For more than a decade, industry experts – and practitioners themselves – have been sounding the alarm about critical levels of burnout and toxic stress experienced by healthcare professionals.

Too often, though, we give our feelings free rein. And too often (especially right now), the traumas we've experienced are showing up as anger, avoidance, or apathy.

In life, as in fiction, we can always ReWrite our story.

There are lots of Re words floating around out there right now.

Most of us appreciate the importance of Joy – and of sharing it with others. It simply has become habit to overlook or ignore in the chaos, the stress, and the trauma of these times.

At this moment in time, our threat detection systems have been so activated for so long it is becoming difficult to distinguish between a Face-Eating Bear and a Cute Little Chipmunk.

Never tie your growth to things you cannot control.

What can we do to keep ourselves strong and resilient, to enjoy and be grateful for life when everything feels precarious?

I’m tired. You’re tired. Everyone is tired. And not the kind we can mitigate with extra sleep or self-care. It requires something more.

We all have them, those well-intentioned co-workers, bosses, or others who radically cheer on our herculean efforts and outcomes while willfully ignoring the toll it exacts.

Strong advice in how to self-manage and how to avoid flinging your glitter (harm) onto everyone else.

What can we do to notice when we are heads down and busy DOING? Sometimes we have to turn to others in our lives who have a better vantage point than we do.

Passion rarely leads; it is birthed from our pain.

None of us were born knowing how to do these things, and few of us were taught these basic skills at any point in our lives.

Exhaustion settles into the bones, and left untended will weaken the matrix. If you think you’re alone, you aren’t.

Our commitment to this bootstraps-grit-rugged-individualism legacy is every bit as false and damaging as the prince charming fairytales of our youth.

When we can’t forgive those who have wounded us, we amplify the trauma and it becomes a barrier to us fully healing.

Resilience is a resource. No resource is limitless. Do not allow others to weaponize your previously demonstrated resilience against you..

Every one of us has the terrible power – even if only by default – to amplify the pain. Or we can commit to becoming mitigators of the pain.

There’s value in leaning in when people are angry and hurting – value for them and value for us.