Almost everyone has experienced emotional fatigue. Even stress-resistant and strong personalities can experience this state of “not caring about everything”. Why? This is how we protect ourselves from complex psychological loads. Therefore, a temporary decrease in emotional activity – the norm. When is it worth seriously thinking about mental health problems? Provided that the process has taken a long time. If there is already a complete indifference to life.
Apathy can be an independent syndrome of loss of motivation, but also a symptom that accompanies one of the mental disorders or a neurological disease. Therefore, it is important to seek help from a specialist in time. In no case should you ignore such a condition in yourself and your relatives.
Psychologist, expert in self-development and self-realization
“The state when a person stops feeling or expressing his emotions, when he does not care about everything, is called emotional insensitivity. It can be a temporary block or just a personality trait.”
What is emotional insensitivity?
The causes of this condition come in many forms. They range from stress and trauma to depression or emotional exhaustion. It often leads to a sense of detachment from one’s own emotions and from what is happening in the world around them. Mindfulness work and psychotherapy can help restore mental balance.
It also manifests itself in the lack of empathy, empathy, compassion, sympathy and lack of emotional response instilled in childhood. As a rule, this condition is characteristic of people who grew up in a family where emotional involvement was minimal. The main focus of attention was on achievement, benefit, and expediency. Here, empathy may be judged as a sign of weakness or considered foolishness.
A person who grew up in an environment where uninvolvement is the norm is likely to be emotionally cold. However, it is worth noting that people who possess this quality can be very successful financially and achieve significant results in their careers.
Causes of loss of meaning and purpose in life
Loss of meaning and goals in life can be caused by various factors, such as personal losses, failures, moments of crisis or even a tedious but inevitable routine. A person may feel acute frustration, loss of motivation and dissatisfaction with everything they are used to.
It is important to realize that this is a normal part of life and it is quite possible to cope with it. Finding new goals, reflecting on one’s values, and a deep process of self-identification and self-discovery can help one find new meaning in life.
Why does a person face disappointment?
Disillusionment is usually a consequence of “built up expectations”. When a person is already internally living in the reality created in his imagination and then suddenly discovers that things are not really so. The more attached he was to the object of his anticipations, the more acute the disappointment can be.
Loss of motivation can be associated with the collapse of hopes. Or it can stem from insecurity, some major personal failure, and fear of making a mistake.
The reason for this can also come from childhood, when parents bring up a child in strictness. Thereby forming in him an acute fear of failure, fear of “letting down” parents, becoming a “family disgrace”.
What role do emotional burnout and stress play?
Emotional burnout and stress are often a consequence of perfectionism. When applying all available resources and strength to achieve results for a long time literally drains him energetically. Because of which a person eventually feels a complete inner emptiness. There is neither strength, nor desire, nor motivation to do anything.
This can be avoided by combining efforts to achieve results with full, regular and deep rest. Perfectionists usually find this particularly difficult. They are so intrinsically motivated by quality results that they genuinely don’t understand how they can rest instead of doing something else useful.
How does mindfulness help us?
Mindfulness is the ability to live in the moment without evaluating it with the mind or seeking to change it. Exercises to develop it can include meditation, deep breathing, scanning the body and current thoughts. They help shift the focus of attention to the “here and now.” They promote awareness of one’s feelings, emotions and reactions to external stimuli.
How to meditate?
- It is necessary to sit on a chair, so that both feet are firmly on the floor. You can also sit on the floor, crossing your legs in the lotus posture. An important condition – the back should be straight.
- Try to abstract yourself from the sounds around you, focus on your body.
- Concentrate on your breathing, pay attention to the pace. See each inhale and exhale.
- If any thoughts arise, do not evaluate them. Just accept them and let them go.
- Try to take in the smells and scents that surround you. You can even ponder what certain objects in your room smell like.
- Place your hand on your lower abdomen. Breathe and notice how it fills with oxygen. You can visualize energy circulating along with the air.
- Pay attention to the little things that happen in the body. What sensations are there? For example, what is your temperature – is it cold or warm. Is there tension in any areas? If the answer is yes, then you need to shift your attention to that clamp or spasm. Relax it. You can even visualize as if there is a knot in that area and it is coming undone.
Master deep breathing
- Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen.
- Notice what kind of breathing you are having now. What is longer – inhalation or exhalation? For example, if your diaphragm is expanding and your abdomen is still, you are chest breathing.
- Try to take a slow deep breath through the nose. The important condition is that it should be at least three seconds.
- At the same pace, exhale through the nose.
- Continue breathing in this way for a few minutes.
This practice helps to reduce stress levels and anxiety. It is also recommended for those who suffer from asthma or shortness of breath, because it helps to saturate the lungs and the body with oxygen.
Scanning the body and thoughts
The exercise helps to develop attention to your body. This is one of the effective stress reduction techniques that are based on mindfulness.
- Take a comfortable position – sitting or lying down. It is important to keep your body relaxed.
- Take a few slow inhalations and exhalations with your belly. Make sure that your shoulders do not rise or fall.
- Once your body is relaxed, move your attention to your feet, then to your shins, knees and hips. What do you feel? Maybe pain, tension? If there are unpleasant sensations, bring your attention to them. Visualize them leaving the body.
- Move your attention to your abdomen, chest, arms, face, top of your head. If there are any uncomfortable sensations anywhere, stop and let go of the tension.
- Allow unnecessary thoughts to drift away.
- Regular practice allows one to discover the clamps in the body in everyday life. As a result, a person has a better understanding of his or her own emotions.
Do the “Plus or Minus 15” exercise
When you forbid yourself to think about anything that is beyond 15 minutes in the future and later than 15 minutes in the past, then there is a half-hour range. In it, you can only think about what happens within that 30 minutes.
Mindfulness is the key not only to realizing that burnout and exhaustion can take a far more serious toll than “wasting time” on adequate rest. But also to the important conclusion that a fresh head and a rested body allow you to be much more effective and accomplish a lot.
How will self-development and self-education help?
Self-development and self-education widen the “channel of perception”, help us to grow, acquire new skills and knowledge. And also, what is equally important – to stay in a state of inspiration and inner drive.
It is important not to stifle the natural desire for self-improvement and opening new horizons and perspectives. Listen carefully to your inner impulses and follow them. This is often how a person comes to create something fundamentally new – something that previously did not exist at all.
Thus, realizing in yourself different creative streams, you can combine them into a single whole. This can then become your personal brand.
