Happiness is an inside job.
It’s also the key to avoiding burnout. Have you ever noticed that when you are truly interested in something, you seem to have MORE than enough energy to get it done, no matter what else is going on in your life? This comes down to your mindset. The truth is (physical health conditions permitting) your mind will always give you enough energy to do the things you really want to do. So why are so many people facing burnout, depression and adrenal fatigue these days? It’s a complex and multi-faceted issue which I can distill down to 2 main points relating to mindset:
NOT FOLLOWING YOUR HEART’S DESIRES. Now, this doesn’t mean get up and leave your job if you’re not happy (or maybe it does, if your workplace is particularly toxic it might be time to look for a new job). What it DOES mean is that you need to have a really close look at all areas of your life. Where are you not speaking your truth? Have you let hobbies and exercise and things you enjoy fall by the wayside? Are your relationships not nourishing you? It’s up to you to make the changes so you can feel more at peace with what’s going on around you.
YOUR INNER DIALOGUE. The harsh, hurtful, critical words you may say to yourself on a regular basis. Over a lifetime the bad things you say to and ABOUT yourself (self-denigrating humour ring a bell?) will take tiny chips out of your self-esteem and eventually culminate in depression and fatigue if left to get out of hand. Your subconscious mind’s NUMBER ONE JOB is to keep you safe, so if you are always running the thought pattern of “I hate my job/I’m under so much pressure/ I’m at my maximum capacity” etc then it is going to do everything it can to keep you away from the thing that is causing you so much pain (your job). The best way to do that? Make you so sick with fatigue, burnout and other health conditions that you have a great excuse not to go.
If this sounds like you, it’s time to re-write your inner script. I call this technique “The Rescripting Game”. It’s a basic Neuro-Linguistic Programming called Reframing, however I have found greater success with my clients by turning it into a game. I believe this relieves stress on the brain and thus it seats into the subconscious faster, and it is also a great one to play with colleagues, family and kids especially. Your inner dialogue really is just stories you made about yourself form when you were knee-high to a grasshopper, and they CAN be changed. The first step is awareness that you are not nice inside your own head to yourself, other people or your environment and making a conscious decision to change. You will feel the results almost immediately.
How to play? It’s simple! Every time you catch yourself (or others) talking badly to or about yourself just say or shout “RESCRIPT!” And replace whatever it was you said with something different, preferably positive. This can be fun in an office environment to help your colleagues and improve the general energy. Imagine what your workplace would be like if everyone not only helped each other feel good, but also felt better about themselves!
If you are in a funk, or suffering deep emotional pain, you’re not alone, and the number one thing I convey to everyone I meet is this: it may not be your fault you feel this way, but your healing is still YOUR responsibility. Taking radical responsibility for your life and everything that happens to and from you is the first and most important step in creating and maintaining a life you truly love. From there, the world is yours.
Contributed by Holly Loxton
Holly is a Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner and Life Coach in Perth, Western Australia. The founder of Accessing Abundance, she has a passion for assisting people out of patterns that have kept them stuck and unhappy and then show them how to create a life they really enjoy. She holds the belief that a life of abundance in every form (love, money, health) is available to all people, and diligently works to helping other people believe that this is also available to them.
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