Step 1. Acceptation
Since yesterday, I’ve been doing a lot of internet research about stress and burn-outs (which is not an english, but a dutch term! - I read somewhere), and apparently I have enough symptoms to be officially ‘overspannen’ (which some sites say is equivalent to having a burn-out, but personally I feel a burn-out to be one step futher, a point where you feel like you can’t motivate yourself to do anything. But that’s not my problem. I’m still motivated. I just can’t continue.)
Well, that’s step 1 isn’t it? Accepting you’re stressed out, and being willing to change? Of course I should have taken this step a lot sooner, when it would have taken me a lot less time to get back to the way my energy levels were, but I’m glad I’ve finally convinced myself ^_~
I’ve also been talking to family and friends about this stress thing, and people gave me many different advises. Here is what I’m going to do for now:
Breaking the Circle
How did I get this stressed out, what role does my environment play in it, and what did I do myself to contribute to this? How can I break the circle and recognize when I’m going to the wrong way again? This is my main problem I think: I don’t notice I’m running out of energy until it is all gone. There must be some kind of symptoms right?
Change My Way of Thinking
My mom brought up this one, and I think it will have the most impact. Essentially, I have to change my way of thinking into her way of thinking. My mom is a very relaxed person, and this is why:
- What is the worst that could happen if you would not do it? What if things don’t go perfectly? Does it really matter? It might even result in less work ^_~
- What if you wouldn’t have been born? The world would still turn, wouldn’t it? (Yup, apparently I’m an egocentrical bitch ^^;)
- If nobody else takes responsibility, why would you? This one really hurts, since I’m kind of a ‘world improver’, but hey, why should I stress about something nobody else is willing to stress about?
Structure
Plan in your day, but don’t forget to also build in lots of rest, healthy food and some sports activity. And if things don’t fit, don’t give up the planned rest, just say ‘no’. I read that everywhere, and of course, it’s so true >_<
Give and Take
Make a list of what gives enery and what takes energy, and do a lot more of the first than of the latter. It’s like a reverse diet: instead of having to burn more energy (calories) than I take in, I have rebuild my energy reserves ^_~
So, this is my plan for at least the next two weeks (of course that is easy to say when the second week I’ll be on Vlieland without a pc and internet, so I can’t do anything even if I wanted to). Let’s see how it works out. Of course I don’t expect to be cured within two weeks, but it’ll probably be a nice change ^^
P.S. Thanks for your reactions. I hope you don’t feel obligated to react or anything. I’m mostly writing this down to get things clear for myself. And of course I’m happy to read any tips and support ^_~
More..