Dear Megan,

I have been feeling really overloaded and burned out lately and I’m not sure what to do to make it stop. I was on your GCH call last week and I completed the exercise you gave us and talked about in your blog last Friday…. but I just feel stuck with what to do next. I know I need to delegate more and God showed me some tasks He does not intend for me to do, but I feel like I could be handling it all (especially the stress) better. I’m hoping you can give me some advice on this!

~M.

Sweet sister,

Thank you for taking the first step by doing that exercise from last week ! I pray it was a blessing for you to be able to see in black and white how you are spending your precious resource of time. Our world makes it easy for us to feel overloaded, over burdened and over worked! What I heard through your cry for help is that you are looking for some practical stress-management tools to help you now that you are beginning to spend your time more wisely (as God intends you to).

Adopting healthy stress management skills will enable you to slow down, stop, yield and reduce speed at appropriate intervals on your path of life. In turn, your pace will be regulated and you will be lifted out of the ditch of overload and burnout. As you work through this exercise, you will see how you can begin to walk the road to transformation in the peaceful assurance that God will never call you to do more than He gives you time and ability to do (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

SLOW

{Slow down and make the necessary changes for good physical health}

• Do you eat a balanced and healthy diet?
• Do you exercise at least three times a week?
• Do you take at least one day of rest per week?
• Do you get adequate restful sleep most nights?

 In vain you rise early and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.

{Slow down and evaluate your priorities}

• Do the exercise from last week if you have not done so (Link up above)
• Consider other priorities that should be on the list
• Choose your commitments with careful prayer
• Eliminate unnecessary stressful obligations
• Don’t accept impossible deadlines
• Don’t give in to the pressure of urgency
• Tackle only one problem at a time

{Slow down and nourish your spiritual life}

• Remind yourself daily to “be still, and know that (He is) God” {Psalm 46:10}
• Open lines of honest communication with God about your concerns, needs, and fears
• Set aside time daily for personal prayer and Scripture meditation
• Memorize Scripture that builds assurance of God’s love {Psalm 36:7; Jeremiah 31:3; John 14:21; Romans 8:39}

It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees

STOP

{Stop and look at the real reason you are experiencing stress}

• Do you try to meet your own needs instead of waiting on the Lord?
• Do you think God cannot accomplish His purposes without your over-achieving?
• Do you seek self-worth through proving your adequacy and effectiveness?
• Are you Spirit-led or people-pressured?

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people?  If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

{Stop, confess and turn away from any known sin in your life}

• Do you manipulate or control others?
• Do you feel envious or jealous of others?
• Do you express your feelings inappropriately?
• Do you overreact to criticism?
• Do you have impure motives?

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,
    but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

YIELD

{Yield to God’s sovereign control over your circumstances}

• What is God doing in your circumstances?
• In what way does God want you to change?
• How does God want you to respond?
• Do you have impure motives?

A king’s heart is like streams of water in the Lord’s hand:
He directs it wherever He chooses.

{Yield to God your rights and expectations}

Dear God,

• “I yield my right to control my circumstances.”
• “I yield my right to be accepted by others.”
• “I yield my right to be successful.”
• “I yield my right to be heard and understood.”
• “I yield my right to be right.”

Blessings,

Coach Megan 🙂