Reviving Your Workday, Reviving Your Life: Beating Burnout in 10 Simple Steps

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Jul 3, 2002

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." Diane Ackerman

New Thought is as practical as it is spiritual. We hear all kinds of scientific, theological, New Age, and other metaphysical theories about our existence: is it real, an illusion, a blip on the universal screen? Who knows, really? And I, for one, don't care. As H.L. Mencken once quipped, "We are here, and it is now. Everything else is moonshine."

As a New Thought minister, my job is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. I borrowed that from someone, I don't remember who, but I like it. So, believe whatever you choose about our Ultimate Fate, or where we go when we die. In the meantime, here's a short but powerful little list that will help you be your best at work--and therefore, everywhere and all the time--no matter what:

The Ten Steps

1. Thump your thymus. It stimulates the immune system, helps create a sense of well being. Be sure to smile while thumping! (The thymus gland is located just below the bottom edge of the breast bone.) Thump it in 10-thump segments with tips of your fingers, not knuckles, three or four times each day.

2. Drink more water. Water is the most powerful solvent on the planet. It carved the Grand Canyon and the Columbia River Gorge. It dissolves all kinds of build-up in the body. Spritz cool water on your upper regions while sitting at your desk. It refreshes and wakes you up.

3. Change your physical position. Slumping leads to emotional lows. Stand up, lift your arms to the sky and smile. You'll change your mood, almost instantly.

4. Talk well to yourself. Create a positive mantra. Release 'makes me' language: he makes me so mad; she made me do it; rainy weather makes me sad. Drop that ridiculous victim consciousness. Drop it now.

5. Use 30-second visualizations. Get a picture, hold it, release it. No need to spend 30, 40, 60 minutes or more on visualizing.

6. Learn--and use--deep breathing techniques. Breathe from the belly. The Spirit is in the breath!

7. Laugh at least 10 times a day. It's healing. For yourself, and for those around you.

8. Add some aerobic exercise to your day, if you haven't already.

9. Increase the amount of greens in your diet. Decrease animal products. Stop smoking. (You may not be aware of it, but if you smoke, you stink. No getting around it.)

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