Rethinking Stress: A Powerful Tool in Burnout Recovery

Recipe
Written By Marcia Bertschi

By Guest Writer and Facilitator, Debra Woods

Deb Woods, PhD, PMP, is a strategic leader and systems thinker with over 20 years of experience transforming complex organizational challenges into meaningful opportunities for growth

If you’ve ever felt like stress is the enemy—something to be avoided, silenced, or fixed—you’re not alone. Most of us are conditioned to see stress as harmful, a sign that we’re failing or not coping well enough. But what if that story about stress is actually contributing to our burnout, rather than helping us recover from it?

Burnout isn’t just about being exhausted—it’s about the body and brain stuck in a chronic stress response with no off-ramp. And while most burnout programs focus on external fixes like workload or time off, the real transformation begins internally—with how we relate to stress itself.

This is a key theme in the Elevate & Empower Burnout Series—that regulating your stress response, and reframing how you think about stress, can lead to more energy, stronger performance, and even improved health outcomes. Let’s explore why.

The Stress Response Isn’t the Problem—It’s the “Stuckness”

The stress response is your body’s built-in alarm system. When it’s working as intended, it helps you rise to challenges, stay alert, and respond to threats. But in burnout, the stress response gets locked “on”—leaving you overwhelmed, fatigued, foggy, or emotionally flat.

Here’s the shift: Stress isn’t inherently bad. It’s your body’s way of preparing you to rise to a challenge. But when the challenge feels unending or pointless, or you feel powerless to act, stress turns into strain—and the nervous system gets dysregulated.

Research by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) showed that the difference between stress feeling invigorating or depleting is how we evaluate the situation. If we believe we have the resources to meet the demand, we experience challenge stress, which improves performance and resilience. If we believe we don’t have what it takes, we experience threat stress, which leads to anxiety, burnout, and shutdown.

This means that learning to regulate the stress response—and shift your mindset about stress—isn’t just helpful. It’s essential.

Three Ways to Shift Your Relationship to Stress

Let’s talk about how to change your internal story so that stress becomes a cue for growth rather than collapse.

1. Name It to Regulate It

When stress hits, your body speaks before your brain catches up. You might feel tense, shut down, hyper-focused, or irritable. The first step in regulation is noticing.

Try asking:

  • Am I in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn?

  • What does my body need right now—movement, stillness, breath?

  • Is this a moment for action or a moment for restoration?

A quick tool: Place your hand on your chest and say to yourself, “This is stress. My body is reacting. I can listen, not panic.” That awareness activates the prefrontal cortex, helping shift you out of automatic survival mode.

2. Reframe the Stressor

Instead of labeling a stressful situation as a problem, try reframing it as a challenge that requires growth or adjustment.

Examples of stress reframes:

  • "This pressure means something matters to me."

  • "I feel nervous because I care—and I want to show up fully."

  • "This is hard, but I’ve done hard things before."

Even saying, “Stress is my body getting ready to help me,” can downshift the alarm response and increase self-efficacy. Studies by Kelly McGonigal show that people who view stress as enhancing (rather than harmful) have better health outcomes—even when facing the same intensity of stress.

3. Use Stress Recovery Rituals

Your body needs cues that the danger has passed. These can be micro-practices done in a few minutes:

  • Vagus nerve resets (humming, sighing, cold water splash)

  • Shake-it-off movements (literally shake out arms/legs to discharge adrenaline)

  • Grounding exercises (notice 5 things you see, 4 you hear, etc.)

  • Connection breaks (short calls, pets, laughter, music)

Build in these rituals throughout your day—not just after stress peaks. They reinforce that your nervous system is safe to settle.

Resources to Explore

If you're interested in learning more about this shift in mindset and nervous system regulation, here are some great resources:

Join the Elevate & Empower: Navigating Burnout Series

If this resonated with you, the Elevate & Empower Navigating Burnout Series is where we go deeper. We explore:

  • How to regulate your nervous system in real-time

  • Practical exercises to change your internal dialogue

  • How to restore energy and clarity after chronic overwhelm

  • Science-backed tools to reclaim agency and meaning at work

Whether you’re a frontline worker, team leader, or someone who’s “good at holding it all together” until you aren’t—we created this for you.

Learn more and register here: 

Let’s stop trying to escape stress—and start learning how to partner with it.

Marcia Bertschi
Next

Thriving with Time: How to Manage Your Energy, Tasks, and Focus with Intention