Succumbing to Stress Burnout

A few years into my career (even after I had developed a semi-regular meditation practice), I found myself in a demanding role that required a lot of travel. I was not only working a lot of hours, but was traveling weekly and not putting any effort into taking care of myself. I physically burnt out. I was in my mid-20’s. I fainted and was incoherent for a while afterward at 4am while I was getting ready to catch my early morning flight. When I came to, all I could think about was how late I was running and that I would miss my flight. I was finally convinced by my boyfriend (now husband) that I should go to the doctor instead, and get tests run because something wasn’t right. All of the tests came back normal, but my vitals were elevated, and the doctor told me that stress and exhaustion had caused me to physically burn out.

This moment was a wakeup call for me. I realized the life that I was living was no longer sustainable.

Breaking the Stress-Cycle

I could no longer ignore myself and just ‘power through’. I knew I had to step up my self-care game, beyond what I was currently doing (a regimen that consisted of gourmet coffee, comfort eating, semi-regular meditation, and getting my nails done 1x/month). I knew that I needed more sleep, less travel, more disconnection time, more connection with friends and family, physical exercise, and a more intentional meditation practice. I also knew that I would not get that from my current situation, so I realized I had to choose between my health and well-being over my job. It was scary. I didn’t have something else in place for me, but I knew that if I continued, a simple episode of stress, exhaustion, and burnout could turn into a larger long-term health issue. I chose to break my stress cycle by taking a leave of absence to do some self-care and figure out my next step.

Breaking the stress cycle doesn’t always need to look like a leave of absence or quitting of a job. In my case, at that time in my life, that is what it looked like. However, breaking the stress cycle can look like simple routine and life changes to help make your life and stress levels more manageable. I have had several other stress cycles since that timeframe, but I now know the warning signs and have tools that can help me avoid total exhaustion and burnout. Because of this, I have been able to deal with each of these different stress cycles in a more proactive way so that I don’t have to take another leave of absence.

Taking off your Stress Badge of Honor

Many of us lead very busy lives which puts us in a constant state of pull and need. We tend to identify as busy and have a hard time slowing down. When we do slow down, we use technology as a way to ‘zone out’ or take a ‘mental break’ at the end of a long day. Some of us are even rewarded for being constantly connected and available (socially or at work). For many of us, this has created a reward system out of constantly being stressed or connected. Stress and constant availability has not only become a norm, but a badge of honor that many of us wear proudly. I even find myself wearing a Stress Badge of Honor from time to time. Whether it is something we do consciously or unconsciously, it perpetuates the need to continue to remain in a constant state of stress.

Simple, Yet Powerful Ways to Manage Stress During your Day

Whether you work from home, an office, a clinic/hospital, for yourself, or are a stay at home parent/caregiver (which is a full-time job) you will experience stress throughout your day. You may be in a situation where only one aspect of your life is stressful. Or you may be in a situation where every aspect of your life is stressful. Wherever you are at in life, there are several simple, yet powerful things you can do to help you manage stress throughout your day.

BREATHE 

Breathe deeply from your diaphragm, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Do this a couple times with your eyes closed (if you are able to) to reset yourself, or practice doing during a meeting or heated discussion/moment to stay calm and control your stress response.

How to use? In the western world, we don’t put enough emphasis on the importance of intentional breathing and what it can do to nourish our bodies, minds, and spirits. This is a simple, yet powerful technique that can be practiced at any point throughout your stressful day. Maybe pause to breathe before responding to an email that gets your riled up, pause to breathe before speaking in a team meeting, use this breathing technique when driving home in rush-hour traffic, etc. I even use this when parenting my toddler to avoid losing my cool during the many toddler tantrums.

CREATE A PRIORITY LIST

When we are being pulled in many directions, it’s critical to know our priorities in any given moment so we can focus on what is most important at that point in time. Create a holistic priority list for your week. Include both work and personal items on it that need to happen and break it out by day. This will help you to free up your brain space and allow you to glance at the list to know your priority for that day / moment.

TAKE BREAK

Whether you take a week of vacation or multiple 5-10 minute mental breaks throughout the day, take regular breaks. You may decide to take a walk around your floor or the block (without your phone) to clear your head, or you might decide to close your eyes at your desk for 5 minutes to focus on breathing. Whatever your break looks like is perfect! Just remember to take them (without technology distractions) to be able to truly reset. If you can take a break in nature, that is even better as research shows spending time in nature has restorative properties.

DISCONNECT WHEN POSSIBLE

Other Ways to Step Up Your Stress Management Game

While the above list has some simple, yet powerful ways to manage stress throughout your day; there are other ways you can deepen your stress management practice. If you are looking to take your stress management to the next level with deeper insight, try one of classes or techniques.

TAKE CARE OF & SET YOUR SPACE

This could be at home or in the office, however, taking care of the space in which you spend your time (picking up, decorating, decluttering, organizing, and setting energy) can really help to keep your mood calm and even. Our spaces can affect our moods, so it is important to take time to take care of and set your space in a way that brings you joy! One way to enhance the energy of a space is to infuse it with Sacred Geometry. When I was traveling for work, this helped me to make hotel rooms feel more comfortable and homier so I could get a good night’s sleep. It can also increase your ability to manifest and your capacity for joy – there are so many benefits!

DEVELOP A MEDITATION PRACTICE

Meditation has helped me manage stress at work in a myriad of ways. The practice I have developed over the years has allowed me to ‘slip into’ a quick 5-10-minute meditation to reset, rebalance, and clear my stressed-out mind and nervous system when needed. It has also helped to improve my sleep quality when my stress is affecting my sleep (which I first discovered early in my career when experiencing insomnia). Meditation helped me to be able to let go of my crazy stressful days at work to be able to relax my mind and body enough to prepare for sleep.

While there are many styles of meditation out there, I love the Max Meditation System™ as it is a system that is based on a fusion of ancient techniques of yoga and mind acrobatics combined with modern techniques of psychology and neuro-linguistic programming. It provides you with tools for body relaxation, mind chatter reduction, as well as passive and active meditation.

CONNECT WITH JOY!

Nothing helps us to reduce stress in quite the same way as doing things that bring us joy. You may experience joy in nature, while exercising, while playing with your kids, painting, or in teaching a class. Whatever it is that brings you joy, do it! Find time to connect to joy in a focused and conscious way to notice how it can melt your stress away.

Taking a Look at What’s Under the Stress

Making a Long-Term Stress Management Commitment to Yourself

While it is great to practice stress management techniques when you need them, you may want to take it one step further by making a long-term commitment to yourself. How you do this is up to you. My long-term commitment to myself is to do regular self-assessments so that I can notice my warning signs so that I (hopefully) don’t end up in the same place I was many years ago. I also schedule stress management and self-care into my weekly schedule and make commitments to myself throughout the year to take classes that help me to attain deeper levels of self-awareness and additional tools that can help. Whether your commitment is a daily practice or a monthly routine, the most important thing is to continue to assess yourself and focus on managing your stress in a healthy and sustainable way that helps you to live your best life.