How to deal with burnout syndrome

Burnout is an increasingly common condition among CEOs and other senior executives. Frequent travel, changing time zones, a changing global environment, making crucial decisions, sometimes with very little information, all pose a challenge, both to intellectual performance and to vocation and enthusiasm for work.

Burnout is extreme fatigue that prevents us from making good decisions, but also from enjoying our work or getting a good night’s sleep. It manifests itself as extreme tiredness at the end of the day that an estimated six out of ten managers suffer from, according to a study by Global Leadership Forecast. “Burnout syndrome refers to a brain that is practically depleted of energy, exhausted, a burnt-out brain,” describes Nestor Braidot, one of the world’s leading experts in neuromarketing and burnout.

The big surprise for these people, who have been living under stress for a long time, is to discover the effects of chronic stress on their health. At SHA Wellness Clinic, there is a specific programme, called Leader’s Performance, designed to improve the physical and mental performance of those in leadership positions. In just a few days, these people realise that, just by respecting rest times, practising physical activity, learning to breathe, and taking care of their diet, their lives can change radically.

Leader’s Performance is a week-long intensive programme that functions as a healthy retreat and includes the most advanced neurocognitive stimulation treatments, strict nutrition and dietary plans, personalised training hours, breathing, meditation and stress management classes, ozone therapy sessions, hormone supplementation consultation, biological profile analysis, as well as bioenergetic assessment.

The programme addresses the areas with the greatest impact on health and physical and cognitive performance: nutrition, physical exercise, rest, restoration of gut microbiota. All protocols are customised according to the individual guest’s condition, age, gender, and specific goals.

Dr. Vicente Mera, head of the Well-ageing Unit at SHA Wellness Clinic Spain, explains that the programme has an integrative medicine structure designed to alleviate the effects of chronic stress suffered by senior executives. “In an increasingly competitive world, it requires greater effort, dedication, and sacrifice to achieve a leadership position in any business, industry, sport,” he explains, adding that the treatments are focused on maintaining an optimal state of health that allows coping with a very high level of activity and effort, improving performance and productivity. “When a person is continuously exposed to a high level of activity, stress, decision making, etc., it is key to monitor and care for their health, as it is not always possible to eliminate or control the external factors that generate stress, so it is a matter of providing that person with the right tools to react to stressful situations in the best possible manner,” adds the expert.

The seven-day programme suits the busy schedules and challenging timetables of these people, but ideally they should put on hold most of the stressors in their lives during that week and find time to relax.

Sometimes just getting away from daily obligations and commitments during those seven days is enough to notice an improvement in the response to stress.