The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

 By: Megan Brewer, LMHC Burnout can be an easy topic to read about cognitively, file away as good information, and then disregard without letting it impact you further. But as we talk about burnout in this article, I encourage you to not only engage it cognitively, but to consider the personal implications for how it affects your own life. Burnout can be discussed in different contexts, such as in our careers or personal lives. but let’s start with a simple definition of burnout that can cover a lot of contexts. Burnout is the depletion of a substance that is needed to keep something going. When we strip the definition of burnout down like this, we can easily see burnout in a number of different areas, such as in the physical, emotional, mental, and relational arenas. Anything that requires something of you—some output of energy or effort—will 1) require you to have what is needed to engage the work you want to do, and 2) require replenishment to keep going. Now, if we th...

 By: Brian Murray, LMHC, NCC Stress is the result of a demand that is placed on you. As an example of stress, think of something made from metal such as an aircraft wing. The wing is designed to take stress, but too much and the metal becomes fatigued and begins to show signs of stress exhaustion. This creates cracks or perhaps breaking altogether. The same thing can happen to people when they stress. We are designed to handle stress, and in fact, stress can help us grow and learn. Our brains respond to stress by becoming stimulated to learn and adapt to our environment. However, when there is too much stress and we begin to show signs of fatigue and begin to break down. Additionally, stress can create physical issues as well. There is a saying, “the body betrays the mind.” In other words, what is happening in the mind shows up in the body. Stress can create ulcers, high blood pressure and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Too much cortisol stimulates the adrena...

 By: Brian Murray, LMHC, NCC   Covid has created a psychological mind storm since breaking out nearly a year ago. Counseling for anxiety searches on Google tripled in just one-month last March and continues to dominate as one of the leading mental health searches. Anxiety is closely followed by depression as a mental health concern. It shows that after Covid arrived in the United States there was an upheaval in people trying to get a handle on anxiety. Anxiety is a natural response our mind produces that basically gives us two choices which is fight or flight. When we feel cornered and there is no escape, we tend to fight. If we have options to escape, we tend to flee. Panic which is also a form of anxiety is when we feel like we can do neither and feel trapped with no way out. Covid has certainly created all three of these types of anxiety scenarios. If we are to flee then we isolate and avoid others and try to shrink ourselves to the threat. To fight may mean we jo...