The psychology of stress and burnout
It's all in your head, for better or worse.<p>Extreme sports or intense physical exertion have been key, for me, in dealing with daily stress.<p>And no, I'm not some superstar adrenaline pumped athlete, just an amateur that loves skydiving/paragliding/fast motorcycles/hiking/etc over the weekend.<p>I didn't realize how much these activities help me, until I had to take a break from them for whatever reason (e.g.: winter where it's cold enough that you can't do most sports, but with not enough snow to go skiing or something).<p>I could almost measure the effects: the longer the break, the lower the threshold for daily stress -- from feeling slightly irritated to almost angry over the simplest triggers, if enough time had passed.<p>Then I'd do one skydive and it would make all the difference in the world, whatever daily stressful thing would happen "in the real world" it just felt like it didn't register as dangerous/stressful in the brain.<p>My feeling is that you can raise your tolerance threshold for what counts as stress, you just have to find out what works for you.<p>I'm guessing it also has something to do with these activities being very focused, so you're kinda disconnected from what's happening in the world and just truly "in the moment".<p>Maybe that pause from stress is what does it?<p>Has anyone else had similar experiences?