How to Transform Burnout into Balance: My lessons learned at a Training Course in Bulgaria
From 16-24 February, 2026, 24 youth workers gathered in Pernik, Bulgaria, for an Erasmus+ training course "Youth Workers’ Lab forMental Well-being". The overall aim was to empower youth workers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to support young people’s mental health and resilience through practical, culturally sensitive, and innovative approaches. Participants from Lithuania share their experiences.
5/24/20263 min read
Mental health is a concept with more abstract meanings, however, a few weeks ago, I got to get into the practical and actionable aspect of emotional health at the Erasmus+ training course ''Youth Workers’ Lab for Mental Well-being'' organised by Provision International in Bulgaria. This was an immersion into emotional resilience, community building and solving concrete issues in practical ways as well as with the youth workers and the youths themselves.
I gained a set of strategies that can be used to maneuver the pressures of life in the modern world through team building, brainstorming, emotional mapping, and candid thought. This is an overview of what we have learned and how we intend to implement it.
Mapping the Emotional Landscape
Among the most mind-opening tasks was visualizing our group's emotional states. We made an enormous wall map with sticky notes and we put everything on it, the anxiety and performance pressure, and the joy, authenticity, and empathy. A sight of such words as Thriving, Purpose and Acceptance in the same group with Anxiety was a strong visual aid that mental health is not being a constantly happy person but rather striking the balance. We learnt that holistic health entails the ability to consider the entire range of our emotions and comprehending what makes our lives meaningful and balanced.
Real-Life Remedies to Stresses of Life
One of the primary mechanisms of the workshop was to take some of the common stressors such as an exam, getting a job, or relationship problems, and deconstruct them, finding a solution to them.
We laid down plans on numerous challenges:
Burnout & Isolation: Community involvement, contact with a safe person, and the inclusion of relaxing activities into your routine tend to be the antidote. We talked about the necessity to divide gigantic tasks into small manageable ones.
Exams & Deadlines: The key to overcoming performance anxiety is planning and setting small and achievable goals every day so as not to attempt to climb a mountain in a single day.
Lack of Direction: The group members offered to read philosophy, set deadlines and priorities firmly, and use networking and support of the community as it is the way to overcome the sense of being stuck.
Develop Discipline: In place of strict perfectionism, it is aimed at developing patience, taking rest beyond your discipline and just by improving one percent each day.
The Digital Resilience and Habits Re-thought
There is no way to discuss the topic of mental health nowadays and exclude our screens. We were taken through an Emotional Resilience Worksheet which made us examine our digital diets.
Excessive screen time particularly on social media is exhausting our concentration, sleep disturbances, and unrealistic comparisons. We got to know how to stop mindless scrolling and start living premeditatedly, by tracing our daily habits and determining our real sources of support, be it the presence of certain people, the daily routine, hobbies, or time in nature.
The Medicine of Community (and a Good Playlist)
Mental health does not simply exist in forms of work sheets and programs but in human relationships. We compiled The Ultimate Youth Workers Lab for Mental Well-being Playlist- a group collaboration playlist with all the Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa, and local hits, local classics like the Somewhere over the Rainbow by Judy Garland. Listening to music together, laughing and getting to know about one another was a crucial reminder that happiness and common things are some of the best stress relievers.
The extension of the Lessons to Lithuania
The after-you-leave training is the most significant part of any training. My teammates Aiste, Rusne, and I are also returning these lessons to Lithuania as a part of our dissemination plan. Our physical Stress Management Workshop is planned to be held. We plan to provide personal thought reflections, present the tools that we have mastered and assist others to develop their own mental health toolkit.
The training course made me understand that mental well-being is an ongoing, day-to-day activity. It can be in boundaries, outdoor activities or even calling a friend; the strength to make ourselves resilient lies in our hands.
By Arham Khalid
Team Lithuania
Writtent by participants of Erasmus+ training course "Youth Workers' Lab for Mental Wellbeing". Funded by the European Union. The opinions and views expressed are, however, the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA is responsible for them.