Managing Personal Stressors

Unpopular opinion: Staying busy and stressed all the time is not a badge of honor. The rise of entrepreneurs has spread a toxic 'hustle' mentality. We overlook the fact that constant stress is harmful. But then, what's the solution? Stop working hard? Not at all. A book I read suggests something radical: 📍 Keep a low tolerance for stress. Why? When we normalize stress, we accept a lower baseline for our mental and physical health. Imagine stress as a messy room: - If you tidy it up a little every day, it's easy to manage. - But if you let clutter pile up, cleaning becomes an overwhelming task. By setting a limit on how much stress we allow in our daily lives, we can prioritize our wellbeing. Here's how I do it: 📍 Find your stress triggers: I identify what stresses me out so I can develop coping mechanisms. Inaction triggers stress. Therefore, taking immediate action on stressors is essential. 📍 Learn to say 'NO': I avoid overloading my schedule by prioritizing tasks and delegating when possible. This proactive approach helps reduce stress by taking action on what's manageable and letting go of what's not. 📍 Make self-care a priority: I prioritize daily exercise and meditation, essential habits for stress management. Break free from the hustle culture, take action against stress, and you'll be surprised at what you can achieve. #entrepreneurship #quittoxichustle

I worked 20-hour shifts during my residency. Forget time for family and friends, I often didn’t even have time to shower or eat. So when most of my patients talk about stress taking a toll on their health, I understand. But what we often ignore is that stress acts as your body's alert system for perceived threats. It leads you straight into survival mode - causing lack of sleep, anxiety, and countless health problems. So here are 4 simple solutions to reclaim control: ▶︎ 1. The physiological sigh: This is one of the fastest ways to calm down. - 1 deep inhale through the nose - 1 short inhale to top up - 1 long exhale to empty lungs Just 2-3 cycles of this technique will release the maximum amount of CO2, slow your heart rate and relax you. ▶︎ 2. Mel Robin’s 5-second rule: To break the cycle of anxiety and change your stress habits, simply count down from 5. 5-4-3-2-1. This exercise will: - Activate your prefrontal cortex - Interrupt your habitual thought loops - Shift your brain from fight-or-flight to action mode ▶︎ 3. The filters test: If you want to reduce stress, you need to curate your thoughts. Whenever you have a negative thought, answer these 3 questions: - Is it true? - Is it kind? - Is it helpful? If any of the answer is no, discard the chain of thought immediately. ▶︎ 4. Conquer your fear of judgment: Caring what people think is costing you your health. Choosing attachment (fitting in) over authenticity (being yourself) sets you up for long-term health issues. So forget about others' opinions. Remember, being healthy > seeking approval. These techniques actually work as our brains tend to: - Ignore the high costs of our inaction - Understate the positive results of taking action - Exaggerate negative consequences of taking action. How do you manage your stress? #healthandwellness #workplacehealth #stress

I’ve never shown anyone this photo. 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with a nerve disorder👇 The pain stung and half my face froze.  I couldn’t turn my head without being dizzy. I couldn’t walk without needing to lie down. During this time, I learnt a LOT. My views on work fundamentally changed. Before then - I was in a holding pattern with heightened stress. I was building a startup AND working full-time in edtech. I was so buzzed I couldn't sleep at night. I felt so stressed I got really sick. Looking back, it was nuts. Now - I run an agency that closes $50-100K+ deals and I’ve learnt to (mostly!) manage stress and marathon it. I wanted to share 7 key lessons so you can learn from my mistakes and grow your business smarter. Here’s what I learnt 👇 🎯 Prioritise energy > time Make a detailed list of all your roles and tasks. Identify what's draining and energising. As a founder, there will naturally be de-energising tasks you’ll need to do. Delegate, batch or tie these with something higher energy. 🎯 Master delegation I know it’s hard but delegation took me from $15K / month to my first $75K month. Free up your time to work on high leverage tasks. If you’re too busy IN the business, you’re not working ON the business. 🎯 Default to no Cut everything that doesn’t serve your mission. This means saying no to things that you WANT to do too. Write some nice pre-written "nos" aligned with your goals. Focus. 🎯 Remove negative energy Put yourself in rooms where people support your craziest dreams. Remove yourself from rooms where people drag you down. If family or friends aren't supportive, have the hard conversation. 🎯 Refund rude people If a client treats you badly, refund and fire. It’s not worth your energy — remember your self-worth. This took me two bad apples to learn. The second apple was far worse. 🎯 Ask yourself a hard question If everything went to smoke, would 100 year old me be proud of me? Less tangible but still important: 🎯 Believe in your wildest dreams You're the architect of your ambition. The master of your mind. If you can dream it, you can do it. Trust in the timing of your life and take every interaction as an opportunity to learn. BONUS: Be grateful for all you have Losing my smile was shattering but now if I'm having a bad day (which still happens!), I remember how damn lucky I am to smile again. Not everyone is so lucky. In summary: 1. Prioritise your energy > time. 2. Master delegation. For reals tho. 3. Default to no. Say no to say yes. 4. Remove negative energy. 5. Refund the rude people. 6. Ask yourself a hard q. 7. Dream big baby. 8. Be grateful. -- 🍌 Hi! I'm Joumana (rhymes with banana). I built a design agency from 0 to $75K / month in 12 months. My goal is share what's worked for me and to help startups stand out from the competition. I keep it real. Enjoy!

How people feel at work shapes how they perform at work. That’s emotional culture—and in healthcare, it can fuel resilience or accelerate burnout. Burnout may be down from its peak, but nearly 1 in 2 clinicians still report emotional exhaustion. And the culture we create—day by day, interaction by interaction—either protects or depletes them. 📊 Compassion isn’t soft. It’s smart: Cleveland Clinic: Empathy training → ↑ patient satisfaction + ↓ burnout Nemours: Workflow + compassion → ↓ errors + ↑ morale Compassionate teams → ↓ burnout + ↓ ER visits (Barsade & O’Neill) Want better results? Start with how people feel. ✔️ Train leaders in empathy and psychological safety ✔️ Embed emotional support into daily workflows ✔️ Celebrate kindness and connection—not just KPIs Emotional culture isn’t a bonus feature. It’s a performance driver hiding in plain sight. #JustOneHeart #Culture #HealthcareLeadership #BurnoutPrevention #WorkplaceWellbeing #PsychologicalSafety #Psychology

Part 4: Finale We’ve discussed the long sprint, the hidden bill that comes due, & diving into survival mode.  This last piece is what sits on top of the roots – the daily behaviors that compound with time – sleep, movement, nutrition, connection.  The non-negotiables.  Slowly, we return to the state where we live, lead, work, and think our best. The morning is about routine and orientation.  Hydrate, get natural light into your eyes, move the body enough to let it know it’s time to start preparing for the day.  If you can delay the phone, do it!  Quiet moments before the notification storm is everything.  Caffeine after your system wakes up (delayed ideally) is optimal to ensure long lasting energy without that afternoon crash.  Midday is where cracks start to show for most people.  A short walk does more for your mind than anything else.  Slow inhale & exhales create space for you throughout each day.  Lunch should be focused on protein first w/ backfilling of veggies. Training/Exercise is a daily commitment.  BDNF. Strength & cardio. Clearing toxins while releasing those good natural hormones. This should be your foundation either before your work environment or midday/evening.  Ideally at the start of the day. Be in nature. Recovery tools: Sauna, cold, - my favorite modalities out of everything. Reset the CNS, restore calm, and feel brand new. Cold in am, sauna or hot bath in evening to wind down. Cognition: consuming tea/coffee early – not all day. L-theanine if you get jittery.  Omega-3s for long term support. Creatine if your gut tolerates it (5g daily).  Stay hydrated. Vit D3 + K2 if your blood work requires it.  Remember that NOTHING beats quality sleep. Periodically make the call vs text. It's worth it. Be mindful of what you consume digitally. They have real cognitive effects. PM: This is where many overdo it or forget.  Lower lights, dim settings, lower stimulation, create a state where your body is ready to maximize that sleep period.  Supplements if desired: Magnesium, apigenin, glycine.  Kick the alcohol. Micro meditations through the day compound. 30-60 seconds before a meeting, call, diving into tedious work. Shoulders down, slow exhales, eyes closed if you can.  Stay grounded. This is all to remind you to take your time in recovery.  For every block of time dedicated towards pushing harder – we need to also create systems that allow us to have constant readiness by returning to a state of being refreshed, crystal clear vision, emotional regularity.  Gratitude keeps is here and now.  The goal of any of these simple modalities is not perfect but progress.  Keep all routines simple enough to do consistently.  Slow is smooth, & smooth is fast. Remember that habits are not always what you INCLUDE, it’s also what you say no to.  Saying no is a superpower to get closer to the thing that is most important. “The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts”.  -Marcus Aurelius

Health systems keep treating physician well-being as a communications problem. It is a resource allocation problem.   On The Podcast by KevinMD, palliative care physician and physician development coach Christie Mulholland named something most wellness committees will not say publicly: the physicians most committed to fixing burnout are being asked to do that work as volunteers, on top of their clinical load, with no budget.   The logic is self-defeating.   The well-being champion role attracts the physicians who care most about culture. Those physicians then absorb every distress signal in the group. They field the complaints, carry the emotional weight, and have no resources to address the structural causes feeding the complaints.   That role is structurally designed to burn out the physicians you most need to retain. It is burnout leadership as an unfunded mandate.   Here is the pattern Christie described. Most systems now have a chief wellness officer and a committee. Fewer have a budget. Even fewer have protected time for the champions doing the work inside clinics.   If your system is serious about physician burnout and healthcare leadership accountability, three questions are worth asking this quarter:   1. What is the protected FTE of your wellness committee chair, and what is the committee's discretionary budget?   2. What percentage of your well-being initiatives require physician volunteer time outside their clinical FTE?   3. When was the last time a well-being recommendation resulted in a workflow change that reduced physician hours, not added a wellness event to their calendar?   The answers are the strategy.   Search "The Podcast by KevinMD" wherever you listen to podcasts.   For the operational leaders reading this: which of those three questions is hardest to answer honestly inside your organization today?   #ThePodcastbyKevinMD #HealthcareLeadership #PhysicianBurnout #PhysicianWellbeing #Healthcare

Most breathwork advice sounds like it was written by a yoga retreat brochure. Cosmic. Mystical. Vaguely damp with essential oils. But here’s the problem: Busy professionals don’t need incense. They need instructions. You don’t have to believe in chakras to change your nervous system. You need a protocol. One you can do between meetings, not between mantras. Here’s a better way to think about breath practice: It’s not about relaxation. It’s about regulation. The key shift is seeing breathing as a dial, not a destination. It lets you manually switch your nervous system from “battle mode” to “baseline.” And unlike cold plunges or wearables, it’s free, evidence-backed, and portable. Try this over the weekend: 🔹 Physiological sigh 2 inhales through the nose, 1 slow exhale through the mouth. Instantly lowers stress. NASA uses it for astronauts. You can use it before tough calls. 🔹 Box breathing 4 seconds in, hold, out, hold. Repeat. It slows your heart rate and focuses your mind. Useful before presentations or negotiations. 🔹 Resonant breathing ~6 breaths/minute. Shown to improve HRV, mood, and even immune function when practiced regularly. No need to become a monk. Just commit to 3 minutes a day. Experiment over the weekend. Systematize next week. Because stress isn’t the enemy. Staying stuck in stress is. And breathing is the most direct exit ramp you have. Happy weekend! #Recover #UpwardARC

"I just can't do this anymore." 💔 A colleague told me this last week. 15 years in healthcare. Brilliant, compassionate, dedicated. Burnt out. As a lifestyle medicine physician and burnout coach, I hear this more than I'd like to admit. She's not alone. New research shows nearly half of healthcare workers globally feel the same way. 📊 Here's what's breaking them: ❌ Chronic understaffing ❌ Impossible workloads ❌ Trauma exposure without support ❌ A culture where asking for help feels like failure But here's what frustrates me most: we have the solutions. ✨ Studies show that supportive management alone reduces the odds of burnout by 60-70%. The evidence is overwhelming: ✅ Adequate staffing works ✅ Peer support networks work ✅ Mindfulness programs work ✅ Leadership that actually cares works. We're not lacking evidence. We're lacking action. 🎯 In my burnout coaching practice, I see the same pattern: healthcare workers trying to "resilience" their way out of broken systems. But you can't meditate your way out of chronic understaffing. You can't yoga your way through moral injury. We need BOTH: 🧘♀️ Individual tools (mindfulness, resilience training, lifestyle medicine principles) 🏥 System-level change (staffing, culture, leadership support) So here's my ask for World Mental Health Day: 🌍 ( ..and every day ) If you're a healthcare leader → commit to one systemic change this quarter If you're a colleague → check in on someone today 💚  If you're a policymaker → fund mental health support for clinicians  If you're struggling → know that reaching out isn't a weakness, it's wisdom  If you're anyone → stop saying "thank you for your service" and start demanding they get the support they need Healthcare workers have been there for us through the darkest days. 🩺 Let's be there for them. 🤝 P.S. If you're a healthcare professional struggling right now, my DMs are open. You don't have to carry this alone. #WorldMentalHealthDay #HealthcareLeadership #MentalHealth #BurnoutPrevention #LifestyleMedicine #HealthcareWellness #PhysicianWellbeing #NurseWellbeing #HealthcareBurnout

Stress? Here’s what actually works. Most "calm down tactics" fail because they're: ↳ Band-aids on deeper issues. ↳ Quick fixes that don't last. ↳ One-size-fits-all solutions. This list? It's not just tips. It's what I live by. Real-world guide to staying calm: (Backed by science, tested in real life) 1/ OVERTHINKING → WRITE ✍️ ↳ Gets your swirling thoughts out of your head. > 43% tamed. ↳ Makes them easier to handle.  ↳ Try this: 10 minutes of unfiltered writing. No editing, just release. 2/ UNINSPIRED → READ 📚 ↳ Gives your brain fresh ideas. ↳ Lets you escape for a bit > 68% stress relief.  ↳ Try this: 15 minutes reading anything non-work. Watch your mood shift. 3/ SCARED → TAKE A SMALL RISK 🎯 ↳ Teaches your brain you can handle discomfort. ↳ Builds confidence with every step. ↳ Try this: Do one tiny scary thing today. That's progress. 4/ STUCK → WALK 🚶 ↳ Boosts blood flow and clears your head. > 15% creativity boost. ↳ Helps new ideas come naturally. ↳ Try this: 10-minute phone-free walk. Let your mind wander. 5/ TIRED → SLEEP 😴 ↳ Exhaustion messes with focus and emotions. ↳ Rest resets your system > 54% alertness improvement.  ↳ Try this: Power nap or early bedtime. 6/ CONFUSED → ASK 💭 ↳ Talking out loud often brings clarity. > 70% clarity.  ↳ You don't have to figure it out alone. ↳ Try this: One clear question beats hours of confusion. 7/ FRUSTRATED → MOVE 💪 ↳ Movement helps release built-up tension. > 25% mood booster.  ↳ Physical action shifts your mood. ↳ Try this: Quick stretch or 10 jumping jacks. Feel the difference. 8/ BURNED OUT → TAKE A DAY OFF 🌳 ↳ Full rest helps your brain and body bounce back. > +60% productivity.  ↳ Time in nature helps even more. ↳ Try this: Schedule a real break. No screens, no guilt. 9/ IMPATIENT → REVIEW PROGRESS 📈 ↳ Looking back reminds you how far you've come. ↳ It helps you stay motivated. ↳ Try this: List 3 recent wins, no matter how small. 10/ UNMOTIVATED → REMEMBER YOUR "WHY" ⭐ ↳ Purpose gives your effort meaning. > +35% perseverance.  ↳ It helps you push through hard moments ↳ Try this: Picture who benefits from your work today. Bonus: These aren't quick fixes. ↳ Your emotions are signals, not problems. ↳ Each response is backed by science. ↳ Calm isn't about feeling better, it's about responding better. Remember: Your emotional state is temporary. Your response to it shapes everything. 💬 Which one resonates most? Share below ⇣ 🔖 Save this for your next tough moment ♻️ Share with someone who needs this today ➕ Follow Loren Rosario - Maldonado, PCC Rosario-Maldonado, PCC, for more science-backed leadership wisdom. 

Building a startup feels like nothing else in the world. You nail your ICP, or secure a partnership, and next, you're sitting there at 2am wondering if anyone truly gets what you're going through. I've been in that exact spot, and it can be tough. But loneliness isn't bad in the first place. Disproportionate quantities of loneliness can be dangerous, though. The way to 'balance' things up is by creating real connections, finding support, and developing mental toughness. Over the years, I've tried a handful of tactics that made a big difference for my mental wellbeing: 1. Find a mentor → Big decisions are less overwhelming when you lean on seasoned mentors. → Chatting with someone who's already walked this path is a massive relief. → A simple weekly or fortnightly call with a trusted peer grounds you when everything else feels up in the air. 2. Join a peer community → Connecting with fellow founders, "people who get it," helps you realise you're not flying solo. → Isolation limits your view. Engaging with peers exposes you to fresh angles. → Networking is more than deals, it's friendships, it's partnerships. 3. Move your bottom → A consistent fitness routine builds discipline and focus. → Regular exercise is a proven mood-booster that helps manage stress. → A structured day can keep you productive and remind you you're in control. 4. Be human → Surrounding yourself with innovators is a starting point to beat loneliness. → Stepping away from the grind (painting, writing, music) will spark new ideas. → Exploring something beyond product development and sales can lead to solutions for your company. It's easy to feel like you have to 'tough it out', but you don't. It all boils down to being more human and being in touch with other humans. Enjoyed this post? Follow Chris Tottman for more & feel free to repost ♻️ You can also join 25000+ Founders & Operators who receive Actionable Insights every week in my newsletter via the LINK at the Top☝️