How to Manage Work Stress Without Burning Out

Have you ever experienced burnout?

You’re not alone. Burnout is something that many of us will experience in our lives as we try to manage work stress and stress in our personal lives. 

What is burnout, exactly? 

Being burned out isn’t just being tired or overwhelmed. It’s actually a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress. Burnout often results from long term stress, a lack of control, or feeling undervalued in your role. As you can imagine, being burned out doesn’t feel good at all. When left unaddressed, burnout can majorly impact your mental and physical health, making even simple tasks feel overwhelming. 

Burnout is not only something that comes up at work, although that’s the way people commonly understand it. You can experience burnout in any area of your life, whether it’s at work or in your personal life, but most people experience burnout primarily at work. 

These are some common signs of burnout to watch out for: 

• Feeling chronically exhausted

• Experiencing increased irritability, at work and at home

• Struggling to find purpose or motivation

• Difficulty focusing or completing tasks at work

• Physical aches and illness 

• Feeling disconnected or numb

Why do women feel so burned out at work?

You know the cliche of the woman who “has it all”? The pressure to be a woman who has it all figured out can add to the sense of burnout you’re experiencing. Women tend to experience burnout at higher rates than men, because of the compounded pressures of work and personal responsibilities. 

Having a full time career and having a household to manage is a lot of work. Women are often expected to take on emotional labor at work that their male coworkers are not tasked with, and it can feel like you’re risking your career when you say no. Women also tend to be paid less and have fewer opportunities to advance in their careers, which can both contribute to feeling burned out. 

The expectation to be “everything to everyone” can create an overwhelming sense of stress, which leaves little time for the self-care and recovery required to stop burnout in its tracks. Understanding the stressors that are impacting your experience of burnout can help you find ways to manage it more effectively. 

If you’re feeling burned out at work, there are some things you can do to start to feel better: 

Work on your boundaries

Having clear boundaries are crucial to managing burnout (and preventing it from happening again). Setting boundaries can be overwhelming, especially when you historically haven’t had very firm boundaries at work. 

Remember that boundaries are a way to help your relationships (including your work relationships) continue over the long term, not a punishment or a sign that the relationship doesn’t matter. In addition, it’s important to note that boundaries are about explaining what you will do, not about controlling what anyone else does. 

Saying no can be harder than it seems, but keep in mind that it’s okay for you to say no to things! If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of tasks you have on your calendar, it’s perfectly fine to talk to your supervisor about what you can reasonably handle, and what you need help with. If you’re stressed by the amount of emotional labor you’re taking on in the office, you can clarify what you’re willing to do and what you’re not able to take care of. If you’re stressed about work bleeding into your personal life, you can set a boundary that you only check email during work hours, or clarify that you will only work on tasks that fall under your job description. 

Prioritize taking care of yourself 

Burnout takes a toll on your ability to care for yourself. The feeling of stress and exhaustion that burnout creates means it takes much more energy to take care of the little things that help you feel better. Remember that taking care of yourself isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity, and without taking care of yourself, you’ll be unable to function. It might seem silly to focus on self-care as a way to improve your stress level at work, but self-care helps you build a solid foundation so you can withstand other stressors in your life. Starting with the little things can make a big difference in how you feel overall. 

Try scheduling regular breaks during your workday to step away from screens and reset. Make sure to engage regularly in activities that bring you joy, such as reading, journaling, crafting, or dancing. Do your best to improve your sleep quality, by sticking to a sleep schedule, minimizing sleep disruptions, and potentially even working with a sleep doctor to make sure there’s nothing medical impacting your rest. Make sure you’re prepared for your day by fueling yourself with nourishing foods and staying hydrated throughout the day, and take time to move your body in ways that feel good to you. 

Take lots of breaks

Work stress can seem never-ending, and it’s crucial to build in lots of breaks so you don’t add to your level of exhaustion. Some breaks can be built into your day to day work routine, like using the Pomodoro Technique, where you concentrate on a task for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break to reset, or taking a walk on your lunch break. It’s also important to build in larger breaks where you can. Schedule regular time off, and use all of your vacation and sick time - it’s a benefit of your job for a reason, and you’re entitled to use it. It may also be helpful to have different types of tasks you can switch to, so when one is tiring, you can try another. 

Figure out your major stressors

Have you pinpointed what triggers your stress at work? Is it a difficult manager, unrealistic deadlines, an overwhelming workload, or slacking coworkers? Figuring out what it is exactly that contributes to your stress is key to managing them effectively. To get started, try keeping a journal or a note on your phone to track how you’re feeling throughout the day. 

Once you start keeping track, it will be easier to spot patterns and identify triggers. Once you’ve clarified what it is that’s causing your stress, consider if there’s anything about your job that you can change. Can you delegate tasks, request a shift in responsibilities, or clarify expectations with your supervisor? 

Advocating for yourself at work can be scary, but it’s important to speak up for yourself before you are taken advantage of. Finally, if the culture in your workplace is negatively impacting your well-being, consider whether advocating for change will help, or if searching for a new job might be the way to go..

Call on your support system

When you’re experiencing something difficult, it’s important not to isolate yourself. Remember that you don’t have to navigate work stress alone. Talk to trusted friends, family, mentors, or colleagues who can provide perspective and emotional support. Seek out professional networks or support groups where you can share experiences and coping strategies.

Remember, that your employer benefits when you are able to do your job well, so if you’re burned out, consider talking about it to your supervisor. They may be able to help you figure out a way to delegate responsibilities and manage interpersonal issues that are impacting your job. If your workplace has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), take advantage of counseling or wellness resources they may offer. 

Get help from a therapist

Learning how to manage work stress and life stress is difficult, and having help from a mental health professional can help you find solutions that work for you. A therapist can help you develop coping strategies for handling workplace challenges, navigate career transitions or difficult work relationships, set boundaries that protect your mental health, work through feelings of self-doubt or imposter syndrome, and identify and break patterns of overworking or perfectionism that contribute to burnout. 

If you’re feeling burned out, know that you don’t have to manage it alone—therapy can provide the guidance and support you need to navigate stress and burnout with confidence. Our clinicians can help you find ways to manage work stress and find balance in your life. Contact us today to get started!

Understanding Neurodivergence: A Starting Guide

What does it mean to be neurodivergent?

The term neurodivergent can be broken down very easily: neuro = the way your brain works, and divergent = differing from the norm. So to be neurodivergent is to have a brain that works different to what is commonly considered the “norm.” Some feel the term itself implies negativity, as though the way someone’s brain works is abnormal and therefore a problem, so some folks have begun using the term neurodiverse in its place. 

Neurodiverse as a term recognizes that there is diversity amongst all brains, doesn’t place a hierarchy of what is “normal” and actually asks us all to remember that we exist on a spectrum of neurodiversity. 

You may also have heard of the term neurotypical–while within the framework of neurodiversity, we know there is not one single way a brain functions, we can also recognize the way in which our world has been structured and designed around one type of brain functioning. This is what the term neurotypical means–it is not saying that a common type of brian functioning is ideal, just that it is typical to encounter and is already baked into how we navigate daily life. 

How does neurodiversity show up?

There are many types of neurodiverse experiences and conditions including: 

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

• Obsessive compulsive disorder

• Autism

• Dyslexia 

Neurodiversity is a huge umbrella term, encompassing a world of different experiences. To get started understanding some of those experiences–and to dispel myths about them you may have heard, you can read more from the following blogs: 

5 Myths to Unpack About Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessions in OCD are the repetitive, distressing, and unwelcome thoughts and fears. Compulsions are the actions taken to help relieve the distress of obsessions. Sometimes a person with OCD will experience obsessions more strongly than compulsions or vice versa. 

Compulsions can help relieve the distress and anxiety that the person is experiencing, but usually not for long. When the distress returns, the cycle begins again. Eventually, the compulsions that are used to relieve distress become a habit, and they can often get in the way of everyday life. 

Read the full blog here. 

7 Lesser Known Signs of ADHD

It’s common for ADHD to be diagnosed in school-age children, but adults can be diagnosed with it as well, and sometimes the symptoms present differently in adults than in children. It’s also important to note that women and minorities are often underdiagnosed with ADHD, whereas white men are typically diagnosed according to the popular criteria. The way that ADHD presents in adults, women, and minorities might not be the “classic” ADHD symptoms that we’re familiar with, so it’s important to understand lesser known signs of ADHD. 

Read the full blog here. 

How ADHD Presents In Adult Women

Did you know that women experience ADHD at the same rates as men? The mainstream understanding of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is that it makes you hyper and unable to focus. However, that’s not the only way that ADHD manifests. Part of the reason that women are underdiagnosed with ADHD is that they typically experience symptoms in a less noticeable way. We also tend to think that ADHD is only diagnosed in kids because that’s what is the most common. It’s actually possible for someone of any age to be diagnosed with ADHD. Adults, women, and minorities might not have the “classic” type of ADHD so it’s not as obvious when it comes time to diagnose what is going on. 

Read the full blog here. 

There are many ways to be neurodiverse, and many ways to experience the ways in which neurodiversity stands out in a world designed for a neurotypical brain. However one common experience many neurodiverse folks have is the experience of “masking.”

Masking: What It Is and How It Shows Up

While masking can make it look like folks are adapting to the expectations of different settings, all that is really happening is certain people are learning to suppress parts of themselves. It’s motivated by fear and shame and a desire to avoid isolation. Because of this, folks on the spectrum can start to feel as though they are the issue, rather than our culture’s unwillingness to make space for them. It can start to feel as though people are overly burdened by your own natural and soothing behaviors, which causes you to suppress them, to feel shame about them, and consequently to feel shame about yourself. Folks who mask experience higher levels of stress, increased anxiety, increased depression, and have higher rates of suicidal thoughts than they’re neurotypical peers. There is also significant emotional burnout that comes from masking, leaving little to no energy for anything other than trying to be “normal.”

Read the full blog here. 

Here at Hope +Wellness we test all people but one of our specialties is in testing girls and women. We are here to help you with this — many of the individuals we test are women who have experienced many years of symptoms going unrecognized, undiagnosed, untreated, and all the associated emotional impacts — looking for answers and relief.

Take a look at our testing & evaluation services if you’re looking for support!

Embracing Creativity in 2025

Are you hoping to embrace creativity in 2025?

There are many benefits to creativity. Think of the mental health benefits of creativity: 

Creativity in any form helps us to express our feelings. Whether that’s through writing, singing, dancing, painting, sculpting, etc., creativity gives us an outlet to be freely vulnerable and authentic. 

When we don’t give ourselves space to release our feelings, they actually can do more damage to us. Bottling things up can make us anxious, tense, even physically ill. But so many of us do it because we don’t know any other way to deal with our feelings! We don’t want to overreact to something, so we push away any emotional reaction. We don’t want to seem dramatic or weak or scared, so instead of letting ourselves explore those feelings, we just lock them up and hope they don’t bother us anymore. 

Finding a creative outlet that works for you is a wonderful, healthy way to unlock those feelings and release them without creating greater conflict in our lives. And giving ourselves the space to release those feelings gives us a chance to explore them. (Read the full blog here.)

But it’s not always easy to be creative, especially in modern life. So many of us already feel too busy and too tired to manage more than our day to day responsibilities, so how can we even make space for creativity?

One way to make more space for creativity is to take a look at where you need more thorough, attentive self care. 

For instance, if you’re not getting proper sleep, your daily functioning overall will struggle, and you won’t have any brain power or energy left to be creative! Working on getting quality sleep may not seem like a road to creativity, but being well rested is crucial for good health and cognitive abilities. 

Read 6 Tips to Help Improve Your Sleep here.

Another way to make space for creativity is to examine your relationship to perfectionism. Do you feel held back or unable to start new projects because you’re afraid to mess them up? Do you struggle to continue with new hobbies because you struggle to stick through the phase of being bad at something while you learn new skills? 

Perfectionism is likely impacting your relationship to creativity! 

Learning to resist the compulsion for perfectionism is hard, and can feel very scary. But it is also an amazing step on your journey toward self care! While healing from perfectionism can be a long and arduous journey, there are a few things you can do for yourself to get you started.

Read Is Perfectionism Holding You Back here.

Adjusting a stale routine can also help you reignite your own creativity. 

When a routine feels like drudgery, instead of something you’re excited about, it can feel as though joyful moments are few and far between in your daily life. The key is working in new joyful moments into your day, either by altering your current routine, or creating a new one altogether. 

Read How to Craft a Joyful Daily Routine here. 

And of course, turn to our guide on 5 Ways to Cultivate Creativity: 

“You might not consider yourself creative at all, and that’s okay. We tend to think of creativity as something that you either have or don’t, but the truth is that you can become more creative. Cultivating creativity can help boost your self-esteem, improve your work performance, and leave you feeling more fulfilled. 

Every person has the ability to be creative, but we don’t always nurture that ability…If you’re interested in cultivating creativity in yourself, there are some steps you can take to encourage that! Here are our top tips to cultivate creativity.

Read 5 Ways to Cultivate Creativity here. 

If you’re looking for more ways to expand your creativity, therapy can be a great place to explore it. Our clinicians can help you find ways to support your particular creative style, so get in touch today!

AI and the Art of Wellness: Bridging Technology and Humanity

By Dr. Victoria Ranade

When I was a kid, I spent hours building forts out of pillows, carefully arranging each cushion until it felt like my own little world. I traced shapes on the walls with my fingers, letting my imagination carry me to places no one else could see. I survived dysentery on the Oregon Trail, guiding my pixelated pioneers through hardships I didn’t yet understand. In the evenings, we played red light, green light with the neighborhood kids, laughter filling the sunshine and street, spilling across the pavement like it belonged to everyone.

Even the quietest moments felt alive—watching dust float in a beam of sunlight, tiny specks moving as if with a secret presence of their own. The clerks rang up our orders, and we wandered the aisles, unhurried, as if we had all the time in the world. These small, ordinary rituals made life feel connected, human.

Now, it’s different. Children swipe through screens instead of building with their hands, and we check out at machines that don’t ask how our day is going. Packages appear at our doors with startling speed, delivered by strangers whose names we’ll never know. Technology is changing our ways of life faster than we can adjust to it. It often feels as though the rhythm of innovation is outpacing the rhythm of our humanity, leaving many of us feeling isolated and disconnected.

But here’s the thing: change doesn’t mean loss. It means adaptation.

AI as a Bridge to Wellness and Connection

The same curiosity that once inspired me to trace patterns on a wall or imagine worlds inside a pillow fort now finds new expression. Artificial intelligence (AI) is here, and while it may seem like another force pulling us apart, it also holds the potential to bridge gaps in our lives.

As a clinical psychologist, my hope is that AI transforms mental health care, reducing the burden of anxiety, depression, and everyday overwhelm. By offering support in moments of need, AI can create more space in our lives for wellness and connection.

Of course, there are gaps in what AI can provide. As Carl Rogers, a pioneer in humanistic psychology, reminded us, true healing often comes from authentic relationships—the power of being truly seen and heard. While AI cannot replicate the depth of human empathy, it can act as a bridge, offering support in the in-between spaces and freeing up mental and emotional energy for the deeper connections that make us feel alive.

Here are three simple ways to use AI to enrich your life and wellness while staying true to what makes you curious, creative, and connected as a human:

1. Use AI as a Mental Health Companion

AI-powered tools can help you practice mindfulness, track your moods, and provide gentle, evidence-based support when you need it most. These tools offer affirming responses like, “It’s okay to feel this way,” which can validate your emotions and remind you that help is always within reach.

2. Reignite Curiosity and Creativity

AI can make learning fun again. Ask it for a new recipe, a creative writing prompt, or an explanation of a concept you’ve always been curious about. Think of it as a playful teacher that turns everyday boredom into opportunities for discovery.

3. Lighten Your Mental Load

On days when you’re too tired to string together coherent thoughts for an email or task, AI can help. Simply input a few phrases, and it will craft a polished response, reducing the overwhelm of daily responsibilities. This kind of support creates space for rest, focus, and self-compassion.

Adapting Without Losing Ourselves

By embracing AI with intention, we can let it enhance our lives without losing the essence of what makes us human. It’s not about replacing connection—it’s about deepening it. AI can bridge the gap between isolation and connection, freeing us to spend more time on what truly matters: our relationships, creativity, and well-being.

As humans, our greatest strength is our ability to adapt. In a world of constant change, let’s hold onto the things that matter most—including our sense of connection, our curiosity, and the simple joy of being alive. And in doing so, we grow and evolve into our fullest expression.