BUT BURNOUT CAN BE AVOIDED.

As with most behaviors, when you learn how to recognize the problem, the causes and symptoms, and ways you can change your environment to reduce stressful situations, you will find you can “manage stress” much more effectively, and probably not burnout at all!

Burnout most often occurs in people who feel that they are overworked and unappreciated.  They become disappointed and sometimes very cynical.  They may also feel guilty and ashamed, and may secretly blame themselves.

Signs a burnout can be near include exhaustion (both mental and physical); hopelessness and helplessness; low self-esteem and low spirit, and perhaps more frequent illness.

Burnout often occurs in professionals that “help”, such as nursing or teaching.  But anyone who feels very pressured, or even bored from work can suffer from burnout.

The first step towards recovery from any stress related concern is to define the problem.  Is the situation itself stressful?  Is the problem just some small matter that triggers these feelings?  Is there something about your situation you can change?

Nurses as an example again, particularly those who care for terminally ill patients, can be prime candidates for burnout.  However, by accepting that the scenario itself is stressful, they can reduce feelings of guilt and resentment.

Make Changes

Changes in both you and your environment can help prevent burnout.  You must let your emotional response take a step back, and let your intellect analyze the situation.  You may have more ability to change your environment than you think. Try to think in positive terms to follow with positive actions.

If a lack of appreciation on the job is damaging your morale, take charge.  Your environment will change as you develop skills to communicate and voice a calm and intelligent opinion about matters to either superiors or your peers. Share your feelings and listen to others.  This is simple and yet can have awe-inspiring results.

When you ignore your needs (both physical and mental) during a period of constant or severe distress, burnout is surely going to be a result.  You must take time to recover and heal from burnout if it strikes.  It can ignite a series of other physical ailments if ignored.

Use and develop skills such as risk-taking, reaching out to friends and family, and talking with others in similar circumstances.

Ask someone your respect to look at your situation and suggest solutions.  Use this change to make burnout a first step toward greater satisfaction.

Above all, before any response, use your oxygen to calm and regenerate you.  Always breathing in slowly, visualize it helping your intellect and your muscles relax.  Then exhale slowly, visualizing all the negativity flying out the fingertips, and making way for positive responses.

Why not practice right now with a few thoughtful breaths.  It will help you right away!  Believe it.  Scientists are now proving “the ability of mere thought to alter the physical structure and function of gray matter.”  It certainly can’t hurt!

I will say what I’ve said in class so many times.  STOP for a minute or two. Take a slow and mindful breath to energize you mind and body. Your exhalation makes room for more healing oxygen.  It is also the time to think, “I am exhaling and pushing self-defeating thoughts out with the carbon dioxide.”

Slow down for 30 seconds and pull yourself together. We have been given a great natural instinct from within, to help us find an answer, or at least find a resolve to what seems to be unbelievable circumstances that surround us.  We just must slow down.

Change the subject. Divert your own attention to something else momentarily. Take another mindful breath!

What is the worst that can happen? If you can fathom handling that, you can handle anything. If you think you can’t, then think again! Life is tough, but we have within our minds, the tools and power to rise above the obstacles.

Stop listening to all the negative things that include the words: I can’t, I won’t, I won’t be able to, I give up, I quit, etc. Never give up.

Just when you think you can’t handle everything – everything will change. Give it a bit of time.

Ninety percent of what we waste our lives worrying about never comes to fruition.  STOP wasting your life on “worry and doubt”

The worry doesn’t do anything except hurt you and all those around you. Instead, handle anything that crosses your path. Never give up or give in!  If I sound like a cheerleader I probably am.  I know you can alleviate so much unnecessary stress by just controlling your thoughts, hence, actions.

Now take a breath and relax! It will all be okay.  If you feel you need help – take the time to seek it out.  There are classes, on line help, counselors, and so much more available.  YOU ARE WORTH it!

Relationship problems can steal your life right out from under you.  The “tradition” in marriage has been to stick it out no matter what happens…suck up the tough times and get counseling; whatever it takes to live up to the words of the vows, “keep the family together”, and retain society’s ideal of marriage.

GET REAL!  There is a point that you must draw the line.  We all know that.  What seems to be a forgotten protocol is that life continues AFTER you draw the line.

How many times have you moved backwards in order to accommodate that very person stepping over the line once again.  What good is a line of demarcation (boundary or limits) if you justify your partner encroaching (intruding on a person’s territory, or a thing considered to be a right) over and over?   Advances like that will gradually cause irreparable damage. This isn’t hypothesis. This is proven fact.

If in our world wars it was acceptable to cross the line of demarcation, ultimately, our military leaders would have recognized and had to accept defeat.

There is a LIMIT to what is acceptable to an individual human’s rights.  What transpires ultimately AFTER the line is crossed many times terrifying.

A young woman was recently killed by her boyfriend; though it was a tragic death that was not intended, but an accident with a tragic outcome, there were signs to be noted.

She was 22 and a successful student at the University of Virginia. He was a lacrosse player.  You may be familiar with the story.

For the loss, there can be no recovery, in this lifetime.  Sadly, there were signs of abuse.  No matter what ANYONE tells you, you will register a “gut level” feeling when things go wrong, over and over, and you innately know, when it’s time to call the game.

The number one indicator is when a person’s social life begins to change.  When there is no witness to the abuse, it is hearsay. It is much easier to abuse when it’s “their word against yours.”  But you know!

Watch these signs as well.  (The use of alcohol in violent cases of abuse has been well documented.)

1. You are spending much less time with family and friends.

2.  The relationship has WILD ups and downs.

3.  You are afraid to miss a phone call from “that” person.

4.  The person you are with continually insults you.  For instance, you order dinner from the person’s favorite restaurant, but instead of thanking you for your thoughtfulness, you are criticized and insulted for your selections.

5.  You are afraid.  Think about it.

6.  You have thought:  “I hate him (or her).”  “I hate my life.”

“I wish we weren’t together.”

THESE ARE JUST A FEW SIGNS that should kick you in the ass!

Don’t be a fool.   Change your life or you may become a statistic!

What does this have to do with stress management?  EVERYTHING, and you know it…picture your life, as you dreamed it… not perfect, but at least peaceful, relatively happy, and SAFE.

BE SAFE.  Do something before escalation to devastation.

Our human body is truly magical.  In many instances,  it can be self-healing, if we only take the time to learn some basic facts.

For instance, did you know that a complex part of our brain called the autonomic nervous system prepares our body when stress enters a scenario?

You’ve probably heard of it.  It’s called the “fight or flight” response.  You’ve probably experienced it.  Most humans have experienced it and some, people many times.

Here is the magical part.  Without you even realizing it your body prepares for danger by slowing digestion so that blood may be directed to the muscles and the brain.  In the face of potential danger it is more important to be alert and strong than for food to digest.  It’s automatic!

Your breathing gets faster to supply more oxygen for the muscles.  The heart speeds up; blood pressure soars and forces blood to part of the body that needs it.  (Remember your heart beginning to pound faster when you are stressed?)

Perspiration increases to cool the body.  This allows you to burn more energy.  Muscles tense and prepare for action.  All this is done automatically!

Chemicals are released to make your blood clot more rapidly.  If you are injured this clotting can reduce blood loss.  Sugars and fats pour into the blood to provide fuel for quick energy.

This “body magic” is done automatically for you when stress enters, when you are injured, or fearful.  The reaction can be invaluable for survival in critical situations.

The problem that can occur with this automatic magic is that if it happens too often, it can take a serious toll on your body, mind, and your spirit!  You don’t want to “wear out” your body before it’s time!

This is one of the important reasons to learn to recognize and manage stress.  It will put you in charge of your own life, and you will learn other methods to address the majority of stressors.

BEGIN NOW by taking in a deep inhalation through the nose. Visualize it traveling to your brain and through your body.   Now exhale through the mouth slowly. When you inhale remember that when you keep breathing in a stressful situation, you are empowering yourself.  You will stay more relaxed, think optimally, and give yourself a chance to respond instead of reacting to a circumstance. You will keep the body from automatically going into “fight or flight” unnecessarily.

Take another mindful breath.  Hold it a few seconds, and now exhale.  When you exhale remember it is a mind housekeeping tactic to visualize all the negativity flying from your mouth into oblivion (also clearing the carbon dioxide to make room for more oxygen.)

You can learn through, exercising your mind, to slow your breathing, calm your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, and relax those muscles, which in turn will allow you to make the best choices possible for the scenario you face.

Please inhale slowly and deeply.  Hold it a few more seconds, and now exhale through the mouth.  Use this secret weapon whenever needed. It’s readily available, the only cost is your thought process, and it WORKS beautifully!

No matter what the circumstance, you always have a choice how to respond.  Use your oxygen before speaking and it will enable you to respond intellectually instead of simply emotionally.  A fine mix of the two will offer any scenario a better result.

Create a wonderful day.

It is a sign of our times when you can look into the dictionary and find “road rage” listed as a noun!   Road rage is defined in these terms: Violent anger caused by the stress and frustration involved in driving in difficult situations: aggression on the road, vehement behavior, hostile thoughts, ready to attack, overly assertive, force.

Don’t kid yourself.  You will see road rage if you travel over any holiday weekend; actually, any weekend these days.  Be prepared.

First you need to use your intellect.  Driving a vehicle is driving a potential DEADLY WEAPON.  Small vehicles can weigh as little as one thousand eight hundred and seventy five pounds.  SUV’s weigh from two thousand pounds to the sunny side of eight thousand pounds.  An eighteen-wheeler’s load weight limit is eighty thousand pounds.

Think about it.  If you drive a vehicle on the smaller end of the weight scale you are fodder for any “road rager” on the rampage!

From the mid-size vehicles right up to the trucks on the road, the weight alone can do deadly damage in an accident.

Here are a few thoughts to begin your transition from rage to peaceful defensive driving.

1.  The reason the DMV doesn’t issue driver’s licenses to children is because adults are supposed to be rational.  Road rage leaves that thought in the dust.  Be an adult.

2.   It has been proven, time after time, that no matter how you speed to where you are going, you will arrive at approximately the same time as the person who exhibits aggression and speeds.  You will arrive without incident and in a more peaceful manner if you don’t let your emotions override your intellect.

3.  If you insist on texting, holding and speaking on the cell phone, eating, reading, or applying make-up while driving, there is probably no hope for you, as you haven’t the intelligence to realize you put your life and the lives of others in great danger doing these things!  You are also increasing your stress level.  Slow down.  All these things will get done in good time.

If you ask now, “Well, what can I do to keep from raging, everyone is so rude and in a hurry?”

Here are a few suggestions that can begin to put YOU back in the driver’s seat (so to speak).

Take a few more minutes before getting into the car to make sure you have maps, lunch, and all the travel items you need, and think about your attitude.  This is supposed to be a weekend (time for R&R), or a holiday… a happy time.  Let that good time begin with you.

When the journey is on and someone ticks you off, first thing to do is to take a breath.  If you aren’t already in an accident because of the jerk’s actions, then consider that a blessing and take another breath.

Remember that when stressed out we stop breathing momentarily.  We need oxygen to function and think optimally.  You intake will calm you down and allow you to use your wit instead of being outwitted by anger and irrational thoughts.

Remember who is in the car with you.  Do you really want to take the chance of stealing their lives because you cannot control your anger?  I think not.

Take time to stop for a mini-break and let everyone get out and stretch and get a drink of water.  Being crunched up in the car cuts off your oxygen supply and when you straighten up and stretch just for a minute or so, you will regenerate and feel better.  Those mini-breaks can be life saving.

Don’t allow someone else’s impatience CHANGE YOU.  This is your time, your trip.  Try thinking this:  “This guy must be miserable.  On a trip and acting like an idiot!  I’m here to enjoy myself and he is not going to take that away from me.”

Even if you have to be polite J, move over.  Let the jerk by and don’t let him have your life-mentally or perhaps physically by pushing you into irrational behavior.

If you get stuck in a traffic jam wiggle your fingers and toes, take a breath, bend your neck from side to side to stretch it.  If you are stopped, blink your eyes several times as it will help them to relax a bit.

Talk to yourself.  Talk to your family.  Sing.  Tell jokes. Laughter always relaxes the mood.

It’s all a matter of THINKING for just that moment before you get out of control.  To help you think, USE YOUR OXYGEN, you oxygen machine!

Remember that if you react sometimes it will prove extremely dangerous.  I actually flipped the folks off in a car off that passed me, and nearly caused me to have an accident.  I didn’t even think they could see me.  Wrong.

It was a car of gang-bangers. They slowed down and began to taunt me.  I was lucky.  I knew the freeway well and when I came to an exit that I knew they couldn’t backtrack and find me, I didn’t signal and make tracks to get away.  For all I DIDN’T know, they could have been armed.  It was scary.

Take a breath.  Have a fantastic weekend or holiday and BE SAFE!   Actually have a better day ANY DAY when you are behind the wheel.  Better late than dead.

Instead of anticipating new adventures and rewarding experiences, you will be in a mental “funk”, and in reality, not feel as good physically.  Fear and stress equals a double edge sword that will take your life away and destroy any hope for joy and the future.

Stop it!  Stop wasting your life.  Since you get to CHOOSE your thoughts, CHOOSE to expect good.  You don’t know what the very next nanosecond will be like, let alone the next hours or days

Why shouldn’t you expect good?  Why not!

Even in the face of difficult circumstances you are still capable of guiding your thoughts and intellect.  You have an unlimited strength from within if you just tap into it.  Expect good to come – if not this instant – soon.

Claim trust back if it’s been dashed by time and circumstance.  Create order in your life and seek transformation to a solution that is good and acceptable to you and others.  There is always order and a silver lining if you can bear the temporary rocky road to get there.  Learn from those times that seem impossible.

You are stronger than you even know.  You may have just been trained to believe you are less than you feel in your heart.  Sometimes criticism from family and peers pierces the heart and acts like a train barreling into your self-esteem.

Esteem means, “respect and admire”.  It seems in life that many people are more apt to be critical and tear down others than to be respectful and admire them.  Perhaps it is because they themselves were treated in that manner.  Perhaps it is because negativity is rampant and people seem sure “the worst is to com”.

BELIEVE THE BEST IS YET TO COME.  DRAW GOOD TO YOU.

EMPOWER YOUR LIFE WITH POSITIVE THOUGHTS. EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO FAIN YOUR BELIEF IN THEM AT FIRST, CREATE NEW BRAIN CELLS AND TEACH YOURSELF TO DO THESE THINGS.

WHY NOT?  THE THOUGHT POLICE HAVEN’T COME TO FRUITION AS YET.  THOUGHT IS STILL ON THE FREE RANGE IF YOU BREAK OUT OF THE PRISON YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE IN.

Don’t believe unwarranted words.  None of us are perfect.  We all make mistakes, but that is part of maturing and learning to choose the best choices for our own lives.   You have a warehouse of “goods” within you, ready to be tapped into at any moment.

Transform your life.

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Once you are able to “exercise” your thoughts, the value of stress management training, yoga, meditation, exercise class, videos, any type of schooling or training, will accelerate to optimum intellectual levels and with a calm demeanor.  Use your oxygen and begin from within you…..today!

If you’ve ever been there you know innately – it’s a Scary Place!

Do you think this isn’t stressful?  No – you KNOW it is.

Jealousy will eat you alive like a flesh eating virus.  It will begin in your mind moving swiftly through your body until you feel “different” all over your body.

That is your body reacting to your thoughts and following what you designate in your mind.  Any scenario that involves two humans that love, or have loved at one time.

You burn up from the inside out if you allow raging doubts of another woman / or man looking eye to eye with another; or even not looking openly-but secretly .  The look between two people in love or lust.

If you’ve ever been on the brutal side of a whip you know that heals.  But if you don’t allow brusied thoughts to turn you sour, you win.  Peace returns.  It doesn’t matter.  It is what is it anyway that is so burned into your memory.  No “take backs”. Shed the excess and begin again with purity in heart and in thought; no judgments.

Change happens every second to every human being on the planet.  A miniscule change pulls together and strengthens with the specific energy that is expelled from your mind and body.

We need to accelerate our minds to optimum thoughts.  Jealous thoughts are dead thought.  They go nowhere.  They don’t change what happened / or what you feel will happen.

Drop it.  Stop over-thinking it all. You don’t have control over ANYTHING except your response to life.  Overcome jealousy and learn to trust.  It’s either worthy or ultimately you will find out it’s not.  Don’t be jealous and drive someone away before you have reason!

Technology has provided us with some awesome things – a plethora of websites to get information from, emails, blogs, YouTube videos, music, current news (past news too), the weather, and a never-ending line of opinions, photos, movies and games.  This is NOT a complete list.

You may be literally fatigued from it all.  You may find your nerves are shredded by all the stimuli, and the things you feel you must check out in a day’s time.

For all the wonderful things available you may find you are squandering your time and lower your productivity.  Keep in mind many of the above mentioned things should be done in your “free” time – excluding, of course, the family, school, your workload, aging parents, and the myriad of other demands in this twenty-first century living.

All Americans are vulnerable to finding themselves more stressed out than ever and really overwhelmed with it all.  You may be facing the limit of your human ability to cope with all the stimuli in your environment

With this entire happening, what may be worse is you find your coping mechanisms are becoming less effective, and your stress level increasing.  No matter how you multitask, your list just seems to grow.

By the end of each day you may emerge with eyestrain and having accomplished nothing much at all.   You have been distracted by all the “input”, and we haven’t even mentioned continuous advertisements on television, the radio, newspapers and magazines – along with non-stop “hearing distractions, no matter where you are!

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

First thing you can do right now is take a minute.  It won’t kill any project you have begun.  You need mindful oxygen. Stress makes you take shallow breaths…withholding your oxygen.  In turn, you are depleted of what you need to manage your life and make good decisions. Take a breath in slowly through the nose.  Now exhale through the mouth.  Do this several times.

Next you need to really pay attention to the “overall picture”.  It will help to prioritize.  Build a list (doesn’t have to be fancy), but make it honest.  What do you really need to do? .  Ask yourself whether you really are focusing on the right things

Study your habits.  Do not be an accepting and passive consumer of everything that is put in front of you. Tame your appetite.  LIMIT YOUR INPUT!  Open-ended cruising of all that is offered WILL cause you ultimately to lose track of your goals, and your time, which is your life!

If you sleep eight hours a night you still have three hundred and fifty thousand waking minutes of each you.  Now compute how many minutes a week you truly spend passively reading and hearing “stuff”?   You can waste so much time following fluff.  How much time do you spend healing you?  How many minutes with the family and loved ones?  How many minutes to breathe and relax?

You want to take down your stress level?  Tame your wild stallion and pick and choose the most wonderful ways to spend your minutes and hours. Laugh with someone, pray with someone, walk alone to the top of a hill and sing.  Hug like it feels inside; shake hands with a hearty and warm grasp. Fly a kite.  Splash around in the small puppy pool with the puppy.  Go outside and get on a bike and ride it.  There isn’t an age limit!

Or if you are actually not supposed to be taking time to read this, then bravo.  You took a minute or two to change your life.

Now take in a deep breath and think:  I feel better. Turn your hands up and exhale through the mouth and SEE your negativity, and any unresolved issues, fly from your head to your arms and out the fingertips.

Pain / Stress / Forgiveness = closely related feelings.  Both physical and mental pain are intrinsic, contained wholly within the human intellect and spiritual nature.  You all have more within you, powers yet untapped or realized.

Humans gifts often go to the grave with people not using their gifts or even recognizing them simply because the world has told them they aren’t up to the job.  You are up to it! You have to FIND, and DRAW, from that power within; the untapped reservoir of all the characteristics and strength you dreamed you would have.   Perhaps someone told you that you would fail or that you had no hope to accomplish anything in this lifetime. They were wrong and you know it innately.

Dealing with words wrongly spoken is a huge stress to handle.  So if it’s happened to you, just draw in a slow breath, wait a few seconds, and exhale fully through the mouth.

(In case you don’t know how to breathe for YOUR benefit, here it is – short and sweet – and life enhancing any time you choose to use it!)

“ Deep Breathing is the simplest and most important form of stress reduction. Most people breathe only from their upper diaphragm. This is not the way we were intended to breathe. We are particularly prone to breathe incorrectly when stressed, by taking quick and shallow breaths. The exaggerated form of this is hyperventilating, which some people do when experiencing an anxiety or panic attack. The proper way to breathe is to inhale deeply from the abdomen. You should be able to feel your lungs fill up with air as you inhale. If you do not breathe from the solar plexus, you are not getting enough oxygen. You may think that it looks better to hold your stomach in but you are losing out on vital oxygenation of the body. Deep breathing is a very quick way to release tension, particularly noticeable in the neck, shoulders and head (headache).

Stand any place and inhale deeply so that you feel the air expand in the lower part of your abdomen and your stomach extend out. Hold the breath as long as it is comfortable and then exhale slowly…”

Rachael Collins

02 April 2009

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Pain is a unique experience.  Pain can put a halt to any activity your may want to do.  It can stop you from every dream in your life.  If you can’t play, walk, move, sleep soundly, or think and concentrate, you are being robbed of your life.  It’s time to change things around!

Pain that you “think you can’t make go away” can, overcome you, and can change the way you feel about yourself and others.  It can destroy relationships and lives.  The secret to managing your pain is first to unleash all the anger you have for so many things. You have suffered enough.  You have been mad at others and circumstances long enough! Don’t dwell on the past ONE MORE MOMENT!

As you inhale think:  I am empowered

As you exhale think:  I forgive others and myself

As you inhale think:  I am wonderful and can make things better

As you exhale think:  No more negativity.  No more useless anger

As long as you are alive you have the capacity to change.  “Why should I change?”, you may ask.  If you are able to manage your stress, happy, love your life and yourself, no need to change.  Otherwise, think about it.

A person’s description of pain — where it is, when it starts, what helps to relieve it — are key to understanding pain. Only the person with pain knows exactly what it is like, whether mental or physical.

That is exactly why ONLY YOU can figure out where you go from here.  Let go of the need to control and stress will drift from you like the wave retreating into the fold of the ocean.

Make sure you get a good night’s sleep.  Set the stage and when you first are laying down, breath again, with thoughts than enhance you, and enfold you into a sweet slumber. When you are well-rested, you have more energy to get well, to enjoy life, and to do the things that are important to you

Get started now.  Breathe.  Let go of anger and sorrow.  Forgive others errors.  Forgive yourself.  These are major steps towards learning to manage your stress and live a more wonderful and peaceful life.

Seek other help for stress if need be, once you get started with these simple exercises of intellect.  Try yoga.  Walk with a friend.  Sign up for classes or other online help.  CREATE YOUR LIFE!

Truth does not waiver:  When you speak you are prophesizing what happens next!

Words come to life.  If you are negative there is a ninety-nine percent chance that you will get negativity back and have a less than perfect settlement of the “challenge” you face.

I am angry

I don’t know how I will get through this

I can’t forget the past

I won’t ever get out of this mess

These are self-fulfilling prophecies.  As sure as these words come out of your mouth, they have been engaged in the cycle of coming to life – in your life!

“The relation that exists between the mind and body is very intimate. When one is affected, the other sympathizes. The condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize. Many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression. Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death….

Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, and love, promote health and prolong life. A contented mind, a cheerful spirit, is health to the body and strength to the soul.”

Ellen G. White

1827-1915

These words were written many, many years ago, but they are the absolute truth, and truth NEVER waivers.

If you practice these three simple techniques, you will find your life will actually improve in many ways.  Stress management is up to you though – no matter how you “say” you want to change, YOU are the only one that can instigate change….and you are the only one who can practice, therein creating new brain cell impressions and new feelings about a stressful scenario.

1.  The number one management technique is using your oxygen in a crisis situation.  Take a few breaths to get the oxygen you need.  It will also give you a few moments to think about your coming response.

2.  Drop the negative words and EVEN IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IT works such miracle changes, incorporate positive words.  If you are thinking “impossible” – don’t!  Think instead, “I can do this.”  Words CAN empower you.

3.  Speak slowly and calmly.  Never let anyone or any challenge turn you into a nasty, mouthy, and dull witted person!  Don’t let anything change your life like that without your permission!

4.  Never forget (particularly with women) – WORDS can pierce a person’s heart with the same intensity and pain that a sharp sword would deliver.  Most physical pain is healed with time, but ill spoken and cruel words can pierce a person’s heart over and over again, and sometimes, stay with a person for his or her life.

(If you are faced with challenge after challenge in the stress arena, it may be time to seek outside help such as counseling, classes,  various forms of yoga, meditation classes, CD relaxation tapes, or perhaps a church group.  You have one mind and you don’t want to loose it to stress!)