Okay, burn out, such a key thing within all of the helping professions. As much as you are helping someone else, you have to make sure you help yourself. If you burn out, you are not able to help others so making sure that the amount of time spent helping others is not so much that the helper ends up burning out.
Being able to reduce stress at any moment of the day will stop burning out and a lot of other problems. The ability to grab that door when you walk out of here, that's going to reduce your stress. The ability to be mindful when standing up, that's going to reduce your stress. The ability to eat your food mindfully, that's going to reduce your stress.
The basic body mindfulness practice, the Special Mindfulness Activities that we encourage so much, how many of you use them in your normal life? If you are not using them enough, use them! They work to reduce your stress. For a lot of people when they first wake up, they are feeling stressed as soon as they hear their alarm. So when they go to work they are getting stressed, traffic on the road, delays, etc. They get to work, the boss wants this, the partner wants this, more stress, more stress, throughout the day more stress, more stress. By the end of the day, they are exhausted, they are totally stressed. And when they get home, for a lot of them the first thing that they do is have a brandy or something, trying to calm themselves down.
This build up of stress causes so many problems and burn out in particular. When you wake up in the morning and you are feeling a little bit of tension - the alarm bell just woke you up - can you reflect on how fortunate you are? And not get stressed out? And when you are getting agitated driving the car, maybe there's been an accident so there is a traffic jam and you are stuck in it, can you reflect on how fortunate you are that are just stuck in a car in a traffic jam rather than in the car in the front that had the accident? This can help reduce stress.
You are at the job and the boss wants something of you, can you be mindful sitting down? So that the stress of what the boss wants doesn't build so much. And throughout the day, can you reduce the stress with little bits of mindfulness throughout the day and nice thoughts. So at the end of the day, you are not so stressed out like so many other people. And when you go home, you don't need some alcohol or drugs to calm down because you are more calm down than average people. So, as far as burn out goes having more rests, making sure one is helping not more than one is able to, reducing one's own stress in one's own life, then burn out is less likely to come.