What do you do if your work-related stress is affecting your personal life in community outreach?

I've recognized that stress is a constant in life, so I needed to find ways to manage it that fit my lifestyle and interests. I prioritize sleep over anything else. Each morning, I read a daily mindfulness meditation. Throughout the day, I take several short breaks to move, hydrate, and disconnect from screens throughout the work day. I have removed all social media (except LI) from my life and the LI app from my phone. That way, I am not distracted by notification pings day or night. After work, I do not respond to work-related emails or calls. In the evening and on the weekend, I focus on being with family or friends. Spending time with people I love replenishes me.

I make extra time for myself when I feel my work stress is spilling over into my private life. I go for a massage, a walk, etc. Sometimes I need a day away from my family to be alone with my thoughts. I also take naps when I have time on the weekends. Rest reduces stress. Sometimes, I simply sit quietly and read or meditate. Finding activities that help me feel stress-free is the key to reducing my stress over-all. Reducing stress over-all keeps it from spilling into my personal life.

In my work with compassion fatigue, we see a lot of stress manifesting in various aspects of our lives. It is important to inventory the stress. You can do this by listing the cognitions related to stressful thoughts. You can also take an inventory of stress called the ProQOL. Professional Quality of Life (proQOL) is intended for any helper - This measures the positive and negative aspects of helping others. Understanding this measure can improve your ability to help them and your ability to keep your own balance.

Important as a self care resource is awareness of interior self; also of energetic resonances between self and other, and between self and circumstances (or purposes). Stress response-reactivity is an energy pattern. These patterns get interpreted by brain, and organized in and by nervous system. That is wired into survival and shaped by experience of threat, loss, burden, disorganization, and power issues. Awareness of patterns is a learned skill and mindsight. That opens us to capacity to choose a response. Intact, the skill and mindsight are guardrails. These preserve balance and protect resources. Disrupted by 💔 damages such as ABI or stroke, and trauma, same system needs a brace - a policy or tool and a system that accommodates.

Early intervention. Prevent stress from occurring, or accumulating. Keeps Allostatic Loads from shifting to our peril (see Bruce McEwen). Figuring out prodromal signs is key. Elicits choice. Responding (or reacting) to stressors becomes choice, as we monitor our nervous system's energetic shifts, know signaling, can communicate this outwardly. Dismissive-detached-derogatory others often ignore or miss cues. Choice in essence means interior control relative to situational influence and develoomental archives. Continuous awareness of self, other, environment takes practice. Strive-Get enough debrief, balanced resources, and skilled practice of attentional focusing, interoceptive awareness, self care. Perfection is no goal.

Routines with self-care is mandatory. Building a routine is easiest when you are habit stacking. Try to build self-care routine first thing in the morning and right before bed. Think about the things you are doing now, then add one thing for 3 weeks that will augment these self-care experiences. Look at things like stretching, reading, doing devotions, drawing, as ways to calm down or center your day.

As a compassion fatigue educator and therapist, support is imperative. When we get stressed we begin to isolate ourselves. We stop talking to coworkers, we stop engaging in social experiences, we shut down from our loved ones. We encapsulate ourselves with the burnout. Seeking help, will allow you to see many are going through the experience and there are a lot of ways to find peace and feel better.