Recognizing Our Breaking Point

The pressure has been building up for a while now. The things we have to do seem to be piling on top of one another. The confusion over conflicting choices is becoming unbearable. Frustrations are occurring one after the other. The mounting distress over the situation invades our thoughts constantly. And the emotional turmoil has begun to affect how we function each day.

How do we know when we have reached our limit? Inability to sleep, irritability, lack of focus, and getting sick for no apparent reason – these may be signs that we are already at the breaking point. Failing to recognize this, will most certainly lead to catastrophic consequences. And allowing this to continue may cause things to spin out of control.

It usually takes someone else to notice that we are no longer acting the way we normally do. Therefore it helps to have someone around to tell us whether or not there are obvious changes in our behavior. The problem arises when despite having realized that we have reached our threshold, we continue head on with everything we are doing. We resort to denial and tell ourselves we can manage and that we are still in control.  

Many of us possess this misguided tendency. One reason for this is we have been told repeatedly that we need to believe we can handle it and to just be patient. But the truth of it is, we are still only human. Our strength has limits. We are not built to carry a tremendous amount of burdens. The mind can only take so much before it finally splinters.

We should not let things get this far. To avoid this breaking point, we should refrain from taking on too many responsibilities. We need to keep our stressors to a minimum. Once in a while we have to take a step back, look at the situation and ask ourselves whether everything that we are doing is worth the strain. If not, then we ought to choose happiness over stress. And in so doing, we might even live a longer and more fulfilling life.