Busy offices. Noisy wards. Phones pinging. Colleagues chatting. Patients calling. Sometimes your brain feels like it’s running 47 browser tabs at once.
Stress replays itself like a bad re-run
When I think about the most stressful time in my career (so far), my body doesn’t just remember it — it re-enacts it. Chest tightens, throat lumps, heart races. Honestly, it’s like my nervous system has its own replay button and enjoys pressing it just to mess with me.
The Perfect Storm of Chaos
Picture this: frontline emergency crisis services. Phones ringing off the hook, referrals and notes multiplying like rabbits in season, and what’s meant to be a two senior clinician service somehow always ends up being… well… just one. (Classic.)
To make things extra spicy, our little service sat right inside another “bigger, better-staffed” crisis team. Except plot twist: they were also short-staffed. Which meant their emergencies soon became our emergencies. Cue my team — plugging holes in their sinking ship while trying to stop ours from catching fire.
Managers, Swans and Sleepless Nights
Meanwhile, it felt like managers would float in and out like serene swans (I know now this was not the case). On the surface: calm, collected, graceful. In reality? Just as powerless as the rest of us. I can only assume detachment was the secret sauce that allowed them to actually sleep at night.
Negativity on Tap
And within all that chaos? Negativity. Criticism. Frustration. It bounced around the office like a toxic game of pass the parcel — landing on whoever was nearest. For me, that meant my mood tanked, my confidence shrank, and home life… well, let’s just say I wasn’t exactly the poster child for “work-life balance.”
I dig into this more in my “Systems & Society – Real Talk” pieces, but the short version is: this environment brewed burnout quicker than instant coffee.
What I Wish I’d Known Then
As I very quickly learned, you don’t always have the luxury to step outside for fresh air let alone a 10-minute guided meditation.
Enter: Discreet grounding techniques – under the radar ways to bring yourself back to the present moment and reduce your stress levels without anyone noticing.
1. The “5-Second Object Scan”
Find an object near you — a pen, your mug, your badge. Silently notice: its colour, shape, weight, texture, maybe even temperature. That’s it. Boom. You just pulled your brain out of overdrive and anchored it to something real, right in your hand.
2. Secret Sole Shuffle
Press your feet firmly into the floor. Wiggle your toes inside your shoes. Notice the pressure shifting in your heels, arches, and toes. Nobody else can tell, but your body instantly feels more solid and present.
3. The Mini-Temperature Check
Touch something with a noticeable temperature difference — a cool water bottle, a warm cup of coffee, the metal of your scissors. Feel the contrast for a few seconds. It’s like a tiny “reset button” for your nervous system.
4. Invisible Counting Breath
Inhale slowly while silently counting “1-2-3,” then exhale for “1-2-3-4.” Keep your face relaxed and nobody will know you’re doing a mini-breathing exercise. Just two or three rounds can lower your stress and sharpen your focus.
5. Alphabet Anchoring
In your head, pick a category (animals, foods, meds, TV shows) and quickly run through the alphabet: A—antelope, B—banana, C—cucumber… It’s a private mental game that pulls you away from spiraling thoughts and gives your brain a structured task instead.
✨ The best part? These are all stealth-mode. No yoga mat. No “ommm.” Just tiny mental pit-stops that keep you grounded, even when the world around you is anything but calm.
Takeaways
- Stress can live in the body long after the moment has passed.
- Crisis settings + chronic short staffing = a perfect recipe for burnout.
- Negativity spreads fast when there’s nowhere safe for it to go.
- Grounding techniques are small, discreet tools that can make a huge difference in surviving those high-pressure shifts.
💬 Over to you: Can you relate? What’s your “bad soap rerun” work memory that your body won’t let you forget?
📩 Drop me an email or leave a comment — I’d love to hear your experiences and learn about your own ways to manage stress.
✨ And if you want more support (or just more honest stories like this), hit subscribe. Let’s stop white-knuckling through burnout alone.
Scrubs And Sanity 
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