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Stress and Burnout: Change Your Thought Patterns:
Stress is a change in your environment that causes an increase in your adrenaline, your heart rate and your breathing rate. Stress can be good or bad, but the results of on-going, long-lasting stress can take a toll on your mind, body and spirit. When stress gets out of hand, it becomes burnout.
Signs of burnout:
Taking more than one dose of headache medication every day.
Working (for a pro-longed period of time), more than 40 hours a week.
Bringing work home, and forgetting about family, recreation and rest.
Sleep deprivation – getting less than seven hours of sleep a night for a pro-longed period of time.
Forgetfulness – being so concentrated on the tasks at hand that the mind actually forgets simple things like; dates, times, occasions appointments.
Depression, feeling unfulfilled, feeling worthless, feeling exhausted.
A feeling of gloom – that you are never going to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
These are just a few signs of burnout. Burnout is a common term used in the workforce, but it also applies to; home life, family life and social obligations. We place so much on ourselves, and expect to fulfill so many obligations. When we do this on a continual basis, we tend to have headaches and migraines, tension in the shoulders and back, irritable bowel syndrome, dehydration, loss of weight/or weight gain, too much sleep/or lack of sleep, amongst many others.
Description:
Burnout can cause long-term chemical changes in your body that remain even after you feel better. These changes make you more vulnerable to stress, and lower your immune system. You may be more susceptible to colds and flu. The chemical changes in the brain cause depression, feelings of loss and emptiness and loss of interest.
Learning to change your thoughts:
Examine how you perceive an issue.
Do you see everything that comes your way as a problem, maybe even catastrophic?
Do you tend to fly off the handle over something that is relatively minor instead of addressing the major issues in your life?
Do you get road rage? 
Do you sway in contempt in a long line?
Do you feel that your time is more valuable than others and that the time you spend on the freeway or at the grocery store is not just an annoyance, but actually ruins your day?
Are seemingly fun activities (like spending time with your family, or going to your sons baseball game) an irritant instead of relaxing and fun?
Do you spend more time stressing over a project than actually working on it?
Do you hate the holidays because of the hassle, expense and time spent?
These are just a few examples of how we have changed the joys of life into annoyances and rage. Re-thinking our stressors helps us alleviate some of this stress. Putting into perspective the annoyances we face, lowers our stress factors. Utilizing the time that we feel we "waste" gives us new clarity into the concept of time.
Re-Think; try to look at these stressors as positives:
Time spent in line can be used for time management, reflection or relaxation:
Try taking a small notebook with you in your purse or pocket, write down what you need to do, who you need to call, what emails you need to send etc.
Make a wish list of the things you would like to do, this will have a calming effect and will make you look at life as "not just one big chore".
Make a list of the "Top Ten Things you would like to Change about your Life". This will give you introspective into the way you would like your life to be, how can you obtain it, is it plausible. These types of lists work as a catalyst to analyzing your life, examining what you would like to accomplish and putting these ideas into a plan of action. They also tend to lead us out of that gloom and doom mode.
Take deep breathes. You do not need to do an exaggerated inhale, so that everyone wonders if you are on your last breath. Just slowly do some relaxation techniques to slow your heart rate, your breathing rate, and clear your head.
If you are stuck in traffic, try catching up on an audio book. We all say we would read more if we had the time, now is your chance.
Try listening to relaxing music, especially in heavy traffic. I love hard rock, but there is nothing more stressing that a beating bass and rapidly firing lyrics when I’m beating my fists against the wheel.
Conclusion:
The extra time we spend in traffic and long lines is exaggerated and exacerbated in our thought patterns. In reality – it is not as long as you think. Time yourself as an exercise. Get in line and watch your second hand, or set a timer, did you really spend a half hour in line or did it just feel like it? Time yourself in traffic – were you really an hour behind? When we rethink our situation, we see time for what it is – either wasted or utilized. Try these different techniques, see if they don’t eliminate a bit of the stress you feel, or lighten your mood. If they don’t work, try them again, and again and again, until it becomes a replaced thought process. Your mind, body and spirit will thank you.
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