Why do so many of us feel so exhausted these days? What can we do to avoid burning out, or to help us recover? Anna Schaffner is a scholar-turned-coach, who helps others to find their own answers to these sorts of questions, while sharing what she’s learned from her own workplace burnout.
In her previous role as a professor of cultural history, she wrote academic books about the history of exhaustion and self-help. Now she’s distilled her insights into Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary, which draws on everything from Stoicism to literary classics.
As Anna writes in the book, “we still have much to learn from the ancients, and from other cultures,” so we talk about some crossovers with yoga philosophy and Buddhist ideas. In the process, we also consider (among other topics):
Why there’s so much social pressure to work too hard
What drives perfectionism, and why it’s not always “bad”
How keeping busy helps people to bury unwanted feelings
Ways to focus on what we control and accept what we can’t
The transformative power of enjoying a hobby, just for fun
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Beyond Burnout – Anna Schaffner