1 Balancing Work, School, and Life - Biological and Psychological Factors This paper will address the psychological and biological factors of balancing work, school, and personal life. In my first session with my therapist I expressed that there is an imbalance between work, school, and my personal life. I work full-time as an Instructor Therapist and recently started a Master’s program. At the end of my work day I work on my school tasks at a local library due to my home being too loud. I keep my phone off during this time as I am easily distracted. I often get home close to 11pm not leaving much room to check-in with myself or my family. Instead, I prepare myself for the next day and the cycle continues until the weekend. I fear that if I don’t use my time wisely my grades will suffer. I know that I work well when I cater to myself first but the thought of doing anything else outside of my daily tasks results in feelings of anxiety. I recently would feel regret if I were to engage in leisure activities. It has become challenging balancing everything as I am feeling unmotivated to go into work and contemplate calling into work to sleep in longer. I often feel overwhelmed, easily irritable and lack the mental capacity to consume any information pertaining to things outside of work and school. 2 Balancing Work, School, and Life - Biological and Psychological Factors The first session after the initial intake my therapist eased me into a space where they empathized with me, motivating me to want to share more with them (Shebib, 2020). My therapist used my introduction to explore what facilitated the imbalance of work, school, and personal life. They asked me if I had always felt as though there was an imbalance between work and life to which I denied. Before I added being a student to my work load, my work-life balance was sufficient. My therapist explained that work interferes with the balance of life when there is an overload in tasks (Aronsson et al., 2017). Being a full-time employee and student without giving my brain a chance to recover had resulted in mental exhaustion (Sonnentag et al., 2017). They explained that I am not seeking mental recovery after long hours of cognitive activity resulting in a toll on my working memory. This results in the inability to process anything else outside of my work-school tasks. My therapist proceeded to inquire about my sleep as I lack energy to carry me through the day. They mentioned a study that explored the cause of fatigue and explained that the implications of taking on too many tasks result in one’s parasympathetic activity (conserving energy) decreasing and their sympathetic (stimulating energy) activity increasing (Tanaka et al., 2015; Pinel & Barnes, 2021). Meaning that overworking my brain is causing myself to become fatigued which adds to the work-life imbalance as I don’t have the energy after my tasks to engage in interactions amongst my friends and family. Lastly, we revisited my fear of failure and how it maintains my work-life imbalance. I explained that during my undergraduate studies I had failed a couple of classes resulting in a significant decrease in my GPA. In this, isolation is what improved my grades. My therapist explained that my brain had adapted to the fear of failure making it easier to isolate myself again as I am in a similar environment under similar conditions (Pinel & Barnes, 2021). 3 Balancing Work, School, and Life - Biological and Psychological Factors During my session my therapist continued to work with me and cater to my needs so that I could understand what could be causing, adding to, and maintaining my work-life imbalance (Shebib, 2020). They were gentle and did not judge my behaviours that were affecting this imbalance resulting in the desire to want to share more with them. I first explored how my increased irritability and feelings of overwhelm supported my lack of motivation facilitating the imbalance. My therapist introduced the term neuroticism to me and explained that to be neurotic is to experience negative affects such as irritability (Listopad et al., 2021). They mentioned a study that explored the relationship between emotional stability and burnout. The results suggested that there is a positive relationship between neuroticism and burnout. This meant that the more irritable I felt, the more burnout I would experience contributing to my lack of interest in the personal areas of my life. Additionally, my therapist shared the importance of mindfulness and how it could be contributing to my feelings of overwhelm (Listopad et al., 2021). They explained that mindfulness exercises the ability to focus on the current tasks in the moment. The reason why I feel overwhelmed could be because I am not present, thus supporting the work-life imbalance as I am only present during periods of work-school tasks. I appreciate that my therapist was actively making an effort to understand these variables that contributed to my whole self (Slay-Westbrook, 2017). We built a deeper connection as my therapist did not express any shame resulting in my vulnerability. I mentioned that feelings of regret are present when I engage in leisure activities. Further, I tend to cancel plans and use that time to do work. They explained that higher academic demands are positively related to self-doubt and fear of failure (Bergmann et al., 2019). As a result of this fear, guilt would arise preventing students from partaking in leisure activities. This fear of failure maintains the work-life imbalance. 4 References Aronsson, G., Theorell, T., Grape, T., Hammarström, A., Hogstedt, C., Marteinsdottir, I., Skoog, I., Träskman-Bendz, L., & Hall, C. (2017). A systematic review including meta-analysis of work environment and Burnout symptoms. BMC Public Health, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4153-7 Bergmann, C., Muth, T., & Loerbroks, A. (2019). Medical students’ perceptions of stress due to academic studies and its interrelationships with other domains of life: A qualitative study. Medical Education Online, 24(1), 1603526. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2019.1603526 Listopad, I. W., Michaelsen, M. M., Werdecker, L., & Esch, T. (2021). Bio-psycho-socio-spiritocultural factors of Burnout: A systematic narrative review of the literature. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.722862 Pinel J. P. J. & Barnes S. (2021). Biopsychology (Eleventh edition. Global). Pearson. (pp. 68-69). Shebib, B. (2020). Choices interviewing and counselling skills for Canadians (7th Edition). Pearson. Slay–Westbrook, S. (2017). Respect-focused therapy: Honoring clients through the therapeutic relationships and process. Routledge. Sonnentag, S., Venz, L., & Casper, A. (2017). Advances in recovery research: What have we learned? what should be done next? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 365–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000079 5 Tanaka, M., Tajima, S., Mizuno, K., Ishii, A., Konishi, Y., Miike, T., & Watanabe, Y. (2015). Frontier Studies on fatigue, autonomic nerve dysfunction, and sleep-rhythm disorder. The Journal of Physiological Sciences, 65(6), 483–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12576-0150399-y
