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

Mona Tippets, RN, Certified Life Coach
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated 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. 5d ago

    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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. Sep 7

    Episode 75: The Cost of Caring—The Potential Risk of Compassion Fatigue

    Episode 75: The Cost of Caring—The Potential Risk of Compassion Fatigue In episode 75 of Burnout Solutions, Mona explores Viktor Frankl’s quote, “What is to give light must endure burning,” to explain how caring for others can affect us without inevitably leading to burnout. She breaks down the difference between burnout (as defined by Christina Maslach) and compassion fatigue (as described by Charles Figley as burnout plus secondary traumatic stress), and challenges the idea that being emotionally “stoic” at work prevents harm. Mona explains how stress and fear can be learned and spread through teams (tertiary/contagious stress), especially in high-demand environments with limited resources and ongoing exposure to suffering. She shares common physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual signs of compassion fatigue, then offers four practical ways to start recovering: recharge your compassion “battery,” practice presence in small sensory moments, choose empowering language (“I’m choosing to”), and reframe tedious tasks as part of a bigger mission. 00:00 Cost of Caring Intro 00:59 Frankl and Burning 04:00 Compassion Fatigue Today 05:52 Stoicism Myth 07:45 Burnout vs Fatigue 10:38 Secondary Trauma Explained 13:45 Fear Is Contagious 17:36 Workplace Stress Drivers 21:33 Signs and Symptoms 24:55 Recharge Compassion 30:32 Micro Practices 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.

  5. Aug 31

    Ep. 74: A Proven Training to Decrease Burnout and Compassion Fatigue- An Interview with Dr Eric Gentry

    Ep. 74: A Proven Training to Decrease Burnout and Compassion Fatigue- An Interview with Dr Eric Gentry Mona shares her two-decade healthcare background and how chronic stress, sleeplessness, and emotional exposure led her to feel like she was failing, before realizing it was her nervous system reacting to accumulated painful experiences. She explains that what we call “a stressful life” is often an over-responding, dysregulated nervous system matching present-day challenges to past threats, something she believes has intensified since the pandemic. Mona introduces the Forward Facing Professional Resilience Workshop, which she’s certified to teach, and then talks with its founder, Dr. Eric Gentry, about how the program grew from his own burnout and early compassion fatigue research into a one-day, evidence-supported training with studies showing reduced stress symptoms and improved professional quality of life. They discuss nervous system regulation as mental PPE, restoring the “space” between stimulus and response, and how large-scale implementation improved hospital culture, satisfaction, and error rates. 00:00 Nursing Burnout Story 01:40 When Stress Takes Over 03:32 Your Nervous System Explained 05:26 Introducing Forward Facing 08:03 Tools Like Mental PPE 11:38 Interview Begins Dr Gentry 12:30 Origin of the Program 18:06 Why Burnout Is Rising 21:26 Peace vs Threat Response 23:39 Intentionality and Choice 25:21 Hospital Culture Results 29:51 Why Caregivers Suffer 35:49 Wrap Up and Next Steps 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. Aug 24

    Ep 73: Grief In Burnout

    Ep. 73 Grief in Burnout: Death, Non-Death Loss, and Healthier Ways to Process It In episode 73 of Burnout Solutions, Mona talks about grief—why it’s been on her mind, how it can show up in everyday life, and why it matters for burnout. She reflects on a recent shooting in Twin Falls, Idaho that left her feeling heavy for days, then widens the lens beyond death to “non-death grief,” like relationship changes, career shifts, a diagnosis, a season ending, or grieving a version of yourself you miss. Mona also explores how grief can hide as over-control, hypervigilance, withdrawal, comparison, and shame, and reminds listeners there’s no “right” way to grieve. She shares a few practical ways to process loss, including naming it, allowing it, creating an emotional protocol, taking care of your body, and inviting connection instead of isolating. 00:00 Welcome and Topic 01:40 Headline Sparks Grief 04:19 Death Grief Basics 06:36 How Culture Shapes Death 11:04 Nursing and Compassion 12:42 Burnout and Letting Go 14:35 Non Death Grief 21:17 Hidden Grief Patterns 25:22 Time and Tolerance 26:46 Healthy Grief Tools 31:39 Final 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.

  7. Aug 17

    Ep 72 How to Start This School Year Without Carrying It All and Staying in Your Lane

    Ep 72 How to Start This School Year Without Carrying It All and Staying in Your Lane Mona kicks off the new school year with reflections from a recent family cruise celebrating her parents’ 50th anniversary, then shifts into a conversation about how we can show up differently—especially as parents, nurses, and teachers—by learning the difference between caring and carrying. She explains how caring comes from a regulated, values-driven place, while carrying often comes from anxiety and survival responses that try to control outcomes. Mona shares examples from parenting and nursing, then walks through seven signals you may be carrying someone else’s load, along with practical ways to return to “overflow” support—pausing to check capacity, naming what’s yours versus theirs, resourcing instead of rescuing, allowing natural consequences, regulating yourself first, and releasing outcome-based scorekeeping. 00:00 Welcome and Life Update 01:11 New School Year Reset 04:05 Caring vs Carrying 06:06 Real World Examples 09:25 Seven Carrying Signals 14:47 Overflow vs Pressure 18:32 Six Practices to Stay in Lane 23:35 Closing and Next Steps 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. Aug 10

    Ep 71 Reframing Self-Care as Self-Awareness

    Episode 71: Reframing Self-Care as Self-Awareness In episode 71, Mona reframes self-care as self-awareness—something you can practice in micro moments all day, not just through vacations or “treat yourself” routines. She shares practical ways to check in instead of checking out, ask better questions, build emotional vocabulary, and feel a fuller range of emotions without judging yourself. Mona also talks about learning your nervous system patterns, giving yourself permission to say no, letting people be wrong about you, and taking responsibility for your own peace, joy, and self-compassion. She closes by encouraging listeners to accept and ask for help—including professional support—and invites anyone who wants guidance to book a burnout recovery call through the link in the show notes. 00:00 Self Care Reframed 03:08 Check In Not Out 05:45 Ask Better Questions 07:31 Name Your Emotions 10:39 Permission To Say No 12:26 Nervous System Patterns 14:11 Let Them Be Wrong 16:17 Own Your Peace 17:15 Practice Self Compassion 18:21 Accept And Ask Help 20:08 Closing Recap And Invite 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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5
out of 5
7 Ratings

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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