When life gets busy it’s easy to take on too much resulting in feeling exhausted. This can have effects physically and emotionally. Here are 5 ways to prevent burnout to help you get through a tough season.
1.) Prayer
Bringing everything before the Lord is a must. When we cast our cares on the Lord He provides us with the strength to continue on. We can ask for wisdom in faith and He will give it to us so that we know how to handle the demands of life (James 1:5 ESV). The bible also tells that the joy of the Lord is our strength and that He is our shield. When we come to Him we can rejoice that He is more mighty than any situation that we encounter. We can ask Him for wisdom and the strength to overcome burnout and to help us make the changes that we need to prevent it. We are also able to pray, in Jesus’ name, that any spiritual warfare around what we are experiencing be broken. Luke 10:19 says “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you”.
Prayer, praise and worship should be our first defense against anything that we are facing in life.
2.) Set Boundaries With Yourself & Others
Start saying “no” when you’re feeling drained instead of saying “yes” just to keep others happy. Protect your relationships with friends and loved ones by creating boundaries where you are feeling like you’re over extending yourself. Doing things for people because you feel obligated to can take the joy out of those relationships because resentment and grudges can take root. The enemy can easily get a foothold when you’re feeling tired and begrudgingly saying “yes” to helping or doing something for someone when you really don’t have the capacity to. We are called to love one another, do good and be ready to share (1 Timothy 6:18 ESV) but when we are not taking the time to be renewed daily by the Word of God and spending time with Him, we eventually won’t have much left to give to others. This leads to feeling drained and eventually will lead to burnout.
3.) Release Your Emotions In A Healthy Way
When we feel overwhelmed and stressed, we can experience many different emotions. Maybe a deadline at work is making you feel anxious or maybe an ongoing family issue is making you feel sad. Whatever the emotion might be it is good to process through it in a healthy way. This could look like journaling about your day and what you felt the highest and lowest points were. Or going for a prayer walk where you can tell the Lord exactly how you’re feeling about the situation that you’re in and ask Him to hold your heart and give you peace and comfort while you overcome it. This could also look like speaking to a trusted person like a life coach or friend/family member about what is on your mind and working through the things that you feel challenged with.
4.) Limit Who Has Access To Your Personal Life
It’s great to have friends. But stretching yourself thin to spend time with multiple people who you have shallow relationships with won’t fill you back up. Instead of acquaintances that you know you will never develop a meaningful relationship with, ask the Lord to bring you community. Having a community of supportive Christian women will help fill your cup and help you grow. To learn about making and keeping good friends, read my blog post Why Choosing The Right Friends Is Important. Additionally, not everyone needs to have access to the more personal and deep things going on in your life. Matthew 7:6 says “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Some people don’t have the capacity or the best intentions to truly hear your heart and pray for or encourage you. Oversharing with the wrong people can lead to feeling frustrated, disappointed and burnt out when it isn’t received the way that you expected. Pick your safe people who you know are for you and use them as your sounding board. Try to be that person for them as well.
5.) Done Is Better Than Perfect
Instead of nit-picking the smallest element of the work that you do or the task at hand, focus on getting it done with excellence instead of perfection. In our flesh and in our own strength we will never be perfect. That’s why we have Jesus and why He died for us. Because we aren’t perfect we needed to be reconciled with God through the blood of Jesus. The bible calls us to do all things unto the Lord and to walk in excellence like Daniel, but that doesn’t mean to strive and work ourselves to the bone to be perfect. Only God is perfect and His love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12 ESV). Striving for perfection will lead to burnout because it is an unattainable standard that we put on ourselves. Prayerfully ask the Lord to reveal areas of your life and heart where you struggle with perfectionism. Ask Him to also reveal where the root of perfectionism has come from. Being able to work through this with someone like a life coach who has knowledge in helping clients with inner healing through the Holy Spirit could be one way to help you overcome perfectionism and end burnout.
In summary, these are just some examples of how to prevent burnout from happening. It’s important that we first bring issues like this to the Lord for guidance on how to handle them. These are a few ways that I have been able to prevent burnout in my own life that I hope will help you as well.
Closing Prayer
Lord, I lift up the woman reading this who is in need of relief from the feelings of burnout. Please replenish her weary heart with your comforting Word. Holy Spirit, please speak to her heart and show her the areas of her life that are causing her to feel this way. Bring her revelation and perfect peace that your hand is on her situation. Give her the strength and wisdom to walk through this tiring season as your word says that she can do all things through Christ who strengthens her (Philippians 4:13) and guard her from the schemes of the enemy. Amen.
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