ARE YOU SUFFERING FROM BURNOUT...... OR JUST IN THE DOLDRUMS???
From Wikipedia: "Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest. It is emotional exhaustion and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. People who experience all three symptoms - (exhaustion, diminished interest, reduced sense of personal accomplishment) have the greatest degrees of burnout, although emotional exhaustion is said to be the hallmak of burnout."
So as we slide into emotional exhaustion like the deep end of a pool..... we must remember that this will ultimately result in being in the "doldrums" for awhile. Actually, it is a good thing - as long as we don't fight against it. It is a time for rest and renewal. The secret is to relax and go with the flow even if it doesn't seem to be going anywhere and be open to the possibilities. The stillness.... the peace and quiet of our minds will bring us back to our place.
The Doldrums ~ A Metaphor for Life
by Rebecca Fine
In the days of the mighty sailing ships, when brave souls voyaged into the unknown, dependent on the winds and their as-yet incomplete knowledge of geography and navigation, one of the greatest and most dangerous challenges was to traverse the area known as "the doldrums."
Extending about 30 degrees on either side of the equator, the doldrums are subject to days, weeks, even months of no wind at all. After a long and difficult crossing from Europe to South America, lying becalmed in the doldrums -- with no land in sight and with the ship's supply of fresh water dwindling -- could become a frightening, life-threatening situation.
But history and legend offer us some fascinating insights into the power of our own thinking and belief. Back then no one had yet figured out how to determine longitude, although latitude was easily calculated. So if you could not see recognizable land, you could only know in what band of latitude you currently were.
Exactly where you were on that ring around the earth was, at that time, unknowable.
And so it happened that at times a ship would fetch up off the coast of South America, out of sight of shore, fresh water supplies exhausted and death knocking at the door. Then, with what must have been the sweetest sound those sailors could ever have hoped for, the lookout would suddenly call out that a ship was approaching in the distance.
Once the ship was within hailing distance, the cry would go up: "Water! Give us water!" And the reply would come back: "Lower your buckets over the side."
You see, although the sailors didn't know it, they were afloat in a virtual river of drinkable and life-sustaining water flowing from the mouth of the powerful Amazon River, which carries nearly 20 percent of all the earth's runoff water into the sea with such force that the fresh (or brackish but safe) water flows as far as 100 miles out into the Atlantic.
The sailors, dying of thirst, only THOUGHT they were experiencing lack. The REALITY was that they were engulfed in a literal sea of abundance. Exactly what they needed was within their reach the whole time, but the APPEARANCE of scarcity and their BELIEF in that appearance threatened to overpower them.
They could have died -- and many certainly did -- believing in lack while surrounded by abundance.
Question for the day: Are you living in lack while surrounded by abundance?
