Twenty-four hours a day wasn’t just how long the casinos were open, it was also the hours I was available to any and everyone. I was grinding it out every single day, until one day in 2019 when everything stopped. I had been trying to push through my burnout so hard that my body finally was forced to react and my panic attacks began. I was sent to the emergency room twice that year because I thought I was having a heart attack. My arm went numb, my shoulder hurt, I could hear my heart beating outside my chest. When I was reassured that my heart was just fine, I then began to panic about having a panic attack (this is called panic disorder). My stress levels had become so high and my burnout so ignored that my body was physically reacting. I was being forced to pay attention, and I am forever grateful, because I had neglected my needs for so long that I was forced to prioritize myself for the first time.

I understand exactly what it is like to be exhausted and overwhelmed by striving to be successful. To be stuck in your head ruminating and analyzing six different things at once, knowing that you don’t have the time to simply sit around and ‘do nothing.’ Here’s a little secret: stress is not bad. Stress is what allows us to create diamonds under pressure. What is bad is when we get ourselves stuck in stress, and we start to feel burned out.