Key Tips from Experts on Resilience, Stress Management, and Productivity

For those feeling overwhelmed, what are a few simple but effective strategies to build resilience and a positive mindset?

When life feels overwhelming, strengthening resilience can help you navigate challenges more effectively. Here are a few straightforward strategies:

• Celebrate Small Moments of Progress: Focus on recognizing your efforts, no matter how minor they may seem. This practice can shift your perspective from focusing on setbacks to appreciating the progress you’re making.
• Broaden Your Gratitude Practice: Gratitude isn’t just about listing things you’re thankful for, it’s about noticing the moments that add richness to your day. Reflect on the meaningful conversations, small victories, or simple pleasures, like the warmth of the sun on your face or the taste of your favorite meal. These everyday moments often hold more joy than we realize when we take a moment to truly appreciate them.
• Take a Moment for Simple Pleasures: When life feels overwhelming, stepping away to engage in something enjoyable (like savouring a quiet meal, listening to a favorite song, or sitting outside) can help create a sense of calm and allow your mind to reset.
• Prioritize Movement: Physical activity is a powerful way to combat feelings of being overwhelmed. It triggers the release of endorphins, which help improve your mood and create mental clarity. Whether it’s a brisk walk, dancing to your favorite song, or a few minutes of light stretching, even small bursts of movement can help you reset and regain focus.
• Channel Overwhelm into Creativity or Learning: When life feels overwhelming, redirecting your energy into creative or intellectual pursuits can help restore a sense of control and purpose. Whether it’s exploring a hobby, tackling a new skill, or diving into a project that excites you, engaging your mind in something stimulating can provide a refreshing break and leave you with a sense of accomplishment and joy.

What’s the difference between short-term stress and the kind of stress that affects us long-term? How can understanding this difference help people make healthier choices?

Much of our capacity to treat stress as a short-term affair depends on how we saw our family handle stress and adversity when we were young. If stressors and problems were resolved efficiently by the parents of the household, our nervous system learns that stress is a normal part of life and our bodies can activate, react and resolve the stressor and our system can quickly return to a resting state – and this adaptive pattern follows us into adulthood. However, if stressors were not resolved or repaired effectively in our family of origin, (or worse our parents were the cause of our stress) our nervous system activates rapidly at the mere perception of a stressful event, struggles to return to a resting state, and can turn what would be short term stressors into a state of chronic hypervigilance.  Effective stress adaptation has much more to do with calming the feeling in the body than the thinking of the mind.  Learning the physiological sigh and other breath practices will calm your vagus nerve. You can tap into the grounding of the somatosensory cortex in the brain by putting a loving hand on your own chest and reassuring yourself that you are indeed safe in the moment you are in (despite what you mind might be telling you) can help considerably to retrain your nervous system to thrive through periods of stress. 

In today’s world of instant gratification, how can people shift their focus from external validation to a healthier, self-focused approach to managing stress?

This is an oversimplification but the concept has helped many of my patients. Dopamine is the molecule of (future based)  external gratification, as opposed to serotonin which is associated more with contentment and gratitude for what you have in the here and now.  Serotonin says “this is a beautiful sunset and I am just going to enjoy it”. Dopamine says, “this is good, but it would be better if we were in Hawaii”. Serotonin is about the sense of HAVING in the NOW, Dopamine is about WANTING in the THEN.  Our society is moving more and more to a dopamine dominant drive to obtain what we perceive we do not have. We dont desire things, what we actually want is the feeling we perceive we will have when we get those things. When we envy or desire something we dont have, it creates a stress within us, and that is a good stress because it fosters achievement in life. But if we are always focused on achieving what we want then, we pay little attention to what we have now, and this fosters a nervous system that is perpetually in a state of lack and reactivity, of discontent, of stress. It is the absence of wanting more that creates and fosters a place of peace. So, if you want less stress in your life, enjoy your breath, relish the color of a sunset, hold a hug a little bit longer. Make the intention, every day, to take 5-10 minutes when you close your eyes and feel what you do have, and take a break from the stressful compulsion to focus on what you don’t. 

With employee burnout still a significant issue, what strategies do you believe are most effective in promoting mental health while maintaining high productivity?

Burnout remains a serious issue, exacerbated by the pandemic and a lack of meaningful changes to address it. Unlike stress, burnout is a chronic state of depletion caused by unsustainable work-life dynamics, making individuals ineffective in their roles. Self-care alone cannot resolve burnout; systemic changes are needed, such as setting realistic workloads, fostering flexibility, and encouraging open conversations about mental health. Toxic productivity and blurred work-life boundaries have heightened guilt around rest, making it crucial to establish and normalize boundaries that prioritize well-being. Leaders must take responsibility by modeling healthy behaviors, identifying what can be deprioritized, and creating supportive environments. While individuals can manage certain stressors, addressing organizational issues is essential to reducing burnout and promoting sustainable productivity.

With hybrid work becoming the norm and the boundaries between work and personal life blurring, what strategies should organizations and individuals implement to prevent burnout while fostering long-term productivity?

To prevent burnout and foster long-term productivity in a hybrid work environment, organizations and individuals must rethink how work is structured and prioritize meaningful engagement. Hybrid work has proven to enhance productivity and revenue retention, but asking employees to return to unchanged office environments feels arbitrary, as remote work often yields better outcomes. In-person work should focus on rebuilding relationships and creating joy—if this isn’t the focus, remote work may be the better option.

Organizations must address challenges like meeting fatigue, time poverty, and blurred boundaries by reducing unnecessary meetings, protecting personal time, and avoiding after-hours work demands. Celebrating employees who maintain a healthy work-life balance, rather than rewarding those who overextend themselves, is critical. Leaders should design environments that enable harmony between work and personal life, ensuring both in-person and remote setups support well-being and sustainable productivity.