MamaManagement

Anyone else feeling it? This feeling...like your slogging through swamplandia. The grey skies. The winter weather relapse. The seemingly never ending pandemic. The daily slog that feels like a 2 ton truck on your shoulders and mud and muck under your feet. The exhaustion. The lack of patience. The feel of being at the pathetic, frayed end of your rope. It's called Burnout .  Burnout is what happens when we don't take care of ourselves--or our jobs/responsibilities don't allow us to take care of ourselves. It's the state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It's feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. (Yeah, that sounds about right.) Burnout is characterized by... - poor performance and reduced creativity (check) - difficulty focusing (check) - lack of motivation (check) - feeling helpless/hopeless to fix things (check) - exhaustion (check) - headaches, stomachaches, or body ach

I think maybe what we and our bodies need is more love.  Two years years ago I wrote about Belly Love (Link:  MamaManagement Belly Love ) and I've recently been thinking more and more about how loving ourselves needs to become a practice, something we do every day. We need to make it a part of our daily routines.  And affirmations are great--I'm a big believer in them. But I think when it comes to our bodies, we need to connect those kind words to our physical beings. I've talked before about lovingly rubbing my belly when I lotion after a shower in an effort to really accept its new Buddha-like softness. But it seems to me that our whole bodies...our whole selves need that kind of love. I also know that new habits are easiest to implement when you attach them to existing habits--it's called habit stacking (It's from Atomic Habits. Great Book. Read it.) So, look at your day for opportunities to stack body love habits on top of existing habits. Here's what I'