Coping with Stress, Burnout, and Trauma

How do we do this?

Accept that there are events that you cannot control. Read more >

Cultivate a positive attitude. Read more >

Engage in mindfulness practices. Read more >

Learn and practice relaxation strategies. Read more >

Practice assertiveness skills. Read more >

Take care of your body through movement and nutrition.
Read more >

Reflect on what brings meaning and joy to your life. Read more >

Develop time and task management skills. Read more >

Get enough rest and sleep. Read more >

Don’t rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviors to reduce stress.
Read more >

Take a personal day to regroup. Read more >

Set boundaries. Read more >

Accept that there are events that you cannot control.

Covid- 19 has created circumstances for many healthcare workers where so many things are beyond our control. This can be disempowering and lead to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. One way to regain control or to feel empowered is to focus on the micro choices you can make every day around self-care and self-expression. Here is a great article about finding ways to express the self. 

Cultivate a positive attitude.

We know, this is sometimes easier said than done. But our thoughts can have a big impact on our mood. Below are some strategies, drawn from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, to support you in keeping (or developing) a more positive attitude:

Reframing negative thoughts: Write down your negative thoughts. Now try to identify all the evidence for and against this thought. Based on the evidence, write down a more balanced thought.

“I can’t keep up with this volume of work and stress”, becomes:
“This is hard. I am doing the best I can. I can take breaks, regroup, and try again”.

“Today’s shift is going to be awful”, becomes
“I am a competent professional. I will take each moment as it comes and do my best”.

Use visualization. First thing in the morning, imagine your day going well. At the end of the day, replay any positive events that happened. This way, prior to falling sleep, you have filled your mind with positive imagery, which lets your mind entertain positive possibilities while you’re sleeping.

Schedule a positive activity every day. Make an appointment with yourself to spend 10 minutes a day doing an activity that you enjoy. This can be as simple as listening to your favorite song, drawing a warm bath, or reading a few pages from a novel. This positive break can help recharge you, gives you something to look forward to, interrupts negative thinking, and makes you feel good, even if only for a few minutes.

Find more tips for reframing your thoughts towards positive thinking here.

Happify is an app that includes games and activities that can support a positive attitude.

 Engage in mindfulness practices.

Stress, trauma and moral distress all affect where we put our attention. When unattended, the brain’s negative bias results in our getting stuck more easily in stress and trauma states.  We need to be deliberate in trying to move our attention off “what is wrong” and towards the bigger picture or a positive or even neutral situation or sensation. When we are intentional about where we focus our attention, it is a type of mindfulness.

In order to calm our heightened neurobiological responses, it is important to know how the brain learns best, which is a little bit at a time and repeated frequently. It takes 10-20 seconds of experiencing a pleasant sensation to turn off the “smoke detector” (the amygdala) in our brains.  So, repeating a short exercise several times in the day will allow our nervous systems to calm and move into a state of more ease.  Over time, this can cultivate the development of a resilient trait.

Learn and practice relaxation techniques like meditation, yoga, or tai-chi.

Relaxation techniques like meditation and the meditative movement of yoga or tai-chi affect the body in the exact opposite way that stress does. There are many different types of meditation. You might develop a mantra that you repeat in your mind as you take slow deep breaths. Or, you might take a few minutes to simply pay attention to what you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.

Headspace, a meditation app, is offering free access to all healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Insight Timer is a free meditation app that has over 60,000 mindfulness, relaxation, and sleep meditations, as well as a free 7-day meditation class.    

Be assertive instead of aggressive.

Often, stress makes us feel irritable and causes us to react in ways that create conflict—and that creates more stress. This is not to say that you shouldn’t speak up for yourself. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.

Mindfulness and curiosity are two superpowers that can help us cope. And we can access them without spending money or investing too much time. The Mayo Clinic has some more tips on how to develop assertive communication strategies.


Your body can fight stress better when it is fit & fed.

While we often talk to our patients about the importance of exercise, in times of stress it can be hard to make time for ourselves. Exercise releases hormones that reduce stress and allows us to get out of our heads and into our bodies.

Down Dog is offering free access to healthcare workers until January 2021, with yoga, barre, and 7 minute workouts delivered to your phone.

Yoga Glo is one example of an online community that offers yoga, meditation, and pilates. The classes offered include beginner classes, restorative yoga, and yin yoga. Membership is $18.00 a month. Glo is compatible with most smart telephones computers, and televisions.

Even a 15 minute walk has been shown to have a big impact on reducing stress.

Eating healthy, well-balanced meals is also important when we’re under increased stress. Meal planning and bulk prepping for the week ahead can be a way to support yourself. Another affordable and easy source of recipes is Budget Bytes. You can follow them on Instagram or go directly to their website.

 Develop your time & task management skills.

You may find that COVID-19 means that you are busier than ever. Taking breaks, prioritizing and delegating can be especially crucial to reduce unnecessary stress. Learn more about time management skills here. 

Reflect on what brings meaning and joy to your life.

During times of personal crises, national disaster, or a pandemic-related trauma, multiple factors converge, threatening our understanding of the world and shattering our visions of right, wrong, and what is just in the world. We may wake up with a sense of disorienting grief in all that we know and experience as familiar no longer exists. Our attachments to work, relationships, and what gives our life meaning may feel foreign or forsaken. Having limited exposure to large-scale trauma, most of us are not prepared to navigate the resulting emotional, social, and physical shifts. However, there are tangible ways that we can nurture a sense of normalcy, meaning, and even hope during these times of great distress. 

  • Reflection prompts and journaling: There are many journal prompts available on the internet that may spark your creative energy or allow you time to ponder some of the deeper aspects of life that ignite you as a person and keep you inspired. You can download a sample journal here.

  • Surround yourself with objects, quotes, poems, or artwork that bring you joy

  • Gratitude practice: write three things that you are grateful about at the end of each day

  • Pray or meditate

Don’t forget about the activities that you enjoy! Watch a good movie. Play a game. Listen to a good song. Play your musical instrument. Read a good book. Go on a bike ride. Go on a walk. Work in the garden. Clean. Create something.

 Get enough rest and sleep.

Your body needs time to recover from stressful events. Not getting enough sleep has been shown to make changes in our brains and bodies that can lead to memory difficulties, anxiety, and increased aggression. One of the best ways to get enough sleep is by practicing good sleep hygiene—developing habits and creating an environment that supports good rest.

Don’t rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviors to reduce stress.

Alcohol and other drugs shift the way your brain perceives stress. They interrupt your sleep and suppress your immune system, which can make you more vulnerable to illness. While the short-term relief from stress may be appealing, alcohol and other drugs prevent you from accessing your coping skills and processing difficult events, which can lead to developing symptoms of PTSD.

If you or someone you love is struggling with alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviors, you can start by calling: SAMHSA’s National Helpline – 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

 Take a personal day to regroup and shore up.

Healthcare facilities are recognizing the negative impacts that this pandemic is having on the well being of their healthcare workers.  Many organizations are trying to check in with their providers and offer resources to help their providers to stay healthy during this time.  It is well recognized that time away from work is necessary to rest, to check in with loved ones and to reconnect with life outside of the workplace.

 Set boundaries.

Many find that they are less distracted and anxious by taking some time off from high stress situations that occur in our jobs or high stimulation states such as public media or  the news of the day.  

  • Set dedicated times in the day when you will take a break from checking email, texts, social media or the news.  Put your phone or computer away during these times and focus on yourself in some ways suggested earlier.

  • Find a “hideout” at work where you can disconnect and possibly do a short breathing exercise or other mindfulness technique.

  • Decide what you can or cannot accomplish and let the rest go if able

  • Learn to say “no”