Stress solutions 101

Celeste: Welcome back to week 5 of the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria's podcast series Wellness Reimagined: How to thrive in stressful times. I'm Celeste Pinney, a Midwife and Senior Clinician at the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria and host of the podcast, and I'm joined by wellness speaker Mark Bunn, welcome Mark.

Mark: Nice to be back with you, Celeste. Cheers.

Celeste:Great to have you here for today's topic, which is all about stress solutions 101. Nurses and midwives face often very high levels of stress in their working lives, and we know that prolonged or extreme stress can lead to conditions like burnout, depression and anxiety and other mental health issues. In recent research by the Liptember Foundation, which is an organization that helps support women's mental health, has shown that 46% of Australian women experience depression and 41% experience anxiety, it's a very high statistic there. So we know that stress isn't always easy to manage, and it can really take a toll on us. So we'd love to just hear from you, Mark, what would you say gets in the way of people's ability to reduce or manage their stress?

Mark: Yeah, no, it's a really, really tough one. What stands out for me is two big ones is just obviously knowledge—we always, for all of us, the more education and practical ways of reducing stress. I think breath works have been a great example of that over the last few years. You know, something that's really come to the fore, of the importance of breathing practices and how critical they can be for reducing our stress levels and anxiety quite quickly. But then also the idea of making things bite sized. You know, when we think of stress, particularly when we are stressed, and I've certainly been in that situation, we think it's really overwhelming, and we want to try and get rid of it all in one go. This idea of building habits—we've spoken about habits on an earlier podcast—and making little bite sized, easily implementable strategies that might just chip away at the stress. So appreciating that we might not get rid of all our stress in one go, but even little, little chips away is really, really powerful. And that comes back to habits, having habits, building up the habits into our routine where we can make things easy and really obvious, which we touched on in that podcast. For example, a 5 minute walk. You know, we might not be able to do the 20 minute meditation practice or get to the gym for an hour, but a five minute walk might not get rid of all our stress, but can still make a reasonably significant impact. If at the end of our shift, we want to have the glass of wine, that's our way of chilling out for the night—can we do it maybe outside and get some earthing or some nature connecting; at least we're doing it in the fresh air and maybe seeing the sunset or the sunrise, in some cases, depending on the shift. So just, yeah, trying to have habits where we chip away at stress, and we'll probably at some stage in the podcast link to a topic called micro recovery, which we'll get into a bit deeper, but that's around the same sort of philosophy.

Celeste: Oh, that's fantastic. That's really good. So just those small, consistent practices that people can put into their day or their week, and maybe thinking, you know, for me, it makes me think about, oh, okay, how could I plan that, you know, rather than when I'm really stressed, trying to sort of bring those in, how can I plan it so that it's there as a regular thing in your life, so that when you are really stressed, you sort of can automatically fall back on that habit of dealing with or managing the stress a bit better.

Mark: Absolutely, yeah, and obviously, when we talk about stress, and it may be a question you had in mind, but long term, of course, this can lead to burnout. And we know nurses and midwives, you know burnout can be a thing they have to deal with. And so some fascinating research by a colleague of mine called Dr Adam Fraser, in conjunction with Deakin Uni, looked at this whole idea of resilience. We've heard over the last few years, particularly out of COVID, that as nurses and midwives we need to be resilient and push through—almost like we have to put the armour on and be strong—but that really can only last for a certain amount. When it's short term, that's fine, but long term it's not something we want to rely on. What Dr Adam did in the research is they looked at what's called micro recovery: little things, might be two minutes here, three minutes there, five minutes there—breath work practices, little meditation, getting outside for fresh air, having a chat with a friend or a colleague. These little things that often we may not think are very powerful, but added up over time, make a massive impact on our stress levels and burnout. They had quite a number—a few hundred people, I think—go through the study and increased their regularity of these micro recovery activities by 60% and they had well over 20% reduction in stress and a 44% reduction in burnout, which is really, really powerful.

Celeste: Yeah, I didn't realize that it was so powerful like that. That's amazing.

Mark: Yeah, we see this everywhere. I'm not sure how many of the listeners are into investing, and I'm no big investor or finance, but I remember hearing this idea of compound interest—the way people like Warren Buffett make money is by little bits of investment regularly over time—and it's very similar with our health. The whole purpose of this point about micro recovery is just not thinking we have to have the big, massive overnight sensation of getting rid of all our stress in one go. It's about what we can do now to make little chips away and compound it over time. Really, really powerful.

Celeste: I think that's good to hear, because maybe it might allow people to get into those practices more rather than putting off feeling like I've got to meditate for an hour a day, or wait until the health retreats in order to actually help deal with my stress. Knowing that might help people begin implementing those sorts of things through the day.

Mark: Yes, absolutely. Little steps are really, really powerful.

Celeste:And you touched on burnout there. Do you have any other sort of thoughts or ideas about how nurses and midwives can inoculate themselves against burnout, other than what you've already mentioned, which is a fantastic piece of advice?

Mark: Yeah, again, I always try and come back to the research where I can. One we all know is social connection. It makes total sense, but we often don't do it because we think we have to go to the gym or prepare the perfect meal, which can create more stress than it's worth. Social connection—jumping on the phone, having a quick chat with a friend you haven't caught up with for a couple of weeks, or that extra five minutes with one of your kids or partner—really stopping and having a proper check-in instead of just a quick hello as they're walking out the door is powerful. So it's about prioritising that. When we think of health and reducing stress we tend to focus on eating better, exercise, and sleep, which are all important, but we somehow miss relationships and social interactions on our to-do list. They really should be at the top. Looking through long-living cultures, there's a sense of family and connection integrated into life. We've moved away from that a bit, so we have to be more diligent. I'd put social contact and interaction right up there as the burnout remedy.

Celeste: It's really interesting because some people wouldn't have put those two together as something that might help prevent or manage burnout. I do remember the person who runs the Black Dog Institute said they did some research on burnout and found that support was one of the top three strategies for helping manage burnout. So that obviously links in with social connection and support.

Mark: Yeah, absolutely. The longest study ever done on wellbeing is still going—the Harvard Study of Adult Development—and they concluded that relationships and social connections are most important for our health throughout our lifetime. Particularly when life gets challenging, having relationships we can depend on helps us through those times. There's a great paraphrase: a trouble shared is a trouble halved. Even if we're not finding a solution to what's causing stress, having someone to talk to goes a considerable way to helping us cope.

Celeste: Yeah, that's great. Do you have any ideas about how people can check in with themselves to get a sense of their stress levels? Some people might normalise stress or numb out and not notice what's going on in their body or emotional state.

Mark: I think there are two good ways. One is heart rate variability—if you have a smartwatch, HRV is a quantifiable way to get day-to-day insight into where stress is building. The other is sleep. Sleep reflects everything we do—caffeine late in the day interrupts sleep; accumulated stress shows up as trouble falling asleep or waking between around two and three in the morning (what Ayurveda calls the Vata time). If sleep is disrupted, reduce caffeine and focus on strategies like meditation and nature; once sleep normalises, it's generally a good reflection that stress is more under control.

Celeste: Yeah, you can use it as a barometer—a mirror: if my sleep is going well, my stress levels are probably under control; if my sleep is poor, it's a sign stress is too high.

Mark: Yes.

Celeste:Great. Any other suggestions about stress? You touched on nature—I've read about Japanese forest bathing and how it can reduce cortisol. What do you know about that?

Mark: The Japanese term Shinrin-yoku stands for the healing power of trees and plants. Institutions like the Global Wellness Institute have promoted research showing "nature deficit disorder"—that disconnection from nature in western cultures contributes to sleep and stress problems. Earthing or grounding is powerful: any natural environment helps—fresh air, natural light, exchanging microbes with soil to strengthen our microbiome—which benefits sleep. Simple grounding like taking shoes off and standing on grass, walking on wet sand, or "green exercise" (doing activity outdoors) consistently improves sleep quality and quantity and reduces stress. We're biologically connected to nature—light cycles regulate sleep, and many bodily cycles align with the sun. Stress can be a disconnection from our natural rhythms, so reconnecting with nature can profoundly reduce stress.

Celeste: For people in a city, it doesn't have to be trekking in the bush. Small local green spaces—creeks, trees, grass—can help. Even the sound of birds and the microbes from trees are beneficial. You can find ways to make it work even in urban areas.

Mark: Absolutely. One trend I'm including in presentations is biophilic design—bringing nature into built environments. In hospitals or offices where getting outside is hard, elements like green walls, plants, nature-based art, or even nature sounds via virtual reality can have calming effects. While nothing duplicates being outdoors, these strategies produce meaningful benefits.

Celeste: So fascinating that the brain recognizes nature through colour or sound.

Mark: Yes. Another promotion of mine is maximising downtime on holidays. Rather than busy city trips, choose nature-based or wellness destinations—hiking, meditation retreats. People dealing with burnout increasingly choose these restorative trips (for example, Bali retreats) rather than typical tourist cities.

Celeste: Planning holidays is important—people who haven't had a break for six months or more increase their risk of burnout. Choosing tranquil, nature-based holidays helps rejuvenate.

Mark: Keeping holidays local helps with cost and recovery—country Victoria, Tasmania—beautiful nature that's cheaper and easier, allowing deep rest.

Celeste: Lastly, stress isn't all individual—it's environmental: who's around us and what's asked of us. Nurses and midwives can feel overwhelmed with workload. What can employers do to support them?

Mark: Employers can support the strategies we've discussed. Ideas include quiet rooms or meditation spaces (like airport meditation rooms) for short 5–10 minute breaks for silence, prayer, or meditation. Workplaces could use more biophilic design—colour, plants, greenery or nature art—to improve mental wellbeing. Employers can also facilitate connection—online groups or forums where nurses and midwives share ideas about stress management and shift-work strategies. Peer support is powerful since colleagues deeply understand the challenges. Facilitating those connections is a strong way employers can help.

Celeste:F antastic—thank you for joining us today, Mark, and we'll see you next week for our final podcast where we discuss all things breathing for stress management.

Mark: Beautiful. Look forward to it.

Celeste: Great. For any nurse or midwife in need of support, you can call us on 9415 7551 to make an appointment with one of our nurse midwife counsellors, and we'll see you next week.