E58: Work and Play, Episode 2: Why Play Is Medicine (Not a Reward)

E60: Work and Play, Ep 4: Stop Escaping Your life! The Truth about Vacations and 7 Ways to Enjoy Work More

E60: Work and Play, Ep 4: Stop Escaping Your life! The Truth about Vacations and 7 Ways to Enjoy Work More Mona explores the “vacation treadmill”—working relentlessly to earn a break, briefly resetting on vacation, then returning home to a life that quickly erases the relief. She explains how anticipation, slow decompression, and pre-return dread can make vacations feel like they carry an impossible load, especially for high achievers, healthcare workers, and teachers, and notes that the nervous system needs consistent regulation over time, not a few concentrated escapes. Rather than quitting vacations, Mona encourages taking pressure off them by building restoration into everyday life. She shares practical ways to make work more enjoyable, including choosing your job with intention, finding flow, reconnecting with your original why, adding micro joys, investing in a real work relationship, reducing “stress anchors,” bringing your personality into your role, and closing the satisfaction loop. She ends with a challenge to pick one strategy and one vacation intention. 00:00 Welcome and Setup 02:29 Vacation Relationship 03:41 Vacation Treadmill 13:37 Why It Happens 16:41 Keep Vacations 18:34 Choose Your Job 20:09 Find Your Flow 22:43 Reconnect Your Why 25:55 Micro Joys 27:03 Work Relationships 29:04 Reduce Stress Anchors 31:16 Bring Yourself In 33:19 Satisfaction Loop 35:36 Rethink Vacations 37:27 Weekly Challenge 38:32 Final Wrap Up To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here. [https://via.growseamlessly.com/widget/form/MlvPID8w6RCw1YuGhHce]

E59: Work and Play, Episode 3: Getting Better at Leisure- Let's Do it Right

Getting Better at Leisure- Let's Do it Right Mona reframes leisure as a skill—not a reward—and explains why many high achievers still feel empty after weekends, vacations, or binge-worthy downtime. Building on earlier episodes about work stories and play deprivation, she shares ideas from Harvard professor Arthur Brooks, including the distinction between pleasure (quick dopamine relief that fades) and enjoyment (pleasure plus “elevation” that leaves you more alive). Because burnout pushes our brains toward low-effort pleasure, Mona encourages planning leisure with simple intention—one deliberate choice instead of default scrolling. She outlines four categories of restorative leisure: contemplation, creativity, nature, and deep human connection, and addresses the “productive guilt” that blocks real rest. The challenge is a two-week leisure audit to notice what truly restores you and try one intentional activity. 00:00 Leisure Is A Skill 01:15 Series Recap And Burnout Culture 02:50 Why Time Off Feels Empty 04:55 Arthur Brooks Framework 06:18 Pleasure Versus Enjoyment 11:26 Plan Leisure With Intention 13:47 Four Types Of Restorative Leisure 14:02 Contemplation Quiet Time 14:54 Creativity That Regulates 16:46 Nature And Nervous System 17:14 Deep Human Connection 18:24 Leisure Audit Challenge 19:07 Productive Guilt And Permission 22:11 Closing Next Steps To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here. [https://via.growseamlessly.com/widget/form/MlvPID8w6RCw1YuGhHce]

E58: Work and Play, Episode 2: Why Play Is Medicine (Not a Reward)

Work and Play, Episode 2: Why Play Is Medicine (Not a Reward) Mona continues her Work and Play series by diving into play as a key solution to burnout, drawing on Dr. Stuart Brown and Brené Brown, including the idea that “the opposite of play is not work, it’s depression.” She explains that play isn’t obligation, multitasking “rest,” or a stressful vacation, but an intrinsically motivated, absorbing activity done for joy, not output. Mona shares research from thousands of play histories and animal studies showing play is a biological drive tied to resilience, social connection, and nervous system regulation, and that losing play can lead to flatness, reduced curiosity and creativity, and compassion fatigue—especially in healthcare culture where seriousness equals competence. She closes with a simple assignment: write your “play history” and identify what made time disappear as a child, then start reconnecting with it. 00:00 Series Intro and Recap 02:12 Why Play Matters 04:16 What Play Is Not 06:17 Defining True Play 08:03 Play as Biological Need 10:58 Nervous System and Depression 12:41 Burnout Without Play 15:41 Healthcare and Team Humor 21:00 Letting Go of Worth Myths 24:35 Find Your Play History 28:29 Wrap Up and Next Episode To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here. [https://via.growseamlessly.com/widget/form/MlvPID8w6RCw1YuGhHce]

E57: Work and Play, Episode 1: Why Rest Feels So Hard for High Achievers

Work and Play, Episode 1: Why Rest Feels So Hard for High Achievers Mona kicks off the summer Work and Play series by exploring why rest can feel uncomfortable—or even impossible—for high achievers, especially in healthcare. She invites listeners to examine the stories they were handed about work, productivity, and worth, sharing how nonstop work was modeled in her own farm upbringing and later reinforced in medical culture. Mona explains how chronic overworking affects the nervous system, keeping people stuck in fight-or-flight or shutdown instead of returning to a calm, connected ventral vagal state where true rest happens. She also reviews the Maslach Burnout Inventory’s three markers—emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced accomplishment—and offers three categories of genuine recovery: physical, psychological, and social, emphasizing that relief isn’t the same as recovery and that small intentional moments matter. 00:00 Summer Series Kickoff 02:02 Why Rest Feels Hard 05:20 Work Ethic Origins 10:04 Healthcare Hustle Culture 12:49 Nervous System and Rest 15:55 Burnout Warning Signs 18:17 Guilt and Caring Roles 19:44 Three Types of Recovery 23:18 Micro Moments of Rest 24:06 Reflect and Wrap Up To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here. [https://via.growseamlessly.com/widget/form/MlvPID8w6RCw1YuGhHce]

E 56: How to Give an Intentional Yes

Episode 56: How to Say an Intentional Yes Mona shares takeaways from attending the Idaho PTA convention as a middle school PTA President, including the growing need for volunteers and how easy it is for high achievers to say yes too fast and then feel overwhelmed or resentful. She explains that the issue is deeper than “just say no,” often rooted in patterns like people pleasing, avoiding conflict, chasing praise, or identity tied to performance, and how those fear-based yeses can lead to burnout. Mona offers a simple framework of five questions to help make a strategic yes: what you’re saying no to, whether it aligns with your real values, if it helps you grow, whether it benefits the people you love and your community, and if your future self will thank you. She also encourages pausing before answering and reviewing commitments weekly. 00:00 PTA Convention Story 02:03 Why We Overcommit 04:42 Patterns Behind Yes 08:19 High Achiever Identity Trap 12:05 Five Questions Framework 13:16 Question One Tradeoffs 15:14 Question Two Values Check 17:03 Question Three Growth Test 19:06 Question Four Who Benefits 21:14 Question Five Future Self 22:44 Courageous Yes Mindset 25:21 How To Implement Daily 28:28 Final Recap And Goodbye To to find out more about how I can help your workplace or work with me one on one, please see www.monatippets.com Want to understand your stress a little better? Get my free Stress Management Guide for High Achievers here. [https://via.growseamlessly.com/widget/form/MlvPID8w6RCw1YuGhHce]