Stress Management And Burnout

Stress management and burnout in an exclusive way, do go “hand in hand”. Think about all the stressful things that one can go through every day -work deadlines, new schedules, family relationships, sleepless nights, an annoying cold, and all the rest of the things that affects one’s daily interaction with life. Sooner or later, these stresses if not effectively managed can result to burnout. Thus, proper stress management equals prevention of stress, and elimination of burnout.

Fact is, the world can never be free of stress and everybody gets “stressed out” in various ways, but “stress” does not have to take over one’s life –the key is handling it before it handles you. So what is stress? And what is burnout? Stress is how the body reacts to the “demands” given to it. It can be positive stress such as in the forms of adrenaline rush that increases ones energy positively, or it can be negative stress that drains one’s physical and emotional energy.

Burnout on the other hand, is the result when one is not able to cope with the continuous stresses in their lives. The outcomes are feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, exhaustion, frequent illness, and low spirits or low self-esteem. The signs that one is heading out for burnout and should take steps for stress management includes: headaches, irritability, sleeping, upset stomach, increased heart rate, frequent fatigue, clenched jaw, incapacity to concentrate, and feeling depressed or hunched shoulders.

Effective stress management and burnout prevention are very essential for one’s physical and mental well being. Here are some helpful stress management and burnout prevention tips:

Do away with “swimming upstream”
A lot of people turn to alcohol, food, or drugs when they feel stressed out. Sugar can give a person that “quick” energy burst but will take it as quickly as well, leaving one with lesser energy that they first began. Vitamins can affect one’s mood, while intoxicating substances will in fact worsen stress. Caffeine speeds up the system and alcohol slows it down, either way, it places added stress to one’s body. Bottom line is, avoid swimming upstream –it’s exerting too much effort with very little progress.

Stop-Breathe-Reflect-Choose
Managing stress in one’s life is finding what works best for them. Learn to stop the incessant pour of negative thoughts; breathe and release the tension in your body; reflect if whether or not “all the worrying and stressing” will help solve it –give yourself rational questions and rational answers; then choose how to react in a positive way and realize the “power to choose” positively when negative situations confront you.
Successful stress management and burnout deterrence allows the opportunity for emotional and physical energy to take place that helps a person to efficiently deal with the challenges and changes of life.