How’s your ability to bounce? How is your ability to bounce back to the bumps of life? Stuck in a rut not able to do new things? Lost the ability to innovate? A few years back that was me, approaching burnout. Resilience was damaged. Damaged resilience is one of the key indicators of emotional depletion. Depletion shows in three ways;

Resilience is not only the ability to absorb the shocks we encounter. It is more than adapting or being able to deal with difficulties. Resilience is seen in our ability to push back on the difficulties. It shows in our capacity to grow. Matt Bloom’s definition gives us great insight. He says “Resilience–our capacity to adapt, change, and respond to

When resilience is damaged One of the most disturbing feelings in burnout is that of numbness. Colour faded from life. Everything turned gray. It was as if the tune had become the constant hum of a sole note. I became numb to the good things of life, physically, emotionally and relationally. This made me look for greater stimulation. Nothing seemed

Adrenaline: the friend Adrenaline is a hormone that our body produces in response to stress. In a moment of danger, it kicks in to help us navigate to a place of safety. In this way it is a very helpful friend. Yesterday, I saw my cat playing with a meter (three foot) brown snake—one of the most poisonous types in

What are the margins that you are happy to live with? Margins are buffers we build to resource our life journey. They act like a shock absorber when you hit one of the bumps in life. Can you absorb the bumps? I used to live with low margins of time and money. The pressure of life and busyness I placed

3 secrets of buoyancy (I used to hate Mondays)—Reflect, Refocus, Replenish, So Mondays have become one of the best days of my week. I look forward to Mondays like I look forward to a great meal with great friends. I know my tank will be filling. Who fills your tank During the process of recovery from burnout, I was asked,

After time spend in reflection—how am I doing (well-being) and how well did I do what I did?—I feel good as I know that I am valuing who I am and positioning myself to have fuel to fulfil my purpose. The next thing to do is to refocus. Refocusing is clarifying my purpose and gaining clarity on what are the

I used to hate Mondays. On Mondays three things I actively do to help me re-charge: Mondays for me is the day after my biggest day of work. If the Sunday service was great, I would crash after the adrenalin high. But if Sunday was not to my hopes, then on Monday I would feel low and depressed. Things are

SUCCESS and COMPARISION The demands of ministry are great. When the expectation of performance is constantly beyond our capacity, a feeling of failure grows. We start telling ourselves “I should be doing better”. Sometimes, it’s imposed by the expectations of others. Sometimes, it’s our cultural expectations of success. In this information age, we have great access to what and how others