Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez

#76 Conquering Burnout: What are the Red Flags of Burnout and How to Conquer Them!

• Leslie Martinez • Season 4 • Episode 76

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I'll never forget the day I realized the hustle of life had left me more than just tired—it had me in complete burnout mode. In our latest episode, I,  pull back the curtain on this modern-day nemesis, sharing the intimate details of my own encounters with exhaustion and the subtle warning signs I wished I'd noticed sooner. From the heavy weight of decision fatigue to the feeling of lacking purpose, I dissect the inner workings of burnout, offering you a roadmap to recognize and dodge its snares, helping to bring back the joy you once had that the pressure of life just burnt out.

As we journey together through the path of setting boundaries, I reveal how learning to lovingly say 'no' and entrusting the pace to divine timing became my armor against life's relentless demands. This episode isn't just about identifying the beast—it's about arming you with the strategies I've learned through trials and many errors. I'll recount the tales of how I turned down opportunities that seemed golden but didn't align with my soul's calling, and how my approach to spirituality and rest has been revolutionized, transforming the way I engage with the world and safeguard my spirit. Let's embark on this voyage of self-preservation and joy cultivation, leaving burnout behind!

Connect with Leslie:

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Website: https://www.yourjoyfulorder.com/

Email: lmartinez@yourjoyfulorder.com
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Listen to this Episode on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXoAYIM2mfclNtYiaOzIUw

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https://a.co/d/09Djvaw

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, I'm Leslie Martinez and you're listening to your joyful order podcast. Each week I will bring you joyful stories that will motivate and inspire you and, at the same time, bring order to your everyday life. Let's just say the show will be a mixture of preaching and teaching, with a kick of motivation from your girl here. Welcome to your joyful order podcast.

Speaker 2:

Hey friend, I got a question for you. Are you tired, run down, listless? Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular? The answer to your problems is in this episode of your joyful order podcast. This episode contains wisdom Order podcast. This episode contains wisdom, insight and action plans to help you avoid burnout. So why don't you join the thousands of happy, peppy people and get a great big dose of your Joyful Order podcast? Now, if you got the reference to my little intro just now and you know where I stole that from you, my friend are my people, you're my girl.

Speaker 2:

If you have no clue what I was talking about, well, I have to just say I'm sorry. I'm sorry you didn't grow up watching one of the most iconic and classic sitcom comedy shows just ever made. I'm talking about the show. I love Lucy, and the above commentary of my intro was stolen from one of the most iconic episodes, uh, where she does a commercial for Vitamina Vegemin. And just watching Lucy will give you burnout. Seriously, I always, always wondered how in the heck does this woman's brain work the way it does, constantly scheming up shenanigans. And I just was always. I I'm always so intrigued by Lucy on how the show was her classic, iconic beauty, the style of the show, the music, the laughter, the comedy it was just so amazing. But Lucy can burn you out in trying to think of, like, just how her brain would think. Right, she was a legend and I love Lucy to this day is still one of my all-time favorite shows ever, and if you knew that episode you will know how iconic it was and just how hilarious it was.

Speaker 2:

Now, what does the whole vitamina Vegemin have to do with burnout? Well, let me tell you, I chose to start out from that because I just always think of when I think of burnout. I always think are you tired, run down listless, do you poop out at parties? And it just goes in with this show, because I, I mean, I don't wish burnout on anybody, but wouldn't it be amazing if we can avoid burnout by, like, just taking a teaspoon of some medicine or popping a pill? Right, I wish I can grant you that wish and I wish I can tell you like here, here's the magic pill, take the red one or the blue one. But it's not that easy.

Speaker 2:

We have to work at avoiding burnout and burnout. It it's a real thing. A lot of people experience burnout. I have experienced burnout, probably like significant burnout, at least three times in my life. That I know for sure. Significant burnout at least three times in my life that I know for sure. And actually, according to a wellbeing survey done by the American Psychological Institute, they reported that three out of five workers experience some type of negative or mental related burnout. People don't just experience burnout at work. Also, people experience burnout at home and in their personal lives.

Speaker 2:

Burnout affects our mind, our body and our spirit in very different ways, and today this is what we're going to be diving into. I'll be sharing with you some of the impact that burnout can have on our mind, body and spirit and some of the ways to avoid it. Now let's first start with defining burnout. Burnout is an emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged or excessive stress. That is the like dictionary definition of burnout. It's more than just feeling tired. Burnout can manifest in very different ways. So that's what we're going to explore today. We're going to explore the effects on different aspects that it has on us. Now we're first going to talk about the effect that it has on our mind.

Speaker 2:

The mind Burnout can cloud our thinking. We might experience cynicism, negativity and a feeling of detachment from our work or even our loved ones. Decision-making even becomes difficult for us and our concentration suffers. So it does have some serious negative impact on our mind. Now let's go deeper with some other red flags that we might experience with our mind. That increased cynicism or negativity it's not just towards work, but it can also carry over into our personal lives, where everything just seems pointless. You might feel like why am I even doing this? Why am I even here? Those are some serious red flags that may come up when you are experiencing burnout. The difficulty of concentrating or simple tasks will just become completely overwhelming for you, and then you find yourself super distracted and very forgetful also, and then you also struggle from having any type of motivation. So loss of motivation is another red flag. Activities that you once enjoyed Now like they're not even appealing to you. You used to enjoy going, hiking and being in nature and now you're just like, oh, I don't even want it, want to be out in nature right now. I just want to like hide under a rock, and those are some serious red flags that you should, you know, kind of pay attention to and know, hey, I might be struggling with some type of burnout here.

Speaker 2:

Now let's look at how it affects our body. Burnout doesn't just affect our mind, but it takes a toll on our bodies too. You might experience headaches, stomach aches, changes in sleep patterns, your weakened immune system are all common symptoms of burnout. Let's go deeper with this. What are those red flags? Muscle tension and headaches.

Speaker 2:

Burnout can manifest as physical tension throughout your body. Changes in appetite you might find yourself constantly hungry or even lacking in appetite altogether, depending on, maybe, how you deal with stress. I know people that are stress eaters and I know people that just don't eat under stress. I myself, I am a person that when I am under severe stress or anxiety, I don't have an appetite, so I will avoid food. I know other people that they are stress eaters. When they are stressed out, they constantly are looking to food, to, you know, kind of eliminate some of that stress.

Speaker 2:

Another red flag is increased sickness, and that is because you have a weakened immune system and that can lead to frequent colds, flus and other illnesses. And in researching some of these symptoms and what are some of the red flags. I came across a research that I think is very important, and it was from the National Institute of Health. That suggests that there is actually a link between chronic stress a key component of burnout and a weakened immune response. So if you suffer from a type of chronic illness, are you actually dealing with burnout also? So there is some research out there that connects the burnout with chronic illnesses and I know there's a lot of people that struggle with chronic illness and I know people. We had an episode with a wellness coach Her name was Whitney Woods, just a few episodes back from this one, whitney Woods, just a few episodes back from this one and she shared her story of just constant kind of burnout mode and how that led to chronic illness and how she really had to take a step back from her work to get better. And it's important that we pay attention to these red flags so that we can know sometimes our bodies are those red flags that like hey, there's something, something bigger than what you think it is, like you constantly getting colds or you know this chronic illness that is here. It is a red flag to something that is bigger, that's going on.

Speaker 2:

I personally, when I was struggling with burnout. I was getting really bad sinus infections, like every other month, and I just attested to allergies to, you know, my environment. I was living in a place with a lot of dust and all this stuff, and when I like now that I am older and I've learned a lot about this stuff, I'm like my immune system was out of whack because my life was out of whack, my work environment was out of whack. I was completely burnt out. So, yeah, I was getting sick a lot because I was not taking care of my mind, body or my spirit. So my immune system was taking a hit and I was sick every other month with a really bad sinus infection. Our body gives us red flags when things are not the way they are supposed to be, and your body will give you that red flag If you are experiencing burnout, stress, anxiety, all of those things that are not good for our bodies.

Speaker 2:

Now the next thing let's dive into is our spirit. How does burnout affect our spirit? And this is probably one of the more devastating impacts that burnout has and that's on our spirit, because burnout can take away our sense of purpose and motivation. It can dwindle that sense of motivation and purpose that we have in our lives, where we start to feel loss, we start to feel hopeless and we start to become emotionally numb. This, my friend, is not a good sign. Let's go deeper. What are some more red flags?

Speaker 2:

When we start to see that burnout is affecting our spirit, we become isolated. It we become isolated. We withdraw from social interaction and maybe hobbies that we once you know, love that brought us joy. We just no longer do those hobbies anymore. We have emotional detachment. You feel a sense of numbness and struggle to connect with others emotionally and here's the big one sense of loss of identity. You feel like I've completely lost my identity of who I am. You question your values, your goals and just your overall sense of life.

Speaker 2:

Y'all I've been here during burnout. I questioned God is this really what you're calling me to do? Where am I supposed to go? I don't feel that this is where I'm supposed to be. Why is this so hard? Why can't I be my own person? It's real, y'all it is real. And I am sharing all of this because I again, like I said, I shared. I have experienced burnout multiple times in my life and if I can help someone avoid burnout, y'all I'm going to, I'm going to preach till I'm blue in the face about it, because it is not a fun place to be. I've experienced so many of these like red flags that I am telling you and at the time I didn't realize that it was burnout, because I I lack the knowledge of it, because there wasn't nobody that went before me that I mentored or anything that said Leslie, you're experiencing burnout and this is what you need to do. So I am here. I am that guide, that mentor, that person that will hopefully help you to one, see the red flags of it, identify it and then to give you some action plans and some just words of wisdom that can help you to avoid it.

Speaker 2:

Now, what can be some causes of burnout? Let's look at this. What triggers the state of just total depletion, where you're in the state of burnout? Here are some common culprits for this work overload that's probably a main one. You feel constantly swamped with work. You have unrealistic deadlines. A lack of control can just completely be a recipe for burnout.

Speaker 2:

There's a lack of support in your life. You feel isolated or not having a strong support system, and this can be at work or at home also, and that can significantly increase your risk of burnout. And then you have unhealthy boundaries. And that is when we constantly blur the lines between work and personal life and it becomes impossible for you to truly disconnect and recharge because everything just kind of comes together and y'all unhealthy boundaries. I had that for a really long time at one of my jobs that I got completely burned out from. I had that for a really long time at one of my jobs that I got completely burned out from. I worked six days a week. I worked about 50 hours a week. I only have like two weekends off a year and it was not only my work, it was our place of worship.

Speaker 2:

And it was my children's school. I had some serious, unhealthy boundaries with my last workplace and it was a ministry and this is no fault at all to the establishment that I worked at. It was all me, 100% me, because I did not create healthy boundaries. I lacked giving myself self-care, connecting my mind, body and spirit with the Lord and making time to really be with him. Now the enemy I want you to understand this also the enemy uses burnout to distract us from what God is calling us to do. When you are burnt out, your spirit is weak yes, it is very weak and it opens the door for the enemy to creep in and cause havoc. When your mind, body and your spirit are weak, you are opening the doors to the enemy and he will raise hell in your life. I've been there, I've experienced it. I know this to be true, and I'm not just speaking on my behalf, I am speaking for other people that I know that I love that this has happened to, because the enemy distracts you with things that you think are good, but they're not from God. Now there is this beauty and holiness to saying no and creating boundaries to people and things. Not everything is for you Now, if it's an opportunity that you feel is for you and maybe the timing isn't right, maybe you're feeling uncertain, you know you're doubting it, you're not having peace about something then say no because if it is meant for you, god will make sure that it happens for you, regardless of the timing. God's timing is always on time and if there's an opportunity that you're just like, I just can't say no to this, but I don't know how I'm going to do this. I'm already burnt out, I'm already overwhelmed. If there's an uncertainty, a just you know, like something's stirring in your heart that you just feel overwhelmed about saying yes to something, then say no because I promise you whatever God has planned for you will come, but it'll come at a time when you are at peace with it and you feel good about it. God is not going to cause you uncertainty, for you to doubt stuff. He doesn't want you to question. God is this for me. He wants you to say yes and no like yes, I'm going for it.

Speaker 2:

So creating boundaries and saying no to things, it's a good thing. You need to have reverence to know when things are from God and when things are just causing you distraction. The enemy will dangle. He will dangle things that look good in front of you just to distract you from your calling Again. Just remember that all good things are not God things.

Speaker 2:

If the enemy cannot get you to fall off track with sin or you know, lust, affairs, murder, anger, unforgiveness, like all the things that can bog us down with with sin, if we're walking faithfully with God and you know we can't be distracted by this like, no, I'm, I'm not into drugs, I'm not into abuse, I'm not into. You know we can't be distracted by this Like, no, I'm, I'm not into drugs, I'm not into abuse, I'm not into, you know, infidelity, any of that stuff, like you're walking a straight line, then the enemy's going to come and he's just going to dangle these little things that look good to you and he's going to cause distraction with things that are not part of God's plan for you. And those distractions that he dangles in front of us come in the form of many distractions that can lead to burnout, and I will. I will tell you this for true. I was working in the ministry, y'all, and I got complete burnt out. I lost my identity, I was sick. I was, you know, struggling mentally, emotionally, physically. My marriage was taking a hit. My relationship with my children was taking a hit, but I kept saying like, but it's good I'm working in the church, it's good I'm doing this, I'm doing that. The enemy, he he couldn't make me sin, but he distracted me and caused burnout in my life and raised living havoc in my home. I know this to be true friends, and I want to help you to avoid what the enemy can do in your life. The enemy is real and he will make good things. Look, you know, look appetizing, look appealing to you. But you have to have that discernment with God and knowing that not all good things are from God. Now I'll share with you guys.

Speaker 2:

This last month I was heavily distracted by things that the enemy was putting in front of me. There were situations that took my focus off of the work that God had put in my heart to work on. I had a plan and I had certain goals and deadlines to meet, and there were lots of distractions that came. We had an unfortunate situation with my son where we had to deal with some things with him at school. I had two sick dogs Y'all I might. In a matter of a month I had to take both of my dogs to like the ER vet and who, good Lord, talk about a financial hit, like if you have a pet and you know what taking them to the vet looks like, I mean that alone is pretty significant cost. But having to take them to like an ER vet because of emergency and then having one hospitalized and having to care and nurture for these pets a distraction. Our finances took a hit.

Speaker 2:

My family we took a break. We went on spring break for a week and we had ventured through Arizona. We had photo shoots and doctor's appointments and all of these things this last month that were distractions. All of these things weren't bad things. I mean, some of them were an unfortunate like roommate situation with my son, unfortunate ER visits for my dogs those weren't good things. But a week off of spring break with my family, that was a good thing. Photo shoots that was a good thing. All of these things were good. But they distracted me from what God had called me to do. It set me back after all. Of these things were like setting done.

Speaker 2:

I realized I'm like oh, the enemy is really trying to distract me and it was so difficult for me to sit in front of my computer and actually put the work in. I would start to do the work of what God called me to do and then I get distracted because I like my mind would just go somewhere else. And then I start thinking and researching things for our spring break trip. Or, you know, researching things for our spring break trip. Or, you know, looking up university policy and California conduct laws and all these things that took me away from doing God's work. Now, I didn't experience burnout because, y'all, I'm a pro at burnout, so I know the red flags. That's why I'm sharing them here with you, because once I start experiencing burnout, I'm like no stop, been there, done that. I'm not going down that track again, but being distracted. I I'm an open target for that, just like any one of you are, and I had to remind myself that even good things that aren't part of God's plan can can kind of cause burnout, but I have to recognize them.

Speaker 2:

I quickly, after this month where I just everything seemed like chaotic and I started seeing the enemy attacked in certain ways, I literally got dirty down on my knees, praying, praying. I went into our prayer room at church praying, reaching out to my prayer warriors. I need you praying for this, heavy in prayer and spending a lot of time with God, because I'm like God. The enemy is trying to attack me right now. He's trying to distract me. He's trying to affect our finances. He's trying to affect my son at school. He's trying to affect my animals. God, I need you to just intervene, and I had to repeat the enemy and get pissed off at him and put him back in his place. I had to learn to be still. I had to allow God to come in and just allow those distractions to get put aside. Now, am I still distracted? Yes, I'm sure that something can happen, but I have to identify it as a distraction. I have to know when the enemy is trying to distract me.

Speaker 2:

Now you're listening to this episode because you're like Leslie. You told me you're going to tell me how to avoid all this stuff. I know I'm getting there, but I need to build up so that you can understand just what the red flags are and how to avoid them. So here, here we're getting into the burnout antidote. So here are some strategies for prevention. Now the good news is that burnout is preventable. I just told you I know what the red flags are. I know how to avoid it. So I automatically put things into place to not allow me to get into that burnout mode.

Speaker 2:

First thing you have to set boundaries. It's a simple one and, to be honest, I'm going to get into some very simple ones that you probably already know. But you're probably going to make an excuse for it. You're going to say, oh well, leslie, that's easy for you to tell me to set boundaries. You don't know who I work for. You don't know how my spouse is. You don't know how. You know how hard it is for me to find a job. I I do know all of that. I I do understand. But I do understand that you have complete, 100%, full control over you.

Speaker 2:

If you are in an unhealthy work environment, get out, go find another job. Go talk to someone, talk to your HR people. Go seek a lawyer If you need to. If your employer is breaking, like you know, employment laws, do research, have someone, have your back, look for an advocate for you. If you don't know how, learn to say no and establish clear boundaries between your workplace and your personal life. If you are contracted to work from nine to five, then those are your hours. You do not respond to emails or accept phone calls after those hours. If you need to address that to someone, go talk to your HR people or do what you need to do. You also need to make sure that when you are establishing clear boundaries, that if you put yourself into a situation that you need to address those boundaries up front. So if you're in a place right now where maybe those boundaries aren't clear, maybe you need to have a conversation with someone creating those boundaries and maybe if you are looking to take on a new role, new responsibilities, you need to go into it, setting those boundaries up front and saying, look, this is what I am willing to do, to do and that way there's no like gray area of well, should I, shouldn't I? Maybe they do know or they should know. Is it in writing? Did you establish those boundaries upfront in your workspace, and that also goes for your personal life? Have you had hard conversations with people and establishing boundaries too? Communication is key when looking to set boundaries.

Speaker 2:

The next thing that you need to do is prioritize self-care, schedule time for activities, nourish your mind, body and your spirit. I always talk about scheduling joy. This is part of self-care, um, and this goes with exercising. You know, going for a hike, spending time in nature, spending time with your loved ones. Another thing is seeking support. Don't do it alone. Learn to ask for help. Reach out Not only for support in, you know, maybe finding someone that can come and clean your house, maybe finding someone that can help you with laundry or grocery shopping or stuff like that, but also do you need help in learning to create boundaries. Are you having an unhealthy relationship with yourself? Seeking help from, maybe a therapist, a counselor? Um, you know, asking family or friends, also your pastor? These are all people that can support you, not just physically, but having the hard conversations to help you unpack some of the things that might be causing burnout. Also, and then learning to delegate. Do not be a superhero I mean, I know if you're a mom too, like you know, we wear our superhero, our super mom, I should say cape proudly but learn to delegate, delegate tasks whenever possible.

Speaker 2:

I want to go a little bit deeper on some more tactics to avoid burnout, and this is there are actually seven types of rest and these are all ways that to avoid burnout. These are again seven types of rest that are actually backed by science and I'm going to go into each of them, but I'm going to give you all of the ways to avoid burnout by these seven types of rest, and they are physical rest, mental rest, sensory rest, social rest, spiritual rest, emotional rest and creative rest. Those are the seven types of rest and I'm going to kind of touch upon each of these. I already mentioned a few above, but I'm going to go into these specifically.

Speaker 2:

Physical rest right here. This is the first and obvious rest. You just need to let your body relax for a bit and relieve some of that tension. Sleep is so important right here. If you were not getting like six to seven hours or plus on average, you're not giving the physical rest that your body needs. Make sure that you are doing some type of exercise that will boost your brain power. Also, you need to get those healthy hormones going, boost your adrenaline, go out and you know, take a walk, go get a massage, go get your nails done, practice breathing, doing yoga. All of these types of activities just bring some physical rest to you.

Speaker 2:

For mental rest. Feeling like you have too many thoughts and things going on in your mind, that's when you need to have a mental rest and you need to just clear your brain of everything. So you need to devote at least like five to 10 minutes journaling Ding. I just said the magic word journaling. Now where can you get yourself a good journal? Have you heard the exciting news, y'all? I just released a journal and it's available on Amazon for you to pre-order today. It is a gratitude, goals and prayer journal and I promise you this practice, if you do it daily, will transform your life. It is a practice that I have been doing for the last several years and I have really really seen the growth from me in so many different areas of my life because of the simple practice. So I want to encourage you. If you want to grow, if you want to pursue your dreams, your goals, if you want to be more grateful, if you're struggling and finding the good things in life right now, grab this journal and make it a discipline for you to do it each day. Wake up, start your day with gratitude, start your day focusing on the goals that you have and say a short prayer. That is going to just get your day off Right. Your joyful order journal is available now on Amazon. Check the show notes to get the link to shop now.

Speaker 2:

Well, now you know where to get yourself a good journal, but journaling will definitely bring you mental rest. Hot journaling, I will say. Journaling probably saved me like hundreds of thousands of dollars in therapy. No joke, I'm not denying therapy, please, please, please. Therapy and counseling, and all of that is fantastic. I've gotten it myself too. But I will tell you that journaling has become my form of therapy and it has saved me so much time and resources of the simple act of journaling, and you can get your own journal that I created for only $18.99 on Amazon. Y'all that's some pretty cheap therapy right there, but journaling brings you mental rest and clarity.

Speaker 2:

Other forms of mental rest could just be listening to relaxing music or sounds, you know, putting your devices away, maybe disconnecting from your, your devices for a little bit practice, mindfulness, meditation, prayer, learning, healthy coping skills All of that is in mental rest, under sensory rest. What does this mean? This means putting away your screens, turning off your phones, turning off your computers, not putting on the TV, maybe picking up a book instead. And you guys, these are all things like I'm I'm preaching to the choir right now because these are things that I need to learn to do, to be better at. I am not good at sensory rest. I will fully admit that right now, and I need to get better at this Learning to unplug from any type of screen time, closing my eyes just for a minute, just to be still and be quiet, one of the things that I I I do often do, and it's not necessarily avoiding screen time, but it's trying to give me sensory rest.

Speaker 2:

I will go to YouTube and I will pull up on YouTube beach sounds or beach scene or nature sounds. I have them favorited in my YouTube and I will turn them on sometimes when I just want to read. I turn it on sometimes when I'm trying to get in like a workflow state because that sensory. Sometimes, when I'm trying to get in like a workflow state because that sensory, just the sounds of the beach, the sounds of nature, of like a trickling river running down the mountains, it just rest my spirit in a way that I just love it, like I wish I was out in nature with my computer sometimes doing work, um, but it helps to clear my mind.

Speaker 2:

But it's also important for us to just not have screens where we could actually be in nature, sitting in front of the water with our beach and our feet in the sand at the beach and just having that sensory rest. Other form of rest is social rest. Everyone needs to recharge their social battery every once in a while, and that is just clearly of understanding what your social needs are. Maybe you need to go to lunch with a friend. Maybe you need to avoid a friend. Maybe you need to set boundaries on those toxic people that you're just like. I'd rather not have lunch with you, no thank you.

Speaker 2:

You need to learn to create boundaries here and giving yourself a social break every now and then. Now, by nature, people think I'm an extrovert and for a long time I thought to myself, oh, I am an extrovert. But I guess as I got older and wiser and started to learn more about people, I started to realize that people burned me out. And probably because I I work with people a lot and I have done so much work and study and learning to understand people in social settings that there are certain places that I just rather not be at anymore. And I have found myself now in my older, wiser years to be more of a extrovert, slash introvert, in that I love being out with people, I'm not shy, I can pick up conversation with anyone. But I also know that I need to have my time where I am alone, where I can be with my own thoughts. And I will tell you like I was at last year in September I was at a big conference and then I was just at a big conference in February and it was three days of back-to-back just being in large social settings and I needed like two days to like retreat from my retreat, because people drain you and and I don't say that in a in a negative way I mean there are people that drain you in a negative way, but then just being social can drain you emotionally and physically. You know being at your best, trying to be fully present with you, know your social settings and who is around you. You know your social settings and who is around you. That can take a toll on you. So people I have in my older age. Now I have seen that I have become a little more introverted and that I really value my alone time because I really like peace and people don't always bring peace to you. You know. I have found that I have way more peace when I am in my home with my immediate family, and learning to have social rest is just another important form of rest that you need to avoid burnout.

Speaker 2:

Now the next one this is one, two, three, four this is number five, y'all is spiritual rest, and spiritual rest is about contributing to something that is bigger than yourself. This is where you pray, this is where you're going to church, this is where you're in worship, maybe reading your Bible, your devotion. You need to reflect on what gives you meaning. This spiritual rest allows you to constantly know that you have a purpose, to constantly know that there are goals and dreams and desires that God put in your heart, that God has a plan for you. Spiritual rest allows you to connect with God. There's there's the verse from I think it's, psalm 46, 10, be still and know that I am God. Spiritual rest right there. That's where you need to be still and be with God so that you know God. We cannot hear from God if we are distracted or burnt out, if we are too busy on our computers, if we're too busy doing the things and not giving our mind, body and spirit rest. Doing the things and not giving our mind, body and spirit rest, our minds can be so distracted by things outside of our control that we can't hear what it is that God is trying to tell us. So we need to quiet our spirit, we need to quiet our soul, quiet our mind so we can hear what God has for us.

Speaker 2:

The next one of a rest and this is number six, it's emotional rest and this is where it's kind. This is kind of a hard one because it's time to deal with all the emotional load that has taken a toll on you. You know you got to process and express your emotions. This goes back to journaling, but this, this is where my, my journal comes in. You know, writing down um, some things like in my prayers. Sometimes I I just write out the emotions that I'm dealing with and I just give it to God. I have my blank journals where I just write. When I feel like I really need to get things out from my chest, I just go and I start writing. You need to build up emotional awareness when you are bottling everything in and not letting it out. Acknowledge your feelings, share them, share them with others If you need to, or just put them down, go pen and paper with them, identify your emotions and practice expressing them in safe and healthy ways.

Speaker 2:

And the last, the last form of rest, is creative rest. This is number seven, and this is where you give yourself time to recharge and get inspired, to awaken your creativity. This one, I think, is a really important one, next to the spiritual rest, because you're creative for us. This is when God really starts to talk to you y'all. This is when your creative work, the. You know the uniqueness that God put in you, the skills and the special talents, and you know just that special little marking of what God created you. This is where it comes out to play. This is where you know if, whatever creative outlet you have, for me it's writing.

Speaker 2:

I love to write, y'all I love to read. This is my creative outlet, right here. You know you can do if you want to try writing and journaling, you can do this here, reading a book, maybe even just watching a movie and going for a walk, um, playing an instrument, doing some types of crafts If you're crafty, this is where that creative rest comes in. This is where you can look at it as a hobby. What are the hobbies that you love? Photography is a hobby of ours, my husband and I. We love to go hiking and taking pictures of wildlife. You know my husband likes to take his camera. I always just take my iPhone because I don't like having to carry the big camera. I let him carry the big cameras, but we love just going on hikes and looking for nature. We look for nature and that is creative rest for us. So these are just great ways to help you to avoid burnout and these rest are so important, so, so, so important, and they're backed by science. So it's not just me.

Speaker 2:

I did some research, I found what is like some good ways for people to rest and avoid burnout, and those are just the ones that I gave you right now. Now remember, burnout is a real problem. Burnout is not an inevitable. You can actually avoid burnout If you see the red flags early enough, if you identify them and if you make an impact to put some of those rest in place to help you avoid burnout. By recognizing the signs, implementing those healthy boundaries and prioritizing self-care, you can prevent burnout and protect your well-being.

Speaker 2:

Do not let the enemy distract you, friend. Don't let the enemy distract you of what God put in your heart to do. Learn to recognize when it's a distraction and then get back on track. Now I hope that this episode brought you some joy and brought some order to your life, and I hope that I saved at least one person from possible burnout, because it's not a fun place to be. I've been there many times and I'm in a place now where I have become like a pro at identifying burnout and I know what not to do, and I've put a lot of those things in place into my life to help me to never get to that burnout state again. So I really hope that this episode helps you. And if this episode helps you, do me a favor. If you know that it could help someone, share it. Share it with someone you love. Get the message out there, because it is a good message that can help to save someone. And until next time, friend, make sure you keep chasing joy.