Figure Out When Enough Is Enough
Whether you are working a 60-80 hour week, pressurized to meet deadlines or managing the many demands of family, you are at risk of burnout.
By the time people call me for a session to sort out distress in their life or relationships, many of the precursors to burnout are already present. Headaches, hips hurting, tight shoulders, upset stomach are a few of the physical symptoms present. However, it is the increasingly negative thoughts and frustration with relationships that often prompts them to call me.
I first met Jaden 6 years ago in one of my dream weekends. She was feeling a big wave of new life ~ excited to start a new job and in love with a dynamic and caring man – her now husband. Two weeks ago, she was at her wits end and reached out to me. She was exhausted from a very demanding job with no time to herself and consumed by negativity. Her relationship had become so disrespectful that she was clear something had to change, or as she put it “I need to do something, anything differently, I can’t go on like this.”
In the burnout generation, Jaden is a prime example of what happens when you don’t find a balance of yin and yang energy. You are going, doing and achieving at the expense of tending to the whole of your life. Your body suffers, your relationships suffer and you find No Time to nurture your deepest passions.
Left unchecked burnout can wreak havoc on your health, happiness, relationships and job performance. Here is what to look out for:
- Exhaustion – mentally, emotionally or physically
- Cynicism, chronic frustration and emotional fragility
- Irritability and conflicts with your mate or family
- Withdrawing or tuning out
- Thinking about your work all the time
- Sloppy boundaries around what you are willing and not willing to tolerate
- Digestive issues, aches, tension and disease
When you feel the fire of burnout upon you, what do you do? Do you know how to self correct before your life gets even more unmanageable, and your relationships dissolve into disconnection.
From my perspective AND a few experiences of burnout myself, I find that the chief ingredient necessary to navigate a busy life is Radical Self-Loyalty.
Self-Loyalty is a big subject and includes a clear intention, commitment and discipline to love yourself so completely that your integrity rather than your programming makes choices for your life. You cultivate Awareness of how you dissipate, reserve and generate your energy. You know Clear Boundary Intelligence. And you embody a slew of Yin Practices.
Yin Practices shift your sympathetic nervous system to a parasympathetic state – you want this!
The key difference between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system is that the sympathetic nervous system is responsible for controlling the body’s responses to perceived harm and the mobilizing of the “fight or flight” response. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for controlling the body’s “rest-and-digest” response.
Do you have yin practices in place to unwind your stressed out system and drop you into a deep inner connection where your soul breathes and you connect with you?
Today, I ask you to check in with yourself, peruse the symptoms of burnout and notice where you are.
Are you plugged in to your radical self-loyalty, feeling open and balanced in your life and relationships?
OR, do you know it is time to say “Enough is Enough” and commit to creating health and balance in your life.
To learn more about Yin practices…stay tuned for my the Smart Tools I’m preparing for you!
If you want a more personalized plan to shift what is not working for you, I’m here.
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