Stoa Digest #56: Unfeeling the Burn 🫂

Managing burnout, and all that thread the line carefully -

Jul 11, 2022

Today’s editorial is written by the team

Hey everyone,

Are you MmmMMming enough?

Rohini Kejriwal, the curator of The Alipore Post, a newsletter on poetry, asked this question a while back. She’d observed how her friend would mmMm loudly when he sees good art. It’s a way of expressing pleasure. And that's something to think about.

How many of us would take the time out to enjoy something as mundane as eating good food, or listening to a song and Mmmmm the hell out of it?

We get too absorbed into the flow of life, that we aren’t willing to slow down for a second and take a breather. Our levels of stress increase as our responsibilities increase and we eventually reach a point where we feel disconnected from the things around us.

This week, we want to talk about slowing down.

Let’s get started.

When we are in pursuit of high goals, we may find ourselves in situations that may feel beyond our control, feel that our passion and purpose are misaligned, and some gaps between the effort we put in, and the reward we end up getting. Working for long under such conditions can lead you to burnout. And this affects your energy, motivation, and hopes for the future.

And we ask ourselves - is it because we didn't put enough effort, or hard work? We reprimand ourselves for being lazy and proceed to push ourselves more. But it doesn’t solve the problem.

What we really need to do is recharge ourselves from our exhaustion. And this starts with recognising that we need to take the time for ourselves.

So what can you do?

Before anything else, take a moment right now, for yourself and take three deep breaths.

Did you?

Are you sure?

Well, we believe you. Onto some ways of slowing down.

Go outside

No seriously. Go outside. We jump from one screen to the other, and we forget that the world out there is beautiful. It’s the monsoons, and you may find small flowers growing in those old walkways of ours, the trees are in the best shade of green. Pick up your umbrella, take a walk, listen to the sounds around you, and look for the colours that make up your world. Even a brief 15 minutes would make so much of a difference.

Get moving

Exercising releases endorphins which are natural mood boosters. They help you become better with your physical and mental health. Don’t have equipment? It’s raining too heavy to make it to the gym? Sports facilities are closed? No problem.

Here are a few exercises you can do in your living room: Jumping jacks, Pushups, Squats, and Crunches. If any of this isn’t for you, I’m sure the internet can help you find an exercise to suit your taste.

Turn to your friends

Banter is the antidote to the overwhelming pressure that surrounds your mind. The inside jokes, silliness & candour can only manifest itself when we’re around those we’re most comfortable with. Conversing with your friends can really help you realign your perspective and slow your racing mind.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

This financial advice about investing in different things is also applicable to your life. Diversify your interests, hobbies, and things that give you pleasure. Learn a new skill. Nurture a passion you enjoy.

Simply put - Follow your bliss ( Joseph Campbell)

Explore hobbies that slow you down - things like gardening, poetry, and hiking. Activities that you enjoyed as a child. Embrace them, and rediscover old hobbies. Find ways to get out of the flow of life.

It is your life. Do you want to reread Wattpad stories for fun? Go for it! If you want to play with glitter, and laugh your heart out? Do it. Don’t stop yourself from enjoying the little pleasures and seek moments to mmMm at life.

- Parvathi

📣 Announcements 📣

In this week’s Kaksha session, 3 data wizards will take you through a journey into the data science industry. By cutting through the hype, they will explore the different roles and reveal the skills required to break into them.

Kunal Jain: Kunal is a Data Scientist working at Artefact. He has explored marketing analytics, insurance, and risk consulting in the 3 years he has spent in the industry.

Ankit Kokkeri: Ankit was a Data Analyst at TheMathCompany. He has experience designing solutions for multiple Fortune 500 companies, solving problems ranging from Pricing strategy, Web analytics and Supply chain.

Bhishm Juneja: Bhishm is a Data Engineer at Paypal, with 3+ years of experience in data migration, and architecting complex data pipelines. He is proficient in GCP cloud and holds 4 GCP certifications.

Community Drop: Track App - Calendly + Gcal Alt

A few days ago I got to interact with Sudhama Bhatia, the founder of Track which a scheduling tool that combines the features of Calendly + Gcal.

We had a lenghtly chat about tools, productivity & scheduling meetings. We also spoke about community and networking, and how fellows network at Stoa.

As such we’re collaborating with Track to offer Stoans annual premium access.

Stoans can use this link with referral code STOAGIFT to get a free annual subscription to Track and all its features, which includes a desktop & mobile app.

🥳 🎂Birthday Parttaaayy! 🥳 🎂

A very happy birthday to Archit Varshney! 🎂🎊🎁

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK

12th July: Sahil Singh

14th July: Vishakha Shah, Dheeraj Lobo, Jigar Jain

15th July: Sukrut Thakur

17th July: Vipul Mittal, Ramkumar Sundaravadivel, Kashyap Khandelwal

🐝 Community Buzz 🐝

Meetups meetups meetups!!

Few folks from C6 Delhi spent their break weekend in a getaway to a farmhouse up north 🏞

..while a few others in Blr spent their weekend evening surrounded by good food & beverages

Keeping up with the momentum of Cohort 06, in another corner of Discord, a conversation began to brew around all things music which led to Sahil Kandhari hosting a spectacular music listening & curation event called Play my Playlist this past weekend and you can listen to the results here: