Learning how to bounce back quickly and recover from stressful moments in the workplace improves resilience and lowers your risk for burnout. Placing a high level of importance on recovering from stressful situations while still at work versus thinking you will deal with it later is important. Because the reality is, you won’t. Instead, you will start reverting to old stress patterns that bring temporary comfort but typically aren’t that helpful, such as procrastination, stress eating or skipping workouts at the gym. The accumulation of stress builds to the point that you no longer have job satisfaction, your productivity is low, your irritability is high, your sleep is poor and your relationships both at work and in your personal life suffer.

What do you do for self care?

While we want to focus on recovery from stress while at work, it is equally important that you have some strategies in place to manage your stress outside of work. There are four main pillars of health: nutrition, physical exercise, quality sleep and behavioral health. Behavioral health includes things such as stress management skills and having a good support system. Healthy stress management skills could include going for a walk every day, having a mindfulness practice, taking deep focused breaths, keeping a gratitude journal, limiting your social media use and engaging in hobbies you enjoy.

When you are functioning at your optimal level, you will find it is easier to have the willpower to complete tasks as well as maintain the self care strategies outside of work. However, when your window of tolerance begins to shrink, it becomes much easier to abandon self care strategies and return to unhealthy stress patterns or habits.

What would cause your window of tolerance to shrink?

Your window of tolerance is sometimes called your optimal level of functioning. When you are in this zone, you are able to manage your daily stress well, your mind is calm and alert and you are able to self regulate and connect with others. We want to spend as much time in this zone as possible.

There are several things that could cause your window of tolerance to shrink, including:

• Not getting a good night’s rest last night or for several nights in a row.
• Family stress
• Physical pain or illness
• Financial stress
• If you work with people who are often overwhelming, demanding or toxic
• Work stress with little to no recovery strategies in place

We all leave our window of tolerance at times, but we want to return to it as quickly as possible throughout the day to reduce our likelihood of burnout.

Become aware of your early signs of burnout

• Not sleeping well
• Stress eating
• Irritable
• Difficulty concentrating
• Inconsistent exercising or stopping exercising altogether
• Procrastination, feeling chronically overwhelmed
• Lack of motivation or caring about things you normally care about
• Not wanting to be as social or spend as much time doing things you once enjoyed.

Complete EACH stress cycle

While it is important to have lifestyle habits that support your health, it is equally important to have self care strategies in place at work. Place a high level of importance on recovering from stressful situations while still at work. You don’t want the accumulation of stress. It will eventually negatively impact all areas of your life.

Deliberately attempt to return to baseline (your optimal level of functioning or window of tolerance) over and over and over throughout the day. A simple rating system of 0-10 with 0= no stress, 10= highest level of distress you can imagine, is a good starting place so you can begin to track your level of stress. If your stress level is between 0-3, it will be very easy for you to remember simple strategies to help you manage your stress, such as stretching, taking a deep breath or taking a short walk. If your stress is at moderate levels (4-5 on the rating scale), it begins to become more difficult to remember what to do. Once you are between 6-10 on the scale, it is almost impossible to remember what to do to calm down.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor explains why we forget  the things we know when we are highly stressed: Until we push the pause and take a moment to calm down and feel safe again, we will not able to think clearly. This is why anyone who is freaking out with test anxiety tends to perform poorly, regardless of how well prepared they are. When our limbic anxiety circuit is triggered, we are neuroanatomically cut off from accessing our higher cortical thinking centers, which is where our learned knowledge is stored.” (1)

We want to try to help our nervous system calm down when we first notice the intensity is rising.

Simple strategies to help you feel calmer “in the moment”

So, the number one focus is to do simple things to help you start to calm down your heightened nervous system. If you are able to implement these strategies before and after a stressful event, that focus on recovery will help you feel better and function better both at work and at home.

If your stress levels is moderate to high, follow these suggestions in order. If you stress level is at a low level, you can choose any of these ideas or one that’s not on the list that you have already tried and know it works:

1. Bilateral tapping: Bilateral stimulation calms or inhibits the amygdala which is the part of the brain responsible for putting you on alert. This is true whether you are doing the Butterfly Hug, tapping your feet back and forth “or” holding/wearing a device that does the tapping for you. (2,3)
2. Movement: If you can stretch or go for a walk after a stressful situation, it will help you. If you are in the middle of a stressful situation, wiggle your toes or shrug your shoulders. You want to do something to signal to your nervous system that you are stressed but you are safe.
3. Drink water: By taking a drink of water (or any other beverage) or chewing gum, you are activating your digestive system, which in turn activates the relaxation response.
4. Focused breathing: If you can take a deep breath every so often, it will help you feel calmer.
5. Connection: Talking to someone safe, stepping outside and connecting with nature, helps. Acknowledging your feelings and sharing them with someone safe, increases your sense of calm and safety.

What if there is little to no recovery time in my high stress job?

There are high stress situations in almost every job where you simply can’t leave the situation to go calm down. This is where Bi-Tapp can really help you. We put the Butterfly Hug into tappers so that you are getting the benefit of bilateral stimulation. The bluetooth tappers tap back and forth between the two tappers, working in the background so you can focus on the task at hand. Bilateral stimulation has been been proven to calm the amygdala. (2,3) You can place the tappers in your pockets or socks and no one will even know you are using them to help regulate your nervous system. You are able to customize the settings on the Bi-Tapp app from your phone and use them as often as needed. If you work in a high stress job, use your tappers before, during and after high stress situations. Dr. Sara Gilman shares how she introduces the tappers to the First Responders she works with.

While it is optimal to have the support from your leaders and administrative team, not all places of employment value creating an environment that supports your well-being and recovery. No matter their attitude “you” can choose to value your overall wellness. If you are able to regulate your nervous system throughout the day, you benefit, your loved ones benefit and you reduce the likelihood of burnout.

References:

1.  Bolte Taylor J. PhD Whole Brain Living:The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life. (2021) Hay House.

2. Mahyuvi, T & Ramadhan S.C. (January 2025) Exploring the Effectiveness of Self-Healing Butterfly Technique for Anxiety Management: A Systematic Review. SEHATMAS Jurnal Ilmiah Kesehatan Masyarakat 4(1): 240-250.

3. Reichel V, Sammer G, Gruppe H, Hanewald B, Garder R, Blob C, Stingl M. (2021) Good Vibrations: Bilateral tactile stimulation decreases startle magnitude during negative imagination and increases skin conductance response for positive imagination in an affective startle reflex paradigm. European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation 5 (2021) 100197.