Six ways to manage your stress and reduce the risk of burnout

Every November is Stress Awareness Month; an opportunity to shine a light on the impact of stress, provide tools and techniques, and signpost support. But, like all awareness weeks, this is something that is needed year-round. It will come as no surprise that stress is an issue that comes up in many of my career and return-to-work coaching sessions. Because of this, it’s a topic that I make sure is part of my CPD and reading. Not only does this mean I can help my clients’ wellbeing, but it also means I can support my own! Today, I want to share six ways to manage your stress and reduce the risk of burnout.

Before I give you the key elements, let’s just remind ourselves of what stress is. Having a “stress response” is a natural reaction to challenges; the physical responses we have to a stressful event shows that. In the short term, stress helps us stay alert and focused, ready to act. When the stressful event has passed, our body is designed to return to what professionals call “rest and digest”: relaxed. However, with modern living, pressure and expectations, so many of us can find that there isn’t a “rest period”. Our bodies can stay in a long-term stress response. This is where it becomes a health issue.

You may notice that when you are stressed, it can affect your body and your brain. You may find you can’t sleep, your behaviour changes, and things feel harder. This is seen as chronic stress, and it increases the risk of burnout.

Burnout is a phrase that has entered our consciousness through day-to-day conversation and has been certified as an occupational phenomenon by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2019.
Since 1975, when the concept was defined by Herbert Freudenberger, research has expanded to consider specific burnout from parenting, “a unique and context-specific syndrome relating from enduring exposure to chronic parenting stress.”

Like work burnout, parenting burnout features:

• Emotional Exhaustion (fatigue from caring for too long)
• Depersonalisation (feeling fed up, lack of empathy and compassion)
• Decreased sense of accomplishment (feeling that nothing you do makes a difference)

These may be symptoms you recognise in yourself or others. If that is the case, it’s time to start to do something about it. That might mean accessing some professional help, changing things at home, opening up to a loved one and making lifestyle changes.

Now, I cannot claim that the lessons below will, alone, make a difference. But understanding a little more about stress, and what steps you can take to decrease the impact stress has on you, can reduce the risk of burnout.

Six ways to manage your stress and reduce the risk of burnout

Understand and support your sensory needs
When you are stressed, the world can be metaphorically and literally loud, and parenting cranks up the volume. Identifying and creating space for the tools and techniques to help you when you are noticing a sensory overload is simple, once you treat yourself with the same kindness that you would give those around you. In the moment, consider when you need to help tell your body it is safe. This could be breathing exercises, movement, light or sound.  Read more here.

It is OK for work to take the backseat for a while.
Work is a part of your life. It helps you with your identity, sense of purpose and (often most importantly) paying your way. However, it doesn’t need to be your only purpose. No one can, or ought to, expect anyone to be able to bury or ignore the stresses in life. If you need to take a step back, lower your expectations, and reduce your energy, then do so. Now, I am working on the assumption that you have a psychologically safe environment that allows you to do this; I am very aware (especially based on some clients that I coach) that isn’t always the case.)  Read more here.

Rest is more than just when you are sleeping
Healthy sleep takes up to 1/3 of our lives; it restores our tissues, immune function, and embeds memories. Sleep loss has been linked to impacting over 700 of our genes! Stress impacts sleep, and being sleep-deprived impacts stress. When we are exhausted, EVERYTHING feels harder
So, what can you do if you can’t sleep? Scientists suggest daily stretching, regular physical exercise, reducing stimulants, including food before bed, improving your posture (to support better breathing) and (my favourite) regular daydreaming! This type of “waking rest” gives time for us to process what is happening during the day, where the mind can roam with no effort. Try it and see how you feel afterwards. Read more here.

Pay attention to what you can control
How much do you feel in control of your time and choices? When we think about what experts call the protective factors of mental health and wellbeing, these areas are included as reducing the risk of developing issues. They also support the ability to recover. Life can feel very overwhelming, especially right now when decisions are being made at a local, national and global level that directly impact our wellbeing and those of the ones we love. So, I ask you to take a moment to consider what you can control.

Identify your Support Network
This may be the hardest one to act on, but is probably the most important. There is only so much we can do, as an individual, to support ourselves. There are times when our mental health dips, and we start to see our early warning signs. This is the time to reach out and ask for help. It may be through a professional, a close friend, a network or even online with people who have shared similar experiences. Either way, consider, before it becomes essential, who and what you will need to help you work through. When people think about hard times, we assume that we must work through them on our own. Yet, time and time again we see the most resilient people are the ones who connect with other people and show self-compassion.

If work is causing the stress, it’s OK to move.
You can only control and influence so much; some work environments have fundamental cultural and structural issues that create chronic stress. Everyone deserves a career to enjoy, not endure, and a place that doesn’t support your wellbeing is a warning sign you shouldn’t ignore. When you are considering making some changes in work, you want to make sure you aren’t jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, so start by understanding what is important to you, and then find out the questions you can ask prospective employers.

Which one of the six do you feel could make the greatest difference to you today? I’d love to know.

I’m Clara Wilcox, the affordable coach who helps parents enjoy their careers again. Return-to-work, career & redundancy coaching for individuals, freelancers, businesses and parents & carer groups. Book a call to talk about coaching or career wellbeing workshops.

For this Stress Awareness Month, you may also find these blogs useful.
Resources and advice to support parental wellbeing
Nine book recommendations for Stress Awareness Month
How coaching can support your mental health
How to find time for myself within a busy career and family life