All posts tagged: Burn-out

Burnout: Fighting your past and future expectations

Published by Barb Smith

For the past month, I have been feeling anxiety, fear and intimidation and it has risen like a giant wall of foreboding in my life. At night I would lay in bed and my heart would start racing. I have been walking in a fog for a month and I eventually went to the doctor for medication for my anxiety. What has been going on? I believe I have been experiencing a form of burnout. And, if I have learned anything, it’s that burnout breaks down our defenses and leaves us vulnerable to spiritual attacks on our body, mind and spirit. Burnout is fear based. It is often based on experiences from our past more than anything that is going on in the present. I started to get a sense of foreboding, as old memories from my past resurfaced injecting themselves into my life. I had gone through periods of rejection in the past and they were returning to haunt me. And, this past rejection was becoming a stumbling block in the present. As well, …

Credit: Visions Photographiques/Flickr/Creative Commons

It’s time to re-calibrate! You don’t have to save the world

Published by Barb Smith

Español: Es hora de volver a calibrar! Usted no tiene que salvar el mundo It’s easy to lose ourselves in the spinning and twirling events of our daily lives. Often, we burn out when we give all our time and energy for a worthy cause or in meeting the needs of those around us. I am learning that I am not indispensable and that the world can do very well without me for a while. The harsh reality is that we often become “indispensable” in our own eyes. We get lost in the illusion that the world can’t make it without us. We must step away and take a good look at who we have become. My ego loves the attention and the “need to be needed.” I call it my “save the world mentality.” My husband can attest to the many times I have asked him to remind me that “I don’t have to save the world.” Because that mentality has ruined my health, run me into the ground, hurt my most valued relationships …

Credit: Gillfoto/Flickr/Creative Commons

Don’t Crash and Burn

Published by Myrna

One could think, “It’s only a dream,” but why does it remain in my mind and spirit days later? I was standing with a few other people when a low-flying plane passed overhead and took a nose-dive into a nearby hill. Its nose broke off from the rest of the plane and caught fire. Our initial reaction was one of fear – if we run toward the plane will we be caught in a blazing inferno that is certain to follow? Our fear is soon overcome by concern for the well-being of those who might still be alive. We rush toward the plane and climb into the passenger section which has remained intact. We don’t know how many people are killed but it doesn’t appear that anyone in the front burning section could have survived. And since the two broken sections are so close, we know it is just a matter of time, minutes or maybe only seconds, that the passenger section will also catch fire and be reduced to a heap of ashes. As …