Burnout Solutions- Stress Management Tools For High Achievers and Healthcare Workers

Mona Tippets, RN, Certified Life Coach
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Mental Health
  • Weekly

This podcast is all about understanding why your brain and nervous system get stressed and how to rewire to recover from feeling burned out and overwhelmed. I help healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, veterinarians) as well as teachers, caregivers and parents with burnout. I understand high achievers and how they feel stress- I am an RN and Certified Life Coach and help clinics and hospitals with staff workshops to teach emotional resiliency skills and how to resolve stress and burnout in the workplace and in personal relationships. I also work with clients one on one.

  1. 5h ago

    E 83: Learning the Language of Your Nervous System

    Episode 83: Learning the Language of Your Nervous System Mona talks about why you can know you’re safe in your head, but your body still reacts like you’re not—like her own stress response while presenting, or feeling shaky on a glass floor even when it’s engineered to hold you. She explains that the nervous system learns through experience and cues like breathing, rhythm, presence, and tone, not just words, and how past patterns can turn sounds, silence, or certain interactions into automatic triggers. Mona shares examples from healthcare and parenting to show co-regulation, social referencing, and how our “presence” impacts others. She offers practical ways to create change through micro-moments: notice what your body has learned, give it new, manageable experiences with repetition, and pay attention to what you’re modeling—including repair after dysregulation. 00:00 Nervous System Intro 02:43 Why Your Body Stays Stressed 05:08 Knowing Versus Experiencing 07:47 Learned Triggers In Daily Life 09:44 Breathing As Regulation Tool 12:40 Co Regulation With Kids 14:43 Rhythm Routines And Transitions 19:24 Presence And Social Referencing 25:42 Tone And Misinterpretation 29:09 Patterns High Achievers Get Stuck In 32:28 Three Steps To Rewire Responses 35:37 Final Takeaway And Weekly Challenge To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

  2. Oct 26

    E. 82 Why Your Brain Keeps Replaying Conversations (and How to Stop the Loop)

    E. 82 Why Your Brain Keeps Replaying Conversations (and How to Stop the Loop) In episode 82 of Burnout Solutions, Mona unpacks why our brains replay conversations long after they’re over and how that mental loop can feel productive even when it isn’t. She shares a recent experience traveling out of state to see a specialist who seemed unfamiliar with her extensive medical records, and how that sparked hours of post-appointment analyzing—especially trying to interpret tone, facial expressions, and what the provider “really thought.” Mona introduces rumination (drawing from the research review Rethinking Rumination by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Blair Wisco, and Sonja Lyubomirsky), explains how it can increase negative thinking and reduce problem-solving and action, and contrasts abstract, judgment-heavy thinking with more concrete, fact-based reflection. She closes with three questions to help shift out of rumination and into constructive next steps. 00:00 Why We Replay Talks 02:43 Specialist Visit Story 07:39 Aftermath On The Drive 09:03 What Rumination Is 11:58 Why It Feels Useful 14:28 Research On Rumination 17:35 Abstract Vs Concrete 23:43 Three Questions To Shift 28:04 Closing Takeaways References Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking Rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

  3. Oct 19

    E 81 The Power of Negative Thinking: When Positivity Keeps You Stuck

    E 81 The Power of Negative Thinking: When Positivity Keeps You Stuck In episode 81 of Burnout Solutions, Mona explores why positive thinking and gratitude aren’t always helpful—especially for high achievers, caregivers, and people-pleasers—and how “compulsive positivity” can keep you stuck by covering up discomfort that’s trying to send an important message. Using examples from nursing and insights from Dr. Gabor Maté’s When the Body Says No, she unpacks the difference between changing your perspective and avoiding reality, and why emotions like anger, resentment, guilt, and frustration can be useful data. Mona also shares the idea of choosing between guilt and resentment when setting boundaries, explains how the nervous system reinforces people-pleasing patterns, and offers four practical steps to notice, allow, get curious, and decide what would actually help. 00:00 Why Positivity Fails 05:03 Nurse Shift Example 06:56 Two Truths at Once 08:18 Honest Negative Thinking 09:42 Emotions as Data 12:05 Resentment Reveals Patterns 14:12 Guilt vs Resentment 16:51 Why Brains Avoid Truth 19:39 Four Steps to Process 25:24 Stress Stored in Body 27:42 Weekly Challenge Wrap-Up To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

  4. Oct 12

    E.80 Not Every Thought Needs Your Participation

    E.80 Not Every Thought Needs Your Participation In episode 80 of Burnout Solutions, Mona talks about how stress and overthinking grow when we treat every thought like an assignment. Using examples like an unanswered text, post-shift rumination, and pre-presentation nerves, she explains how attention can make a thought feel urgent—even when no new information is available—and how the nervous system can amplify the loop by treating imagined scenarios like real threats. Mona shares a simple way to break the cycle with three questions: is there an actual problem to solve right now, is this thinking giving you new information, and what would happen if you didn’t participate in the thought. The goal isn’t to stop thoughts, but to practice choosing which ones deserve your time. 00:00 Not Every Thought 01:42 Cloud Watching Thoughts 03:22 Unanswered Text Spiral 06:28 Why Thoughts Escalate 09:51 Problem Solver Trap 13:17 Highlighter Attention Effect 14:50 Nervous System Loop 18:43 Three Questions Tool 21:54 Stop Participating Practice 23:17 Wrap Up Text Lesson 25:34 Final Takeaways To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

  5. Oct 5

    E 79: Creating a SAFE Environment

    Episode 79: Creating a SAFE Environment Mona talks about how our nervous systems constantly pick up cues from other people and our environment, shaping whether we feel tense or at ease. She shares the SAFE acronym—Soothing, Attentive, Fun, and Expressive—as a practical way to offer more cues of safety at home, in healthcare, and in any relationship. Mona explains why tone, facial expression, posture, and presence often matter as much as words, and how co-regulation can shift the whole room. She also clarifies that “safe” doesn’t mean no conflict or discomfort, and that we can’t control someone else’s history or triggers—only the cues we offer and how we repair. She closes with a weekly challenge to notice what your nervous system communicates when you walk into a room. 00:00 Welcome and Overview 02:04 Why Safety Matters 03:53 Defining SAFE 06:46 Soothing Your System 12:08 Attentive Presence 14:41 Bring Back Fun 18:04 Be More Expressive 20:57 When Safety Still Fails 23:15 Connection Through Conflict 24:28 Room to Fail 25:58 Weekly SAFE Challenge To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

  6. Sep 28

    E 78: How Your Predictive Brain Creates Stress (and What to Do About It)

    Episode 78: How Your Predictive Brain Creates Stress (and What to Do About It) Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here. Mona explores how the brain’s constant predicting—while useful for efficiency, safety, and learning—can also create unnecessary stress. She introduces predictive processing and “prediction errors” as part of neuroplasticity, then breaks down three common stress patterns: using past experiences to assume a stressful future (like the “Sunday scaries”), jumping from a small present cue to catastrophic consequences (such as a boss asking to talk), and reacting not to what happens but to the belief that things “should” be different. Mona emphasizes that acceptance isn’t approval and can improve choices and boundaries, and offers a practical set of questions to separate what’s true right now from what the brain is predicting, gather new data, and respond more intentionally. 00:00 Predictive Brain Intro 01:59 Why We Still React 04:10 How Prediction Works 07:17 Everyday Prediction Examples 11:07 Stress Pattern One 16:26 Stress Pattern Two 20:24 Stress Pattern Three 25:29 Acceptance Not Approval 27:35 Updating Old Predictions 31:44 Weekly Tool And Wrap To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

  7. Sep 21

    Ep. 77 Anger Isn’t Bad: What Your Nervous System Is Really Trying to Tell You

    Ep. 77 Anger Isn’t Bad: What Your Nervous System Is Really Trying to Tell You Mona shares why anger isn’t something to judge or suppress, but a useful signal from the nervous system—sometimes “turbocharged anxiety,” sometimes sadness, fear, overwhelm, or a boundary being crossed. Using real-life examples (wet towels and shoes, a teenager pulling away, a loved one making painful choices, and Mona’s own overloaded labor-and-delivery shift that ended in a write-up), she explains how anger mobilizes action but doesn’t automatically provide wisdom. Mona introduces the “anger iceberg” and offers a simple process: notice the body’s activation, avoid solving things while reactive (“no action in reaction”), get regulated, look underneath for what’s really happening, ask what anger needs you to know, and then choose a response from a regulated brain. Anger is information, not instruction. 00:00 Anger Episode Intro 01:34 Nature And Regulation 02:25 Why We Snap 05:04 Anger As Information 06:36 Anxiety Versus Anger 08:45 What Anger Feels Like 10:09 Overload And Triggers 12:05 Sadness Behind Anger 16:04 Anger Iceberg Model 17:37 Healthcare Shift Story 21:04 Anger Regulation Steps 26:11 Choose A Regulated Response 29:10 Final Takeaways And Encouragement To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

  8. Sep 14

    Ep. 76: Four Surprising Ways To Help Solve A Problem

    Ep. 76: Four Surprising Ways To Help Solve A Problem Mona talks about how our brains loop on problems—especially at night—because stress activates the nervous system and pulls resources away from the prefrontal cortex, making every option look bad. Using polyvagal theory, she explains ventral vagal (calm/connected), sympathetic (fight/flight), and dorsal vagal (shutdown), and why regulating the body first helps thinking return. She shares two real-life examples—her daughter fearing a broken arm at lacrosse and a late-night call about her husband’s kidney stone—to show how uncertainty fuels spiraling. Mona offers four perspective-and-regulation questions from Elizabeth Benton: would you trade this problem from a “brown bag,” how can you move more slowly, what are the less obvious or even “stupid” options, and could this possibly be the best thing that happened (without toxic positivity). She connects these tools to reducing daily stress and burnout from stacked small problems, and closes by noting her daughter only had a sprain and her husband is fine. 00:00 Overthinking Spiral 01:06 Tools Not Answers 03:37 Lacrosse Injury Scare 05:23 Stress Brain Science 09:38 2 AM Kidney Stone Call 10:20 Regulate Before Solving 11:20 Question One Brown Bag 17:29 Question Two Slow Down 22:12 Question Three Stupid Ideas 26:03 Question Four Reappraisal 30:07 Small Stuff Burnout 31:47 Wrap Up And Outcomes To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here.

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About

This podcast is all about understanding why your brain and nervous system get stressed and how to rewire to recover from feeling burned out and overwhelmed. I help healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, veterinarians) as well as teachers, caregivers and parents with burnout. I understand high achievers and how they feel stress- I am an RN and Certified Life Coach and help clinics and hospitals with staff workshops to teach emotional resiliency skills and how to resolve stress and burnout in the workplace and in personal relationships. I also work with clients one on one.

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