Avoiding Burnout

Burnout seems to be a very popular subject related to Clergy these days.  We've taken an article from our most recent Pastor's Weekly Briefing which lays out some observations about burnout, and how to avoid it. 

The shorter days and frigid temperatures can find you feeling a bit lethargic — especially those living in colder climates. As a result, burnout often occurs.

Why are you feeling burned out? After all, the kids are back in school, the holiday hustle and bustle is over and everybody's back to work! But recovery from that holiday rush can leave people feeling drained of energy.

To recover from burnout, motivational speaker Snowden McFall, author of Fired Up, offers her clients these five tips, as reported by foxnews.com:

1) Take a vacation. McFall states that "twenty-six percent of Americans never take a vacation ... and studies show that women who take two weeks of vacation each year can cut their chances of having a heart attack by 50 percent."

2) Laugh. "It's been shown to boost the immune system," says McFall. Toddlers laugh several hundred times a day, but the average adult laughs just four times, she adds.

3) Give back. "When you volunteer to feed people who are starving or stop off at a homeless shelter on your way home from work, it can really put things into perspective and make you think about how well-off you are. And you feel better when you help nurture other people."

4) Deep breathing, meditation. Taking a break and looking inward helps people both mentally and physically, McFall said. "It increases your circulation," she said. Deep breathing also increases your circulation, cuts the duration of hospital stays and leads to fewer business errors.

5) Exercise. "Sixty percent of Americans do not get enough exercise to keep their immune system functioning properly," McFall said.

If this subject peaks further interest, we have an edition of Pastor to Pastor dealing with the subject of burnout.

The interviews can be accessed at  http://www.parsonage.org/p2p/A000001454.cfm for either download of a specific guest or the entire edition.  Or you may order a hard copy of the CD from same site.