Recognizing Burnout and Completing Your Stress Cycles

Lisa M. Laughman, LMSW

Resilience Trainer

Founder, Wisdom Heart Life

Laughman@msu.edu

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Thank you for your service

Facilitator’s Credentials: �Lisa Laughman,LMSW

By the numbers:

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34 years of clinical social work experience

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20-year veteran of the MSU EAP Counseling Team

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30 years of experience as a 3 Principles Facilitator

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9 years as a Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator

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How I come into the room today relative to my social identity group affiliations

Coordinator, Spartan Resilience Training Program

Raised in a 12-Step family

Outpatient Therapist – Gateway Community Services

Prevention – Project Impact, MSU

Inpatient Therapist – Horizon Center

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��With a shared thread of resilience, our theme centers on the intentional relationships (bridges) and the everyday restorative acts (compassion) that supports our community, including the ways in which we show up for our students, one another, and ourselves.

2023 MSU Student Success Summit Theme:�Building Bridges and Cultivating Compassion

https://ifs-institute.com/about-us

Intentional Relationship

Everyday Restorative Acts

The 3 Elements of Burnout

1. Emotional Exhaustion

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• Depersonalization

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• Decreased Sense of Accomplishment

Carrying too much for too long

An unconquering sense of futility: feeling that nothing you do makes any difference

BURNOUT: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

– Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA (2019)

Our main objective is to operate from the lowest effective level of stress response possible in any given situation

https://ifs-institute.com/about-us

It is easier to operate from the lowest effective stress response today if you:

• Are not already burnt-out

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• Start each day less accumulated stress juice left over from the day before

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• Witness yourself walk through your day – notice your own stress saturation

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• When you realize you are saturated – intentionally do a practice to help you wring it out

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• Reject the notion of “self-care” and replace with solid stress mitigation protocols

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• Invite others to join you – build a community of people seeking to reduce stress saturation for self, each other, and the team.

Pump out the stress juice on a daily basis.

We understand how a sponge works better than we understand how people work.

5 Mental Patterns that drive your nervous system towards chronic dysregulation

• Helper – we define ourselves by what we do for others

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• Achiever – We define ourselves by what we accomplish (outcomes)

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• Perfectionist –While the achiever is focused on the outcome, we are focused on the way we get to the outcome – constant obsessing over the details to get things right, do things right.

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• Anxiety – We are constantly trying to think ourselves into a feeling of safety

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• Controller – We are trying to build a sense of safety by being in control of ourselves, our environment, the people around us.

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Many of us need to reset our nervous systems.

We have to start somewhere.

Waking Up The Witness�

Asking your observing self to help you notice what is happening with your nervous system, right now.

5 Guiding Questions:

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1. What is the level of my stress?
2. How do I know? (look to map)
3. Is this level of response helping me?
4. Can I bring in a practice to help me settle?
• Flipping the Switch
• What 5 things
• 3 breath reset
• Settling the breath
• Butterfly hug
• Arm swipe
• Vagal nerve reset
5. How do I know it is working?

https://themovementparadigm.com/how-to-map-your-own-nervous-sytem-the-polyvagal-theory/

Notice Resistance and Resentment�

You have to catch a glimpse of your habits before you can make a change.

State clearly what has happened or is happening.

Name and allow yourself to feel the full range of your human emotions.

Become willing to release what you are holding, experiencing, and creating in this specific moment.

Allow yourself to connect with the present moment and help your nervous system reset.

Reflect on your core values and/or the values of the institution. Identify specific actions you can take that would be lined up with these values.

Take courageous, value guided action without attachment to the outcome. Spartan Will

Ask yourself: Given what happened or is happening, who do you want to be and how do you want to move forward?

@MAET

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Notice Stress Saturation�

Without judgment, check in with yourself regularly to see if you are saturated in this very moment.

When you notice stress saturation

Wring it out, now?

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Not later…

There are many ways to �“complete your stress cycles”

• Physical Activity
• Breathing
• Positive Social Interaction
• Laughter
• Affection
• Crying/Sobbing
• Creative Expression
• Engagement with Something Larger
• Other suggestions

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Photo credit: Lisa Laughman: shark tooth collecting in Venice, FLA

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Lisa Laughman, LMSW

Coordinator,

Spartan Resilience Training Program

Laughman@msu.edu

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@MAET

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