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How to increase confidence, focus and creativity through visualization
Did you know that to gain full control of your life it’s essential to manage the way you think? Countless experiences in our lives let us believe that we are subject to destiny; that we have no control over our own lives. However, by harnessing the visualization potential of our mind we can reframe our minds and create a new source of mental energy towards wellbeing and success.
Visualization and Manifestation
Visualization is simply creating images in your mind of what you want in your life. Manifestation consists of attaching an emotion to your visual representations, projecting your desired future into the present state of your mind. Many of us are often stuck in negative, circular and repetitive thoughts and emotions. By mastering the mental practice of visualization, you can prepare your mind to attain your desired goals and ensure that your thoughts and actions are focused on the present and future objectives, regulating the undesirable effect of many past experiences, such as traumas, omissions and regrets.
How does this work? Your brain actually can’t tell the difference between a memory and a future vision. In fact, brain imaging shows that there is an overlap in brain activity between remembering past events and imagining or simulating future events. As a result, when you visualize what you want for the future, you actually lock in an image that you can use for inspiration until you’re able to make your vision a reality.
Visualization has long been used by successful people including elite athletes and successful entrepreneurs, because it boosts:
Confidence
When you visualize your future, it helps you feel empowered. This in turn enables you to relax and focus on what you need to do now to attain your goals. Instead of wasting your energy on bad memories or potential problems, you focus on the present moment, your sensations, experiences and thoughts.
Visualizing your future alters your mind for the better. For instance, in a study on job seekers, almost 70% of those who received visualization training in addition to traditional career counselling could find new jobs within 2 months, compared to only 21% of those who only received career counselling. By visualizing they already had the job, their confidence increased, improving their mental preparation for the interview.
Focus
With the constant busyness of everyday life, it’s easy to become distracted from our goals. By practicing visualization regularly, you keep your focus on your goals and you’re more likely to spot opportunities or gain insights as to what can help you to be more successful.
When New Year arrives, many of us have intentions to optimize our health, whether it be by losing weight, quitting smoking, etc. But come February, our good intentions have waned. By visualizing, you can focus on your intentions. Research has shown that participants who received an educational health message about eating more fruits along with visualization achieved a significantly better outcome than those who only received the educational health message.
Creativity
To unleash our creativity, our minds need something more than external distractions from daily work and chores. Just a few minutes of visualization can create in our mind the right framework to capture new ideas and for ideas and discoveries to pop up. This is the way we can activate our subconscious creativity.
Mindful framing
Once you find time and commit regularly to a visualization practice, incorporate into your daily routine. This is the key premise for any visualization practice. Mindful framing is a mindfulness practice that helps you design and adopt your ideal lifestyle. When practicing visualization through mindful framing, you learn and see with your mind’s eye five mental scenes. First you visualize your anxiety triggers, next you engage your five senses, connect with nature, regulate your emotions and finally invigorate your organism.
Any of these visual scenes or combination of them will help you frame your mind. Let’s say you want to prepare for an important meeting. First you want to make sure your mind is clear of anxious thoughts, next you want to ensure you are going to be fully present, with your senses: What do you feel? What do you hear? What do you see? And then learn how to send energy throughout your entire body and emotional state. When you visualize, you win!
The more details you can visualize, the more real it will appear. In turn, this will help your brain establish neural connections, increasing the so-called neuroplasticity. You will increase your motivation, helping you take the actions necessary to reach your goal.
Creating goal pictures
Another great way to visualize is to make a mental picture of yourself as if you have already reached your goal. For instance, if one of your goals is to buy your dream house, imagine your dream house, and see yourself inside your dream house. Think about it regularly, intensely.
Practicing affirmations
An affirmation is a statement of your ideal future that you repeat to yourself. For instance, let’s say, that your goal is to work more efficiently in less time, your affirmation could be this:
“I will increase my productivity getting my daily work done in 6 hours per day.”
By repeating this affirmation often during the day, it helps you stay focused on your goal and boosts your intentions. It also helps your subconscious brain do what it needs to do to make your goal materialize.
When practicing an affirmation, there are a few guidelines to follow. You want them to affirm the positive, keep your affirmations short, and not force yourself to believe your affirmation. Simply repeat it, regularly.
You can use visualization to reach the untapped potential of your mind and create your dream destiny. In as little as a few minutes per day, you can regain control of your life, forever.
Addressing the Key Sources of Anxiety in the ‘Golden Years’
By Kent Elliot
Aging comes with many difficulties, and even the healthiest among us wind up losing some spryness as we get older. For many, this change can be a dramatic one. Seniors often experience anxiety about how they will navigate their golden years. Here’s a look at a few of the things that seniors worry about, and how to address them.
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Navigating and Maintaining the Home
As you get older, the house you’ve thrived in all your life may not work well anymore. For the lucky ones, grand staircases, large tubs, ornate doorknobs — many of the features you may have once adored can present a challenge. Mobility is often impacted by age, and seniors feel the pressure.
The National Institute on Aging explains how aging in place becomes much more challenging. Even if there aren’t any mobility concerns, the simple act of staying up on chores can be a burden when combined with waning energy levels. Many seniors put themselves through undue stress trying to keep their house up to par when it’s become too difficult.
Seniors in this position might consider bringing in a roommate to help with some of the financial and physical challenges of living alone. Having a roommate can also ensure that emergency services are called if there are any health issues. Another option is downsizing to a smaller home or looking into independent living facilities. Independent living offers spaces that are easy to navigate and typically include food service, housekeeping, and opportunities to socialize and develop community. Research your options to find something that suits both your needs and budget.
Social Isolation
Many seniors worry about the issue of social isolation. It’s a serious concern — a lack of social contact is a problem facing many older adults. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, many seniors become relatively homebound at some point. Getting out and about gets more difficult, so they’re more likely to only see those who come to them.
Fortunately, with a little creative thought, seniors can get the socialization they need. If it’s only a matter of not knowing where to find new friends, consider joining a class for a hobby you’re interested in, such as music or art. This way you’ll not only get to know new people, but you’ll also learn a skill along the way.
If mobility is a concern, the aforementioned independent living facilities can make a huge difference. Most communities’ built-in amenities encourage residents to get out of their rooms and go meet their neighbors. It’s easy to build up a great community when you’re surrounded by potential new friends.
Staying in Shape
The same mobility issues that make it difficult to navigate the home or get out and meet new people can leave seniors anxious about their ability to stay in shape. After all, the recommended thirty minutes of exercise a day is a daunting task when simply getting up and moving around the house can cause serious joint or muscular pain. Fortunately, there are ways of gently exercising that are well suited for older people.
For those who are mobile, gentle walks outside can be a good option for seniors. Go at a gentle pace, and consider a park path with many benches so you can take breaks as needed. If the weather isn’t accommodating for outdoor activity, go for a walk in a mall or museum.
Wheelchair users can look into wheelchair yoga poses. Ideally these should be performed with a friend or partner, and if you need more support in your chair, consider better cushioning.
Get the most out of your fitness routine by combining it with meditation. You can either incorporate meditation as a way of preparing your mind and body for working out, or you can meditate as a way to cool down after you’re done.
Aging can come with challenges, but planning ahead will make those challenges less stressful. Seniors can reduce stress by thinking forward and giving themselves the assistance they need to thrive. With forethought, the golden years can be a joy-filled, stress-free part of life.
Connect with The Posture Works for additional information and products that will help you and yours enjoy better health and well-being.
4 Infallible Ways to Boost Your Immune System
Modern medicine focuses on cures, not on lifestyle interventions that can prevent many diseases depending on a healthy immune system. Let’s actively boost our immune system to overcome deadly pathogens, carcinogens and self-inflicted wounds driven by anxiety and stress. Let’s realize that our immune system is at the core of our wellbeing, regulating our organism’s response to infections, cancer and autoimmunity.
Basics of the Immune System
The immune system is a sophisticated set of proteins, cells, tissues and organs working together to protect any organism. Even trees have rudimentary immune systems! Although its main goal is to repel infections, it also plays a role patrolling and controlling cancer while potentially able to trigger autoimmune diseases.
The immune system consists of a number of important players, described as members of a detective task force in chapter 2 of the free kindle book Mindful Framing:
T Cells: These are the major orchestrators of all the components in the immune system. Some types of T cells are able to recognize infected and cancerous cells and directly kill or destroy them. Other T cells assist or regulate the activities of other immune cells.
B Cells: These cells play a major role in producing billions of antibodies, tiny molecules that are always on the look out for pathogens and unwanted cells. B cells play a crucial role in controlling infections by tagging pathogens and cancer cells to be recognized by macrophages, but can also generate antibodies causing autoimmune diseases.
Macrophages: These cells recognize pathogens or unwanted cells that need to be removed while interacting with T cells, informing them which cells are allies or enemies.
Natural Killer Cells: These are rapid-response cells able to kill infected and cancerous cells, like the T cells, but just relying on certain markers not requiring the intervention of other immune cells.
Age and the Immune System
The elderly are more susceptible to infectious diseases, and unfortunately, more likely to die from them. This is because as we age, our immune system is less effective at combating infections, and less responsive to vaccines.
Why is this? As we age, the total number of T cells remain the same; however, the number of naïve T cells decrease. Naïve T cells are T cells that learn to recognize specific pathogens. They then develop into cells that are specialists in future encounters with those specific pathogens.
Additionally, senescent T cells, which are T cells that have deteriorated with age, are easily exhausted after becoming active and start producing inflammation-causing substances potentially leading to chronic systemic inflammation, such as rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis or lupus.
There also seems to be an association between nutrition and immunity in older individuals. The elderly can display micronutrient malnutrition, a form of malnutrition which occurs when one is deficient in various essential vitamins and minerals. This is because they tend to eat less and have a less diverse diet.
You can optimize your immune system by using these 4 infallible lifestyle interventions to boost its function:
Eat a healthy diet
There are many definitions of what a “healthy diet” is, but the general consensus is that it is one that is rich in fruits and vegetables and poor in processed foods. Research has shown that fruits and vegetables contain nutrients such as beta-carotene, and vitamins C and E, which can boost your immune function. In addition, fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of antioxidants which fight inflammation.
In particular, beta-carotene is a potent antioxidant that not only reduces disease-causing inflammation, but also boosts the immune system by increasing the number of immune cells in the body. Foods that are rich in beta-carotene include carrots, sweet potatoes, and green leafy vegetables.
Likewise, vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that aids in the destruction of free radicals. It also boosts the immune system in a number of ways. For instance, it promotes the production and coordinated function of T cells and B cells, and protects them from free radical damage. Lastly, vitamin C strengthens the skin barrier, preventing pathogens from entering the body in the first place. Good sources of vitamin C include oranges, strawberries, lemons, red peppers and other fruits and vegetables.
Vitamin E is another powerful antioxidant. Studies have shown that it increases the T cells ability to form an effective immune synapse. An effective immune synapse means having a close contact between immune system cells, essential for the proper functioning of the immune system. You can get Vitamin E from nuts, seeds, broccoli and spinach.
Having a balanced diet leads to a healthy gut, essential for a healthy immune system. That’s because the majority of your immune system resides in the gut, in fact, up to 80%.
In order to maintain a healthy gut, you need to maintain a good balance between the good bacteria, and the bad bacteria in your gut. One way you can do this is by consuming probiotics, either in supplement form or in food. Good food sources of probiotics include yogurt, kefir, and fermented vegetables.
Another way in which you can improve your gut health is to avoid or limit your consumption of highly processed foods. This is because highly processed foods can cause inflammation of the gut.
Get enough sleep
We all know the importance of sleep for rejuvenating our mind and organism, but did you know that it can also boost our immune system?
Not getting enough sleep has been linked to a reduction in immune function. For example, research has shown that people who sleep less than 5 hours a night are more likely to have suffered a recent cold.
Why is this so? Well, in order for your T cells to destroy pathogens, they need to come in close contact with them. Sticky substances called integrins facilitate this contact; think of them as the glue that your T cells need to stick to pathogens.
Stress hormones make these integrins less sticky. When you get enough sleep, your stress hormones drop, causing the integrins to stick better. And when they’re stickier, your T cells are better able to adhere to pathogens, boosting your immunity.
In order to get enough sleep, it is critical to optimize your sleep environment. For instance, you’ll want to reduce your exposure to blue light from blue-light emitting devices such as TVs, laptops, tablets, and cell phones. This is because blue light reduces the production of melatonin, a hormone that is responsible for good sleep.
You’ll also want to make sure your sleep environment is quiet, so you can fall asleep and stay asleep. If you live in a noisy neighbourhood, you may want to wear earplugs, or turn on a white-out machine to drown out noise.
You’ll also want to make sure that you’re not too hot or too cold, as either factor can result in poor sleep. You can do this by wearing night wear that keeps you at a comfortable temperature, adjusting your thermostat accordingly, and using appropriate bedding.
Practice anxiety management
Anxiety and chronic stress affect not only your mind, but your immune system too. Chronic stress decreases the number of T cells and B cells. This in turn increases your risk for viral infections, such as colds and cold sores. Chronic stress also activates latent viruses, viruses which have been dormant in your body. The activation of latent viruses due to chronic stress causes wear and tear on your immune system, making it exhausted and “burnt out”, unable to deal with everyday assaults to your body. Lastly, chronic stress results in chronic inflammation, causing autoimmune diseases.
Due to the effect of chronic stress on the immune system, it is important to practice anxiety management. You can do this in a number of ways. One way is to practice mindfulness-based meditation. This lowers your cortisol levels, which in turn reduces inflammation. Mindful framing also achieves this effect by transforming your anxiety into vital energy while developing a mental framework focusing on connecting to nature, emotional intelligence and invigorating your organism. Practicing yoga also lowers your cortisol levels and relaxes your nervous system, thus reducing inflammation.
Besides practicing these mind-body activities, simply spending time in nature can boost your immune system. When you’re out in nature, the sounds, smells, and sights can also induce feelings of calm. Additionally, some research shows that phytoncide, an antibacterial substance released by trees, increases Natural Killer Cell activity. So, the next time you’re under stress, go for a walk and while you’re at it, practice some mindful framing.
Engage in regular exercise
You know the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away?’’. Well, that saying can also apply to exercise. In a study examining the effects of exercise on the immune system, participants who walked at least 20 minutes a day, a minimum of 5 days a week, had almost 50% less sick days than those who walked once a week or less. What’s more, when they did get sick, they were sick for a shorter period, and their symptoms were milder.
Engaging in regular exercise becomes even more important as you get older. That’s because research shows that exercise can increase the number of T cells, and even improve the response to vaccines in the elderly.
However, exercise intensity matters. You want to aim for moderate intensity exercise, not high intensity exercise. This is because engaging in prolonged high intensity exercise, without enough recovery time, may increase the risk of illness. So, go ahead and get some exercise, but try not to overdo it.
We live in an increasingly hostile environment to our bodies and minds, and despite many miracle therapies in today’s medicine, prevention is still better than cure. So, take the time to boost your immune system in a holistic manner. Your very life could depend on it.
Prioritize Mental Health to Boost Your Mood, Alleviate Financial Anxiety, and More
By Brad Krause
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health concerns — such as depression and anxiety — can lead to premature death, with some people dying as much as two decades younger as a result. While the right combination of medication and psychotherapy can often help to treat or relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression, a good self-care routine can also contribute to better psychological health and well-being. Mindful Framing wants you to be happy and healthy, so read on for information that can help with these concerns.
Care for Your Wallet, Calm Your Mind
Finances are one of the biggest stressors we face as humans, especially during this time of pandemic-induced economic uncertainty, If you’re worried about money and losing quality sleep because of it, however, caring for your wallet and regaining some control over your finances could help to ease some of your anxiety and boost your psychological health and well-being. To get a handle on your financial anxieties, for instance, you could start contributing more money to your retirement account, building an emergency savings fund, or repaying your smaller, more attainable debts.
If you own your home, refinancing your mortgage could be another worthwhile option to consider when you’re stressing about finances. By refinancing, you’d use the equity in your home to free up some cash for other expenses, or you could lower the amount of your monthly mortgage.
Sleep Better, Live Happier
Quality sleep is crucial to our physical, mental, and emotional health — and Healthline explains that consistently poor sleeping habits can lead to obesity, impaired brain function, and an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Additionally, sleep deprivation, depression, chronic stress, attention difficulties, and anxiety often go hand-in-hand.
If you’re suffering from insomnia, depression, anxiety, or another mental health concern, a good night’s sleep could help to alleviate these issues and boost your psychological well-being:
- Avoid drinking caffeinated beverages after 3 pm.
- Limit daytime naps to 30 minutes at most.
- Follow the same sleep schedule all week, even on weekends.
- Relax with a gentle yoga class, guided meditation, or deep breathing exercises before heading to bed.
Eat Nutritiously, Ease Depression
In addition to caring for your wallet and getting plenty of sleep each night, some foods have been shown to alleviate symptoms of depression — including carrots, bananas, beans, beets, and avocados. As such, incorporating these mood-boosting foods into your diet could help to improve your psychological, emotional, and physical health and well-being over time. Plus, many of these depression-fighting foods can be incorporated into smoothies, salads, sandwiches, veggie burgers, and other delicious, easy-to-prepare meals.
Diet relates to energy as well, and many people battling mental health concerns find themselves struggling with sluggishness. Thankfully, there are products that can help. If you’re having trouble with weight loss or with finding the motivation for working out, a metabolism boosting supplement might give you the spark you need to get the ball rolling.
Set Fitness Goals
Exercise can play a key role in managing mental health. As the Myeloma Crowd explains, working out can help your body produce feel-good chemistry that protects your mind and promotes healthy thought patterns. Just five minutes a day can be enough to put a little happier spring in your step, so don’t be afraid to start small.
It’s important to avoid setting yourself up for failure, so keep your goals achievable. Consider adding a tool to measure your progress, such as an Apple Watch Series 6. Having something that tracks your movement throughout the day and helps you plan workouts is a great way to feel encouraged and stay on track.
Stay Positive
While tech can add to your well-being, sometimes it can also detract. To boost mental health, it’s also important to step away from social media if you’re already feeling self-conscious, open up to your loved ones when you’re struggling with insecurities, and surround yourself with positive, health-conscious individuals who can help you to achieve your wellness goals. Surround yourself with positive vibes, and step away from negative ones.
The abovementioned self-care strategies can all help to boost your happiness and psychological well-being, but you shouldn’t be afraid to speak to a therapist if you think you could also benefit from counseling, medication, or a combination of the two.
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How to Prevent Burnout in 5 Easy Steps
Have you ever felt like a candle burning at both ends? Work and everyday life are increasingly demanding and with today’s 24/7 technology, the boundary between work and our personal lives is getting blurrier and blurrier. Compound that with a myriad of obligations and little or no time to relax and chill out, and it’s no wonder we feel overwhelmed.
What is burnout?
Burnout is a state in which you are emotionally, mentally, and often physically exhausted as a result of prolonged or repetitive stress. Though it’s often a result of work, it can also occur as a result of parenthood or caregiving.
Besides hectic work or taking on many responsibilities, other factors may lead to burnout. These include how you ‘live’ life, and how you ‘view’ life.
Classic signs of burnout include:
- Feeling exhausted most of the time
- Feeling like a failure
- Getting sick a lot
- Turning to unhealthy living, junk food, drugs, or alcohol to deal with life
Unfortunately, burnout doesn’t disappear by itself and if left untreated can result in chronic ailments like depression, diabetes and heart disease.
High functioning anxiety and burnout
About one in five people suffer from some form of anxiety condition. So, chances are that you know one of them; perhaps that person is you. Many people with anxiety suffer from what is termed “high functioning anxiety.”
Someone with high functioning anxiety can handle career and relationship obligations. However, their anxiety causes them a lot of emotional pain. So, they likely don’t require hospitalization for their anxiety, but it is distressing enough for them to be able to benefit from some sort of ongoing outpatient therapy.
People with high functioning anxiety have a myriad of symptoms that can lead to burnout. These include a need to constantly be busy, perfectionist tendencies, and not being able to say no to others. So, by treating the anxiety through modalities such as individual/group therapy, and medication, this not only helps manage the anxiety, but may also prevent burnout.
So, now that you know what burnout is and how detrimental it can be, how can you prevent it? Here are my 5 easy-to-implement ways to prevent burnout:
Deal with your emotions
Life is packed with emotional challenges. These include trying to keep up with the neighbours, the pressure to be successful in life and work, and the innate desire to have good personal relationships and a satisfying work life. It’s no wonder that we’re a ball of emotions.
However, from a young age, we’re taught to stuff and avoid our emotions rather than work with our emotions. This leads to the all too common “coping” mechanisms such as alcohol, prescription/recreational drug use, and being glued to our screens all in an effort to repress our emotions.
But, repressing our emotions isn’t good for us; in fact, symptoms such an anxiety and depression may be the result of repressing of our emotions. This is because when we try to repress our emotions, it causes emotional and physical stress. This leads to not only emotional problems but physical problems such as cardiovascular disease, intestinal disorders, headaches, and autoimmune disease.
We can learn to deal with our emotions by practicing mindfulness-based meditation. The practice of mindful framing teaches how create a mental framework to acknowledge and sit with our emotions, to feel them deeply, and to let them pass on their own, as all emotions do eventually do.
Embrace life-long learning
When we’re in a job that feels monotonous, we have little control over, or doesn’t align with our life purpose or in which we don’t receive recognition, it can lead to burnout. But you can take control of your career by finding opportunities to learn and prepare for a brighter future.
By embracing life-long learning you’re more in control of your career. This is because as you learn new skills, you can progress in your career or even switch careers if need be. Learning also helps you become more adaptable to change, which is a source of stress for many people.
It will help you be resilient when a project doesn’t go away, when your organization shifts gears, or if your job changes. Having a learning mindset will help you weather the storms of change, which is a constant in today’s work environment.
Pursue a hobby
One of the best ways to prevent burnout is to pursue a hobby. This allows you to discover your creative side. When you focus on a hobby you are truly passionate about, you give your mind a break from your day-to-day stressors.
Ideally, you want to pursue some form of hobby that has nothing to do with work, or your stressor. You also want your hobby to be free of deadlines or rules in order to allow your mind to recharge.
What hobby you pursue depends on your interests. If you like writing, perhaps you can write a short story or even a memoir. If you like to work with your hands, gardening may be a good fit.
Pursuing a hobby is also a great way to amplify your life-learning goals. By engaging in something meaningful to you, and progressively learning, you further develop a sense of self-worth and competence, which may be lacking in other areas of your life.
Eat a balanced diet
When we’re under a lot of stress, good eating habits are often the first thing to go out the window; however, eating a balanced diet is even more important when we’re under stress. That’s because what you eat can significantly affect your mood and energy over the course of a day.
For instance, when you are under stress, you may turn to comfort foods such as French fries, pastries, or potato chips. Carbohydrates give us a sugar high, followed inevitably by a sugar crash in which our mood and energy crashes. Instead of food high in refined carbs, you want to focus on low-glycemic foods, which are foods that give you a constant stream of energy. These include foods high in fiber such as fruits, vegetables, and legumes.
You also want to increase your intake of foods that contain omega-3s. Omega-3s are fats which help boost your mind. These include foods such as fatty fish (tuna, salmon, sardines), flaxseed, and walnuts. Try and spread these foods over the course of your day. For instance, have some oatmeal sprinkled with ground flaxseed for breakfast, then for lunch, have a salad with walnuts, and for dinner have some salmon and vegetables. Or try intermittent fasting!
Get enough sleep
Not getting enough zzz’s is one of the risk factors that predicts burnout. So, it behooves you to get enough sleep. How much one needs varies from person to person, but in general you should be getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep a day. You want to get enough sleep where you feel rested when you get up, and alert for most of the day. By getting enough sleep, your mood will also improve, further reducing symptoms associated with burnout.
To get a good night’s sleep it’s important to minimize distractions that prevent you from going to, and staying asleep. These include limiting your blue light exposure from devices such as televisions, laptops, tablets, and cell phones. That’s because blue light decreases the production of melatonin, our sleep hormone.
You also want to make sure you sleep on a comfortable mattress, so you’re not tossing and turning during the night. Comfortable sleep wear is also beneficial as being either too hot or too cold at night can disrupt your sleep. By getting enough sleep you’ll be better able to handle the stresses of the day.
Life can get pretty stressful, and when that happens, you are more prone to burnout. Burnout has serious ramifications that impact your emotional and physical health. By learning how to prevent burnout from happening in the first place, you are creating a rock-solid platform to live your best life.
