Thriving in Christ | Burnout, Stress, Leadership, Faith & High Performance

"There are so many self-care advices nowadays, how do I know what to choose? As I love giving to others, how do I know if I am renewing, so I don't burn out?" If you have questions like these, you are not alone. In this episode, you will hear directly from the co-founders of Team For The Soul®, as Sebastien is interviewing Dr. Ioana on the topic. She will share briefly about: - Her journey of givi...

Have you ever been looking forward to your well-earned vacation, only to get a cold the first few days of your time off? This happens often, especially for givers who try to push through and have to postpone their renewal. Emotions are key in expressing our needs on many levels and when left unmet, they can lead to stress. But there is a catch. As we get into a biological stress response, we might...

What can we do when we have intense emotions besides waiting until they cool down? After decades of trying to support others with emotions, one thing became clear: we don't really control when emotions come and go, but we can control what we do with them at the moment, and regulating our bodies is central. There is psychological research that shows that it is possible that through our body we can...

Gone are the days when we communicated only through letters, waiting for weeks for a response. Nowadays, we connect instantaneously which can be wonderful, but since we are flooded with emails and messages and want to respond right away to stay in the flow, we might respond too fast and regret our response the next day. Do you resonate with this? If so, keep reading. The grandma's advice was...

Many times, people ask me and are wondering what to do with emotions - should we express them or suppress them? With the advent of psychological methodologies and a multitude of advice online, it only seems that the full expression of our emotions (Catharsis) seems a better alternative than Suppressing feelings. But is it? In Part 2 of our series on emotions "To Feel or Not to Feel" I am going to...

Experiencing pleasant emotions is lovely but what do we do with our uncomfortable "negative" emotions? Should we express them or suppress them? For ages, humans have asked these questions in some form or another, and it is even more relevant today, with so much advice online coming from psychology and spiritual traditions. There are entire generations that grew up suppressing and repressing feelin...

For many givers, it may seem that feeling out of balance is an unavoidable part of the giving journey. This may be partly true nowadays as busyness, success and productivity are part of our cultural-dominating beliefs. But it does not have to be so. Continuously giving with no regard to taking care of our own needs, can be unfruitful and can lead to imbalance. Our body, heart (emotions) and mind (...

As a giver, have you been putting off your own projects or habits due to the many demands in your life? And in this New Year are you ready to turn things around, but not sure how to do this with less effort? Maybe you want to exercise more regularly, eat healthier, pray consistently or just connect with God moment by moment. If you resonate, then this episode is for you. Based on science and...

When we are running low on motivation, is there a way to help ourselves and support our mind, so that we can keep our habits with ease and progress toward our goals? And if yes, what can we learn from psychology and science on this topic, so that we can incorporate steps today in our daily living? In this episode, I briefly unpack the science behind supporting our minds to strengthen our habits, a...

What do we do when motivation runs out? It is so helpful to have the inner drive to do things, but many times we don't have the same level of motivation or energy. And this is when many of us might start either getting discouraged or pushing ourselves further. If we feel discouraged, many people start labeling themselves as "bad, lazy, procrastinators, etc." which impacts negatively the identity a...

It can be exciting to set intentions and goals at the beginning of the year, but for many people, it is tricky to actually follow through with them. This is especially true for Givers, who are pouring their lives and energy into helping others, so they might have little bandwidth for their own projects. And after a few months, looking back and realizing they weren't able to do much, they might fee...

Many Christian women go through a lot of challenging seasons and transitions - whether it's a loss, a new baby, shift in family dynamics, spiritual plateau, feelings of burnout or emptiness, and other growth and pains. If you can relate, this short mini-training is for you...so you can serve others with joy and energy. Let's journey together with practical steps using my decades of expertise. Borr...

Many people set goals at the end or beginning of the new year, but it can be hard to stay on track especially when juggling many commitments as a giver. And then, it is easy to fall off track, give up altogether or postpone pursuing goals for later. So knowing that, does it still make sense to set goals and intentions, especially at the beginning of the year, or is it better to let go and stay in...

Having low self-esteem is common and can be a difficult feeling to shake, which is why many people tend to seek validation from external factors such as jobs, relationships, achievements, social media likes, roles, money, etc. At the root of the problem is the fact that most of us have been conditioned by our society and culture to find our sense of worth from these external factors. And though th...

For many givers, it may seem that feeling out of balance is an unavoidable part of the giving journey. This may be partly true nowadays as busyness, success and productivity are part of our cultural-dominating beliefs. But it does not have to be so. Continuously giving with no regard to taking care of our own needs, can be unfruitful and can lead to imbalance. Our body, heart (emotions) and mind (...

Connecting with our True Self, our Soul, our true inner home, can feel like a daunting task requiring years and years of practice. Nonetheless, there is a common misunderstanding here: connecting with our Soul, our true self is actually a natural brain ability that we use all the time (unconsciously), which is only one thought, emotion or body sensation away. We can connect with our Soul, our True...

As we think of the soul and the ultimate freedom of choice - is the Christian perspective valid? Are we born for eternity? Is it even important to think about questions like this? I argue that yes - it is not only important but essential. Many times though, when we think of questions like these - we think that the 'task at hand' is to believe or not believe. Nonetheless, this can lead to polaritie...

If you ever wondered what Psychology or Science might have to say about what IS, beyond our mind (thoughts), heart (emotions), perception and body sensations, then watch this short video for a quick introduction. Some people might call this 'the Soul' in spiritual traditions, but different words might be used in Psychology or Science, although they might be describing similar experiences as the re...

Do we have a soul? Does it even exist? How do we even know? And does it matter? Is this even connected to our ability to regenerate so that we can keep on giving? Questions like these are not necessarily making the headlines nor are they popular in our culture. They do not inundate our social media, newsfeed or our inbox. We can live for sure a comfortable life for a while, without even paying att...

If you are passionate about giving and are in the helping profession, such as a therapist, nurse, doctor, priest, pastor, life coach, educator, entrepreneur, attorney, leader, etc - how do you balance your capacity to help or serve others with the need to pause and take a break so that you can stay joyful and sustain your generosity (and prevent burnout)? For many of us, finding that balance can b...

It is widespread in our culture to think of self-care as a 'one-time reset', as a 'project' - "If I can only regenerate this time, then I can later maintain this new rhythm." This is a lovely idea but can lead to problems. Even if we have a reset, we come back to our own routines and then back into the stress of daily living. As an example from health, the Yo-yo DIET term exists because any time w...

Many compassionate givers have the ability to pick up other people's emotions on an intuitive level. This can be a powerful implicit 'tool' in learning about others and what might need to be done at the moment. And this ability can be both a strength, but also a weakness at times, as it can lead to exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed when we least expect it. And, not only that, but many people beli...

Many kind and compassionate human beings and givers might think that taking the time to focus and care for their emotions is selfish. This might be the case even more, if you are a Christian, as you want to help others selflessly like Christ. Some givers might even have the underlying belief that only the loved ones can truly care for their emotional needs - since we are relational beings. This is...

As a giver, what is your experience with intense emotions, especially as you are trying to relax at the end of the day, have some quiet time, regenerate or pray? For many centuries, and in many cultures and spiritual traditions, suppressing emotions has been the default mode in dealing with emotional regulation. Although it works in the short run, many times it backfires and can lead to thought ru...

Many compassionate givers find themselves exhausted by 6-7pm (or even sooner) to the point that they feel that they have no time and energy to enjoy their evening, to regenerate, or to connect with their higher self or God. At that point, distractions or catching up with work seem like the only option. They probably say to themselves “I'm too tired now, but I'll just make sure to regenerate later...