Stress! Everyone Has It But No One Loves It! How to Decrease it and Prevent Burnout with Carlee Meyers

<h3>What is stress?</h3> <p>When the person perceives that the demands on them exceeds their resources.   There is also a secondary definition which is the emotional, mental or physical strain or tension.</p> <h3>How do we recognize stress?</h3> <p>Stress shows up differently for each of us, but most commonly it presents as irritability.   It can also show up as depression and anxiety.  There are also physical signs, headaches, migraines, stomach aches, heart attacks.</p> <p>The first sign though is going into that irritability, and exhaustion.  When we experience stressor after stressor, and don’t process them, we have a breakdown or blow up.</p> <p>We’ve been trained to ignore our emotions, to feel them later, but not now.   When those instances come up, we go back to the mindset of pick yourself up by the bootstraps and go forward.</p> <p>Start feeling emotions and let them pass through.</p> <p><strong>Recognizing the Physical Signs of Stress</strong></p> <p>An exercise that works is to help identify how stress physically affects you is to look in the mirror and say something to yourself that you know will cause stress.   Feel the emotion.  Where do you feel it, where does it show up in your body?</p> <p>Then, do the same exercise, but say something pleasant and kind to yourself.</p> <p>It’s important to know the difference between the good feelings of excited and the feelings of stress.</p> <p>Think of it as a mind body connection exercise.</p> <p>Stress is unique for everyone.</p> <h3>What is burnout and how can we prevent it?</h3> <p>Burnout can show up in a variety of ways but the most common is irritation and exhaustion.   To the point of “I hate everything, I can’t do this anymore, I don’t have the energy for this any more.”</p> <p>When in burnout, everything feels to hard and so heavy.</p> <p>Burnout requires a different set of tools than stress.   We can’t prevent it at this time.  People who experience burnout often get sick.   Burnout takes a lot more time and energy to overcome than recognizing and