Bernadette Dancy, Health Coach and Stress Management Specialist

Stress is an umbrella concept - it represents both stress exposure AND stress response.

We often forget the reason we feel stressed is because we have been exposed to demands, threats, harms or challenges - focusing only on “coping better” and “optimising” recovery.

What about looking into the cause? What stresses you out? Is there a pattern to your triggers?

Join the waitlist for the next CPD training in stress management for health and wellness professionals now - link in bio (or stories, if you’re quick).

Stress Coach Reflection ~

One thing I’ve noticed over the years of working with people recovering from chronic stress and burnout is that those who recover more sustainably often stop trying to rush the process or “fix” themselves as quickly as possible. Buuuut they’re not able to show up consistently for themselves.

Here’s why -

Learning about stress and burnout matters.

Understanding the nervous system matters.

But perhaps even more importantly learning about yourself matters…

Ask yourself ⬇️

Why did burnout happen in the first place?
What were you tolerating?
What were you overriding?
What patterns, pressures, beliefs or expectations kept you stuck in survival mode?
How were you fuelling your body?
How much recovery did you have access to?

Taking TIME to answer these questions is imperative because eventually, when people give themselves enough time and honesty, something shifts…allowing people to feel ready for a different approach. One that allows them to actually rest.

If this resonates, I’m hosting a live Q&A webinar this Monday 11th at 7pm where we’ll be talking more about my CPD training: Stress Management for Health and Wellbeing Professionals.

It’s an informal space to ask questions, hear more about the course content and explore whether the training feels like the right fit for you ahead of the next cohort starting in June.

Check stories for the link or DM me for details

Most health and fitness professionals overlook this key aspect of health ESPECIALLY when they are working with high achievers or recreational athletes.

They forget, people are increasingly stressed these days - demands are arguably higher than ever.

So if you work in health and you work with people - you are most probably working with stressed people, DAILY.

Understanding stress properly changes how we practice and also how we achieve our goals.

Getting the right amount of recovery is key.

Programming exercise and training stress to take life stress into consideration, is key!

I’ll be talking more about this on my live Q&A this Monday 11th of May.

DM for details.

🎙️To listen to the full episode of this podcast with Kris Hendy from check out Strength for Endurance on Apple, Spotify and all other podcast hosting sights.

Ugh…Transitioning from work to rest mode (and vice versa) is always a bit jarring for me!

Anyone else?

I think there are many reasons for this:

😵‍💫 the change in pace
🕰️ the change in routine/patterns of living
📅 having no idea what day or time it is! 🤪
➡️ moving from doing lots of thinking and using my brain a lot, to generally not needing to be analytical or processing much information
🤔 And (maybe one of the more frustrating reasons) knowing I have to-do lists sat there, undone waiting for me is a bit annoying. Especially because having a list to do AND having free time BUT not using that time to close the open loops, is very hard!

This isn’t new news though. It happens to me at every half term/school holiday!😳😅

The good news…I know the drill… it always passes in a day or two - just in time for me to have to transition back into work mode again! 😳🤪

In the meantime, I’ll just try to accept transitions are discombobulating and do what I can to ease into holiday mode and then ease back into work mode!