|
|
Are You Heading For Burnout?
I was standing behind a couple at a busy hotel reception recently. The husband asked his wife: "What time shall I book the taxi for?" The woman, struggling with various bags and cradling a mobile phone in her shoulder, whilst conversing with the receptionist, spectacularly lost her temper at this question. She told him just what he could do with the taxi. The air was blue and the husband stood open mouthed.
The scene graphically reminded me of how we can unconsciously soak up stress to the point where just one more "burden" or question makes us erupt like a volcano. Life can feel like a roller coaster that you can't get off.
Unchecked this pattern can lead to burnout.
Burnout is the result of unrelieved stress over long periods, and it can happen to anyone. The big danger of burnout is that it's hard to recover from it, because when you reach burnout you have nothing left to give - stress has stripped you of your mental and physical health. In motoring terms, if stress is over-revving an engine, burnout occurs when the engine burns out and stops for good.
Therefore, it's vital that you pay attention to early signs that you're close to burnout, and take action immediately. Be aware that you may not notice these early signs that you're burning out: someone else may notice them first. Listen if family and close friends remark on your behavioural changes.
Typical behaviour is being irritable with family, friends and colleagues.
If you're under stress at work, you may not snap at co-workers, but you may find yourself yelling at your partner and children. You may feel that your home, rather then being a retreat, is just another place where people put demands on you. This leads to feelings of guilt, and even more stress.
If this is the case and you want to regain control and clarity in your life then here is a course of action for you to consider.
The aim of it is to re-educate your senses so they more usefully pick up the stress triggers around you. Therefore, instead of absorbing the stress on each trigger you monitor them and take remedial action. So that you spend less time in an inner world of mind talk and thoughts about what's right, wrong or unfair. Because it's very difficult to be rational from this perspective you're more likely to feel burdened, overwhelmed or enraged.
These thoughts are just that, thoughts from you. You can challenge them, come back to real time, and work on what action you can take. This means you'll have more control and less stress. All in all, a very worthwhile change to make.
Discipline to Make Change
If you've had to learn a new skill lately, you'll know it takes discipline and application. However, if you are interested in the rewards you'll find it's much easier than you think. Make the commitment to yourself. Why not decide from tomorrow that you will stop and check at different times of the day how you are and whether you're getting lost in thoughts.
Here's a technique to achieve this:
- pause often during your day, breathe slowly and gently,
- put your hand on your heart
- just tune in to you for a moment or two.
This trains you to inhabit the real world rather than that of your inner machinations.
You could even just check every quarter hour or so whether there's anything to stress about around you. Maybe check for lions, bears, or beasts rushing at you! Crazy but nonetheless it's this sort of conscious checking that will have you change your habitual disappearing into the jungle of thoughts and fretting and absorbing more and more stress. Often the real source of stress is not the situation but the way we think about it. Challenging our thoughts and not getting consumed by them frees us to tackle problems with more clarity and energy.
How about making a start today? Let me know how you get on or what your experience is of the above.
About the Author Liz Labrum, Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming and Hypnosis is a writer and speaker specialising in Personal and Professional Success. Her latest e-book is Beat the Burnout Blues
|
 |
Please Rate: |
|
Rating: |
 Processing ... |
(Average: Not rated) |
| Views: | 6 | |
|
| More Articles from Health | | |
| Top Articles in Health | | |
|
