Against Burnout!

Yesterday I sat in the park and read for a good half hour. 

Yes, I could have looked at sights or eaten or drank something typical of the country or talked to Danes, but no, I read. 

Why did I do that? Because I wanted to! 

And that has to do with a burnout prevention seminar that I attended some time ago. 

I'll go into detail... 

I really like further education and there was an event called 'Using the Bible to Fight Burnout!' in the autumn holidays organized by the Evangelical State Church. When I read that it would take place on Norderney, I was quickly on board. 

It was great because it was about preventing burnout, so it was nice and relaxed: delicious breakfast, very long breaks, the sea... everything was great. 

And then there was a psychologist who told us all sorts of things about mindfulness, deceleration, psycho-hygiene, sources of strength... and stuff like that. 

And then there was a day in the middle where it said: 'You have the day off today, you only take care of your burnout prevention project.' 

Long silence.... 

We were then briefly instructed. 

Our task:

What do you want to achieve for your life, what do you want to take away from this week on Norderney, what is good for you, what enriches you, what relieves pressure? 

We were supposed to go inside ourselves and develop a kind of plan and then present it at the end of the day. 

The female course participants (there were almost only women) took it very seriously:

I want a better sex life! 

I want to reconcile with my children! 

I will find the meaning of life! 

Things with school, colleagues, and the principal have to change fundamentally! 

It was all too much for me, I would probably have burned out soon if I had kept up with the pace. 

So, Mr. Schröder does:

Deceleration... cappuccino, beach... watch the sea. 

And then the idea came and everything went very quickly. 

I am a 'late reader', I only started as an adult. Of course, as a high school student and student, I had to read, but I never liked it. But at some point, it happened... and especially crime novels from the bargain bin. 👻

What did I miss out on? 

I didn't read any challenging literature. 

And when I sat on the beach on Norderney, it occurred to me that Helmuth Karasek had recently died and had published a list of 25 books that should be read, of all places in the BILD newspaper. 😳

Then it almost happened by itself:

While my colleagues made little progress with their sex lives, had not yet found the meaning of life, and still had no useful idea of how to make school work better, I chatted with the charming island bookseller. 

She didn't think my idea was crazy at all, printed out the list for me from the internet, and ordered Siegfried Lenz's 'Deutschstunde' for the day after next for the return journey by train. 

And since then, I have been reading 1-2 of these books every year and not participating in burnout! 

https://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/leute/hellmuth-karasek/auf-deutsch-die-jeder-gelesen-haben-sollte-42700230.bild.html