What mattered was the non-judgmental presence and ambient support, she says: \u201cIt\u2019s the opposite of trying to fix someone \u2026 I came out of the burnout being really certain who my friends were.\u201d<\/p>\n
During her \u201cyear of nothing\u201d, Gannon spent time at her family home and revisited her teenage haunts. It helped her to reconnect with her youthful hopes, dreams and hobbies that had fallen by the wayside.<\/p>\n
Now Gannon tries to accommodate her younger self by keeping her favourite books from her childhood on her office shelves and displaying personal trinkets by her bed. \u201cI like to open my eyes and be reminded of what I want to do with my life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Recently, Gannon went by herself to see Incubus, a somewhat \u201crogue\u201d band she\u2019d loved as a teenager, and was struck by the emotion coursing through the crowd. \u201cYou remember that that 15-year-old is still there, and you can connect with her whenever you want, even though your tastes and life changes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Even when \u201cbeing in nature\u201d felt too broad or big of an ask, Gannon found that she benefited from a change of scenery. \u201cIs there water near you, or a park? Is there a hill that you can climb, and stand on the top of for a bit?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting some height\u201d and the change of perspective in particular was refreshing, she says, tallying with findings on the impact of awe on mental and emotional wellbeing: \u201cIt does something to the brain and makes you think things are possible, if you feel hemmed in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the most dense cities have pockets of green that can provide respite, Gannon adds: \u201cIt\u2019s almost like you forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gannon freely admits to \u201cbeing quite woo-woo\u201d; she explored many alternative therapies during her recovery, including reflexology. Your mileage may vary, but yoga, other gentle exercise and even massage can help to give your mind a break, release your emotions and return you to your body.<\/p>\n
Though Gannon \u201cjust cannot\u201d get on with yoga, she says, she\u2019s had many emotional moments during massages, unexpectedly breaking down in tears or having a sudden moment of clarity. That could be down to the kindness and care of the practitioner, the power of human touch, the placebo effect or simply the opportunity to pause.<\/p>\n
Now that her burnout is behind her, Gannon says, she\u2019s more resilient, better attuned to signs that her energy is depleting and faster to respond.<\/p>\n
When life doesn\u2019t allow for protection against burnout for good, becoming aware of those individual physical and psychological tells is half the battle, she says: \u201cEvery week or so, I do a little check-in: \u2018How are you feeling? What\u2019s going on?\u2019 \u2013 kind of talking to myself like a friend \u2013 because you can lose track.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Year of Nothing by Emma Gannon is <\/em>available from <\/em>22<\/em> January <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do you do when you come to a hard stop? When work has got too much, even friendships feel like a drain and you feel like you simply can\u2019t keep going with your life as it currently is? For Emma Gannon, the answer was extreme but non-negotiable: an entire year of nothing \u2013 or<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[12843,335,14999,22364,2799,8874],"class_list":{"0":"post-42431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-burnout","9":"tag-feel","10":"tag-feelings","11":"tag-passions","12":"tag-reconnect","13":"tag-recover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}