Stop Stress Before It Spills

Burnout is not the beginning. It is the receipt. Stress starts in the skip lunch, the extra

yes, the late night email, and the moment you decide to push through instead of pause.

I'm Dr. Cristiana, and this is the Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast. Today we are talking

about how to prevent stress before it spills over.

Most people think stress comes from doing too much. That's wrong. Stress comes from not

noticing when to stop, because stress doesn't just arrive with a siren. It doesn't kick

your door down. Stress shows up like this. 30 seconds. One more task. One more favor. One

more email. One more. I just finished this, and you don't even feel it building until it

spills. I realized this in the least dramatic place possible in my kitchen. So holding a cup

of matcha, I was staring at my microwave, and the most dangerous button in my house is actually

the 30 second plus button on my microwave. I like my matcha warm, not hot, and the microwave

doesn't care about my preference. So I have a system. I basically heat it, and then I add

30 more seconds, and then another 30. And sometimes it's just a little bit more, because it's

not warm yet, and because I'm already there, because what's another 30 seconds? And then

everyone's in a while, I push it slightly too far, and then the cup overflows, not in a

movie scene, not like exploding. It just overflows. Just enough to drip over the edge and make a

really big mess in the microwave. And here's the part that made me stop. After you've had an

overlay once in your microwave, you never approach the microwave the same way again. You open the door

really carefully. You look at the cup like it might betray you, you brace yourself, and then one

day standing there, waiting for that beep, I thought, uh oh, this is stress. This is actually

how stress works. We don't just add stress in big obvious chunks. We add stress in 30 second

increments. One more meeting, one more responsibility, one more late night, one more my shirt, one more,

it will only take a second. And most of the time, nothing happens immediately, but guess what?

Which is why we keep pressing that button, because the build doesn't come right away, delayed builds

are the ones that bankrupt high performers, and now quick-nord moment, but in plain English for you.

Microwaves heat liquids by making the water molecules vibrate, and that vibration creates heat,

but they don't heat evenly. They are hot spots and cold spots. So liquids can super heat,

meaning they get hotter than they actually look without bubbling. So when you take a cup out of

that microwave, it looks totally fine, but then when you move it, just a little bit, it actually

suddenly surges. So now that means uneven heat, hidden build-up, delayed reaction. And if that

doesn't sound like stress, I don't know what does, because stress doesn't show up in one place either.

Sometimes it's your neck. Sometimes it's your sleep. Sometimes it's your digestion. Sometimes it's

headaches. Sometimes it's irritability. Sometimes it's, oh my gosh, brain fog. And it rarely happens

proportional to what you added that day. You can add one more small thing and your body reacts

strongly. You can carry 10 big things and feel fine until you don't. That's not weakness.

That's systems. Your body has limits. Even if your calendar pretends it doesn't. And here's the

leadership move. Most people assume adding is neutral. They don't ask whether something should be

added. They assume it can be handled, but every addition has cost. And if you don't pay attention

to the cost, you pay it later with interest. So here is a simple practice. No overhaul, no tracking,

no perfection. Before you press that plus 30 second button in your life, pause and ask four

questions. First, what am I adding right now? Be specific. A task, a favor, a late night,

a mental load? Second, do I need this heat right now? Am I solving a real problem or am I trying to

manage anxiety by doing more? Because doing more feels control. And sometimes it's just panic with

a planner. Third, what's the risk of overflow? Not dramatic, honest. If I add this, where will it

show up later? Sleep, mood, patience, health, focus? Fourth, if I don't add this, what actually changes?

And here's what people don't expect. Very often the answer is nothing. Nothing important. And that's

the valuable information. Now here's the alternative that hit me later. Instead of reheating

over and over and over again in bursts, those are those little mug warmers that keep your drink

consistently warm. Not hot, not cold, just steady. So use a better model for stress. Most people

don't treat recovery like a fire extinguisher. They rest only when they crash. They only slow down

when symptoms force them to slow down. They take care of themselves only when it becomes

unavoidable. But your body prefers steady input. So what would a mug warmer look like in your life?

A 10-minute walk, most days? A real lunch break? Not at your desk? A consistent bedtime routine?

Two minutes of breathing between meetings. A weekly planning moment where you remove one thing

instead of adding one. Small, steady inputs, beat dramatic resets. That is not self-care

language. That is strategy. That's maintenance because no serious system is run until failure.

It's monitored. It's adjusted. It's serviced. You deserve the same. In fact, here is your

petite practice for today. A 30-second body scan. Set a timer. 30 seconds, one minute, and then ask

yourself. Where do I feel heat right now? Do I feel lightness, pressure, buzzing, tension? Where

do I feel cold? Numb, flat, disconnected or drained? What is one kind of thing I can do for my

body in the next hour? Or in the next minute? One answer. One small action. That's how you

notice the temperature before it spills. If this episode would make you think of your own plus

30-second button, you're not alone. Most of us were trained to pay attention to our calendar

before our body. But your body has been communicating with you the whole time. In fact, let me tell you

what I would encourage you is where do you add just a little bit more without realizing it?

If this has helped you, helpful, share it with someone who's carrying a lot, quietly, steady,

capable, trying to keep it all from spilling. And I look forward to seeing you for the next episode.

Thank you so much.