Being a trainer – preparing and delivering training sessions – is an extremely rewarding profession, but it can also leave you feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted after a day of work.
Emotional wellbeing is important for everyone, regardless of your professional role. Taking care of your physical and emotional wellbeing should always be your top priority. When you’re making yourself the priority, you’re giving yourself more space to help others.
The safety demonstration on a flight always tells you to “fit your own oxygen mask before helping others”. The same principle applies at work and in almost all other areas of your life.
Burnout is real and can hold you back. There’s absolutely no shame in feeling burned out, it happens to everyone. It can leave you feeling tired, stressed and unproductive but there are also longer-term effects of frequent burnout.
Burnout can affect our sleep, diet, mood, social life, and relationships with others. This can lead to more serious physical and mental health issues in the future, so as soon as you start to feel overwhelmed at work, that’s your sign to take some time out and take care of your own needs.
The good news is that there are numerous different ways for dealing with burnout and improving your emotional wellbeing. We’re all individuals, so you need to find the right techniques that work for you. Remember that a technique your friend or colleague swears by may not be right for you.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach for emotional wellbeing. We’ve put together some ideas for better emotional wellbeing, specifically for trainers and training professionals; we hope you find some of these methods useful.
Do a brain dump
Get things out of your head and onto paper.
If you’re feeling especially busy, overwhelmed with tasks, or generally stressed, then spend a few minutes on a ‘brain dump’.
Take a pen and a blank sheet of paper and write down all your thoughts as they come into your mind. Scribble them down, if any thought crops up mid-sentence, write that down too. This doesn’t have to be written neatly or in any order. You can use full sentences, phrases, or bullet points, it really doesn’t matter.
Once all your thoughts are on paper – there’s no need for you to keep them in your head anymore. All the tasks that were overwhelming you no longer need to occupy any space in your mind because you’ve dumped all your thoughts onto paper.
You can come back to those tasks later when you’ve had a break and feeling less overwhelmed.
Try to get into the habit of doing a brain dump at the end of each workday to help you ‘switch off’ from work tasks too.
Spend time in the present (mindfulness)
When you are spending time practising mindfulness, you aren’t focusing on the future or the past. You are training your mind to focus on what’s happening right now.
This can be in the form of your breathing, listening to sounds around you or simply watching the world.
Remember, if you’ve done a brain dump recently then there’s no need to think about any of that. If a thought enters your mind, just relax and focus on something immediate instead.
Mindfulness is not always easy. It does take time and practice, so don’t get frustrated if you can’t ‘clear your mind’ straight away. Start small – try it for just a few minutes.
The key to mindfulness is regular practice, even if it’s just for a few minutes at a time.
One of the most difficult things to do when you have a busy training practice is to add more into your schedule. However, if you want to be more mindful in your everyday life and feel less stressed out, there are several apps you could try:
Block out time for yourself every day
In today’s fast-paced ever-changing world, our diaries can get full of meetings, appointments and events really quickly. Often, there’s little time left for the things that we enjoy and we have to make personal sacrifices.
Make sure that you block out some regular time that’s purely for yourself. If you use a digital calendar, then add it so you or your colleagues don’t schedule anything in at the same time.
There are no rules about how much time you should schedule for yourself, as everyone’s lives work differently.
There are also no rules about how you spend this time. You may want to read a book, watch a film, have a long bath or go for a walk. Remember that it’s OK to do ‘nothing’ if that’s what you feel like doing.
Try some relaxing activities
Our work as a trainer often involves explaining complex concepts or demonstrating complex activities. This is an extremely mentally and emotionally draining task – after a full day of training, it’s common to feel completely wiped out by 6pm!
There are so many different activities that are designed to help us relax – they’re not all cliches either!
Try some of these enjoyable ways to relax your mind:
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Colouring-in patterns
- Embroidery, knitting or crochet
- Calligraphy
These activities keep your mind focused, they’re highly visual so you can see progress being made and they also keep your hands busy. You’ll be surprised how enjoyable and satisfying it is when you’ve completed a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle!
Spending 20-30 minutes after work on a relaxing activity can help ‘reset’ your mind for the rest of the evening and help you feel re-energised at the same time.
Find some positive affirmations
Affirmations are an important tool for positive thinking and self-improvement. People may refer to them as positive reinforcement, motivation, goal setting or a reminder. They are positive statements that help guide your goals and actions to what you want in life.
It may seem cheesy to look at yourself in the mirror and say “you’ve got this” – so no matter how you tell yourself these affirmations, you must be your own biggest supporter.
It’s ok to hype yourself up! Affirmations are a simple yet powerful way to train your subconscious mind to think differently. Saying these statements out loud will not only give you a sense of well-being but will open doors inside your mind, fostering growth and positive change.
As a trainer, public speaking is part of your daily life. Positive affirmations will benefit your personal and professional life, enabling you to also become a more confident public speaker.
Consider using ‘spoon theory’
The spoon theory is a visualisation for how much energy you have each day. Imagine that you start each day with 10 spoons. Each time you do a task, you get rid of one spoon. When you have no spoons left, you cannot do any further tasks for the day. Some tasks may take more than spoon to complete.
This theory was first described by Christine Miserandino in 2003 to describe the feeling of her friend’s chronic illness. The spoons quantify how much mental and physical energy you have stored.
Some people have more spoons than others. Someone without any spoons must rest and recharge for the day by sleeping and relaxing.
You can apply this theory to your own daily tasks and workload. It can help you ensure that your days are balanced that you don’t overload yourself.
Use the NHS 5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing
Alongside these methods, these 5 steps are evidence-backed and recommended by the NHS:
- Connect with other people
- Be physically active
- Learn new skills
- Give to others
- Pay attention to the present moment (mindfulness)
