Burnout Solutions- Stress Management Tools For High Achievers and Healthcare Workers
Sep 14, 2026 · 34 min · 10 segments
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…
So you have heard me talk about this before, but let's just go into a very quick science lesson if you are listening for your first time.
When your brain perceives a threat, and by a threat, I mean anything from a bear is chasing you to getting a certified letter in the mail or a text from somebody that you read, even just the words, call me, can elevate your nervous system.
You have ventral vagal, which is calm and connected, which is a neutral zone where you are more often calm and you're wanting to connect.
it's immobilized, urgent, I got to do something right now state, a lot of high achievers spend a lot of time in that state.
And then there's dorsal vagal, which is a shutdown, a freeze, a numb, I can't even look at this, I'm going to avoid this type of state.
And when a problem lands, like I said, most high achievers go straight into sympathetic, our heart rate climbs, our muscles tighten, our thinking gets really fast, we move really fast.
And and that can feel productive it feels like we're on it we're moving we're on top of it but here's what's happening in your nervous system state it has read something as danger and it can pull resources away from your prefrontal cortex which is the thinking part of your brain it does all your planning your creativity your perspective your weighing of options all of your problem solving and And it's the part that can imagine a future that is different from the immediate moment.
Your nervous system does this on purpose because if a bear is chasing you, you don't need to do a brainstorming session, right? For example, if your toddler ran in a busy street, I do not want you to thoughtfully consider 17 possible responses.
But most of our problems that we're dealing with as adults aren't really like that.
So you have heard me talk about this before, but let's just go into a very quick science lesson if you are listening for your first time.
When your brain perceives a threat, and by a threat, I mean anything from a bear is chasing you to getting a certified letter in the mail or a text from somebody that you read, even just the words, call me, can elevate your nervous system.
You have ventral vagal, which is calm and connected, which is a neutral zone where you are more often calm and you're wanting to connect.
it's immobilized, urgent, I got to do something right now state, a lot of high achievers spend a lot of time in that state.
And then there's dorsal vagal, which is a shutdown, a freeze, a numb, I can't even look at this, I'm going to avoid this type of state.
And when a problem lands, like I said, most high achievers go straight into sympathetic, our heart rate climbs, our muscles tighten, our thinking gets really fast, we move really fast.
And and that can feel productive it feels like we're on it we're moving we're on top of it but here's what's happening in your nervous system state it has read something as danger and it can pull resources away from your prefrontal cortex which is the thinking part of your brain it does all your planning your creativity your perspective your weighing of options all of your problem solving and And it's the part that can imagine a future that is different from the immediate moment.
Your nervous system does this on purpose because if a bear is chasing you, you don't need to do a brainstorming session, right? For example, if your toddler ran in a busy street, I do not want you to thoughtfully consider 17 possible responses.
But most of our problems that we're dealing with as adults aren't really like that.
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