This month we are talking about the burnout cycle. We’re breaking it down, dissecting it, identifying the specifics and getting really clear on exactly what it looks like so you can learn how to stop this draining pattern and create a new, healthy strategy for living. (If you missed last weeks article click HERE – I think you will find it helpful).

Now that we have looked closer on how you can get stuck in a burnout rut let’s delve into what FUELS it. You might think it is obvious that if you had half the responsibilities you would feel so much better and that the culprit of burnout is due to the many demands, bills and hats you have to wear, to do it all and be all it all…all the f**king time! 🙂

For sure this is true – to a degree. But it is not the MAIN culprit. Stress and responsibilities are what you can see and are obvious, but they are actually only the tip of the iceberg. The 95% underneath the obvious is the real fuel that makes daily stress 10x worse.

How you respond to stress what you think and feel about it is the energy that determines how much worse stress will accumulate and impact you negatively.

The Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at UCLA estimated that the average adult has 70,000 thousands thoughts per day. Let’s look at this:

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• How healthy and self-supporting are your thoughts on average?
• How quick are you to be critical or hard on yourself?
• If stress arises do you beat yourself up?
• Does beating yourself up make the situation better or worse?

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Your time is precious and there is so much I could say about this, but the main thing you need to know is that 99.99999% of your negative thoughts are fueled by unconscious beliefs. What you believe to be true about yourself and about life determines how you will think and feel. I’ll give you a couple examples.

If you believe: “Life is a real struggle sometimes.” or “Life is hard.”

Then when something challenging happens you might default into thinking:

• “No matter what I can never seem to get ahead.”
• “If it’s not one thing it is something else.”
• “I am afraid the worst will happen. I have to constantly be alert.”
• “I have to make sure everything is okay.”
• “I can’t do this anymore. It’s too much.”
• “Life is too hard. It’s not fair.”

(These thoughts are symptoms of the burnout cycle)

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If you believe: “Life is a gift.” or “I excel in life.”

Then when something challenging or stressful comes up you may tell yourself:

• “I can do this. I’ve got this.”
• “There is an opportunity here.”
• “I don’t have to grip so tightly and control everything.”
• “It will all work out. It always does.”
• “Things happen for a reason something good will come from this.”
• “Thank you for this challenge I can see exactly how it is helping me to grow.”

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Where does a belief “I have to make sure everything is okay” come from and how can you change it? 

We are going to talk about the solution to this next week, but I will say that limiting beliefs are connected to past stress and what birthed them and sustains them are reservoirs of trapped, unresolved emotions keeping them fully charged (imprisoning an individual if you like). Left unresolved these beliefs grow more sensitive overtime leading to physical symptoms in the body such as anxiety, adrenal fatigue, burnout, overwhelm, etc.

I am curious when you feel stressed or overwhelmed what thoughts are running through your mind? What do you do to limit stressful thinking? If you have any tips please share in the comments below!

Love,

Bella xo

If you are interested in learning how to take your power back from your stress or anxiety, my book The Anxiety Solution is a clear, easy to follow guide to help you investigate and identify the core root of where your overwhelm and stress actually stem from, along with a workbook in the second half to teach you how to transform stress into your strengths. There is also a powerful belief-change technique that will help you tap into the power of your subconscious mind (a part of you that is a million times more powerful than your conscious mind alone) to upgrade disempowering, negative self-talk. If you are interested in talking with me personally, click HERE and we can set up at time to discuss what you have going on and how you would like to change your life.