You’ve just opened Outlook and there’s an email marked URGENT from your boss. Someone sees your status circle turn green and calls you on Teams (you hear the “boo boo boobooboo boo boo” in your sleep). You glance at your phone and see a text message from your sibling – sh*t, your elderly parent had a fall for the second time this year and is in the hospital.

I used to work in media relations and issues management, and the crisis-adrenaline energy is real. There’s a thrill that comes with fast-paced, responsive, and agile environments; for me it was like looking at problems as if they were multifaceted gems, seeing all sides. And moving around pieces of an ever-shifting game of Tetris.

Completing the stress cycle is one of the most important things we can do to prevent burnout. Your brain doesn’t know that the email from your boss isn’t a saber-toothed tiger, and that the unpleasant interaction with a co-worker doesn’t mean they’re trying to kill you.