Why pushing through isn’t working
Weekly Dose of Work Recovery Vol. 2.25.26
“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” — Sydney J. Harris
Before digging in to the science of work recovery, it's essential to take a step back and share why it's necessary.
There's no need for me to recap how stressful work is right now. You're likely feeling it firsthand - from the pressures of rapidly changing technology to sales pressures to tariffs affecting merchandise prices to layoffs galore.
I coined last year the “year of the work wound” and yet it seems like we are more likely to experience a decade of work wounds as businesses and leaders grapple with whatever is to come in workplaces.
And so it's this backdrop of modern work and its around-the-clock nature that I turned to research to understand how we experience work and how it impacts our minds and bodies.
The long and short of it is that the chronic work stress so many of us experience is wildly harmful. Three out of four people will experience significant work stress in a given year and of those who do, 50% will develop a health issue as a result, according to researchers.
Health issues such as fatigue, headaches, anxiety, depression, and more physical health impacts are common. And they set the stage for diseases from the inflammation that unmitigated stress causes in the body after years of lagging recovery and repair.
While we know this at a subconscious level, it's common for us to experience it as crying alone in our car (yep, been there!), taking our stress out on loved ones, and ruminating about work late at night.
Stop and Consider Why We Push Through
Our society has conditioned us to push through both the stress and the physical, mental, and emotional pain many of us experience. It's grit, after all. If everyone deals with it, why can't I, we ask ourselves.
This is why work has become a battlefield. And most of us are walking around wounded. From the wounds of burnout, bullying, bad behavior, and feelings of betrayal, we move from job to job, never fully healing what has hurt us and many times not addressing the harm it has caused.
And by pushing through, we shortchange ourselves the very real ability to mitigate chronic work stress' impacts. This is where work recovery comes in. And thankfully we have a large scale wellness study by the non-profit PLOS that found the single most effective way to mitigate the harmful effects of work stress to be micro-recoveries.
The Micro-Recoveries of Work Recovery™
Work recovery isn't a gimmick or a shorthand way to describe what we know as self care. Instead, it's a movement and a method that prioritizes micro-recoveries built into every day to offset the harm work so often does to most of us.
The truth is the body cannot be in two states at once. Our systems can't be in the flight-or-flight stress activation response and rest-and-recovery repair state simultaneously. And that's why we have to be as committed to our work recovery as we are to our rest days from our workouts.
It's the method and the medicine we need to repair what work takes from us and to reset to clearer minds and hearts, better able to solve the problems in our work and our world.
Until next time, ask yourself what would it look like to set aside time for micro recoveries in your work day? Maybe a short walk, a stretch break, a breathwork session to gain greater clarity. An intentional moment to clear your mind works wonders as your own work recovery practice.
Sending you peace and wellbeing this Wednesday.
Sincerely,
Bree
P.S. If you want structured support with work recovery, 1:1 mentorship offers personalized guidance, nervous system regulation tools, and practical strategies to help you recover from work and reclaim energy, clarity, and capacity. Reply to this message anytime. I read and reply to every one of them.
This week's did you know…No one knows how AI will shift work…
And yet a hypothetical report outlining one possible future scenario sent shockwaves through the markets by depicting a challenging outlook for employees. As AI and technology begin what is arguably the greatest transformation of our lifetimes, the report explored the plausible outcome that productivity could rise dramatically while reducing the need for large segments of the white-collar workforce.
While I’m not in favor of fear-mongering, examining AI’s potential impact on work is essential so we can think critically about guardrails, risk mitigation, and how to prepare for possible economic disruption. What gives me hope is that periods of big change have always required humans to do what we do best: stay grounded, learn quickly, and adapt. Our ability to remain calm, flexible, and responsive as conditions evolve may ultimately be our greatest strength.
Source: The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis, Cinitrini Research
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