Imagine being able to transform stress into success – even during the busy holiday season! Discover how you can start aging gracefully with self-trust by listening to this encore interview I did with career and leadership coach Jesseca Tighe. If you’ve been pushing, proving, caregiving, or carrying the weight of “it’s all on me,” this episode is a gentle wake-up call. Jesseca and I talk about why stress isn’t just an inconvenience, it can be information. Together, we explore the real warning signs of burnout, the three different types of burnout, and the small “micro-skills” that help your nervous system come back down to earth, especially when life at home and work both feel like full-time jobs. You’ll also hear a tender reminder that taking care of yourself isn’t selfish. It’s sacred.

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Key Takeaways:

• Recognize stress as a signal, not a character flaw and learn how to stop overriding what your body already knows.
• Identify the type(s) of burnout you’re experiencing so you can choose support that actually fits.
• Learn how to use simple breath-based “micro-skills” to calm your nervous system in the middle of real life.
• Release the belief that “more effort” is the answer, especially when your system is already depleted.
• Remember that rest is not scrolling, it’s restoring… and you’re allowed to choose what truly refuels you.

Why This Episode Matters Now

Midlife has a way of turning the volume up. Your priorities shift. Your nervous system gets less interested in performance and more devoted to truth. And in a world that still rewards over-functioning, this conversation offers a kinder path: letting go of what’s draining you, opening to support, valuing what your body is telling you, and remembering you were never meant to earn your worth through exhaustion.

If this episode speaks to you and you can feel that quiet inner “yes” to doing life differently, subscribe to the podcast and share this episode with a woman you love who’s been carrying too much. And if you want to stay close as the show steps into its new identity in January 2026, make sure you’re connected to Gloria’s community so you don’t miss what’s coming next.

Resources:

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Connect with Jesseca

Website: soulutionsforhealth.com

Social Media: @JessecaTighe

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TRANSCRIPT – Encore Episode: Transform Stress into Success: Aging Gracefully with Self-Trust

Introduction: Why We’re Revisiting This Conversation About Stress and Burnout

Gloria Grace Rand: The holidays are here, a time for joy and laughter and for many people, stress. That’s why I thought it would be a perfect time to present an Encore episode of my conversation earlier this year with career and leadership coach Jesseca Tighe about stress, burnout, and why taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, it’s sacred. So stick around because I also have some exciting news to share before we dive into the interview.

I am Gloria Grace Rand, founder of The L.O.V.E. Method and author of the number one Amazon bestseller, Live, Love, Engage, How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Start Being Yourself. In this podcast, we share practical advice from a spiritual perspective on how to live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically so you can create a life and business with more impact, influence, and income. Welcome to Live. Love. Engage.

Exciting Podcast News: Live. Love. Engage. Becomes Design Your Life, Your Way

Gloria Grace Rand: Namaste. The holidays are here and as Jesseca Tighe taught me earlier this year during our conversation, stress isn’t just an annoyance to push through, it’s a gift. It’s your body’s way of saying, hey, I need you to pay attention to me.

So that’s why I’m taking a break from recording a full episode this week before my body starts to complain. And it’s also giving me a chance to prepare for January 2026 when this podcast will return with a fresh new identity. Live, Love, Engage is becoming Design Your Life Your Way, a show dedicated to empowering women over 50 to boldly live life on their terms and on purpose.

So pour yourself something warm, find a cozy spot, and let’s revisit this conversation about choosing yourself, especially during a season that often asks us to do everything but that. And remember, I’ll see you in the new year with Design Your Life Your Way, where we’ll continue exploring how to live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically on your terms. So now let’s jump into my conversation with Jesseca Tighe.

Understanding Stress: Why It’s Actually a Gift That Can Help You Heal

Gloria Grace Rand: You said that stress is actually a gift that can help us heal. So that may sound counterintuitive to a lot of people. So I’m wondering if you could explain what you mean by that.

The Science Behind Stress: Your Body’s Built-In Warning System

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah, yeah. So stress is really a low-grade fear response. It’s a low-grade survival response.

So when we talk about or when we think about our ancient ancestors, cavemen running from the saber-toothed tiger, and they had this fear response because that told them, hey, this saber-toothed tiger is after you. This is affecting your life. You need to fight or flee or freeze. That’s another one. But you need to do something in order to save your life. Stress is actually a low-grade fear response.

So it’s telling your body and it’s telling you that something’s not right. That something’s not right. You can’t live like this. You can’t do this anymore. You’re way too stressed out. But we ignore it. And instead of thinking, okay, something doesn’t feel right. Something is wrong here. I’m really under too much stress. We think of it as something to overcome. We think of it as something to just ignore. And it’s something that’s annoying. And it’s this existential threat out there. But really, stress, it causes a toll on the body, on your health, on your mental health, and we really need to take it seriously. And so that’s what I help people do.

Stress as a Wake-Up Call: The Annoying Cousin in Your Basement

Gloria Grace Rand: So it’s really sort of, I guess, a wake-up call to start paying attention, it sounds like.

Jesseca Tighe: It is. It is. Yeah. It’s the annoying cousin in your basement that comes up every once in a while and knocks on your door going, hey, I’m still here. This isn’t good for us. This isn’t good for you. You have to do something different. And we say, no, whatever. I can get over it. It’s fine. And then years down the road, we end up with stress-related conditions and we end up with mental health conditions. We end up with substance abuse conditions. It wreaks havoc on our body internally, which is completely invisible and we don’t see it. And because it’s not the saber-toothed tiger right there in front of our face, it’s this essential threat out there. It’s really coming up and saying, hey, in 15 to 25 years, you may or may not have a heart-related condition. And we’re like, whatever. I got work to do.

And we need to take these things seriously because we have a lot of research now on what stress is, what it does to the body, and why it’s so important that we manage it. And we are still stuck, most of us are still stuck in a work culture that doesn’t provide those resources or even worse, actively tries to destroy our health and well-being.

From Healthcare Burnout to Coaching: A Personal Story of Transformation

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah. Now, I know that your background is in healthcare. So were you, because it sounded like I’m trying to remember now from reading your bio, you certainly were seeing how other employees were affected by stress, but was that something you were going through as well? And is that kind of what led you to make this transition?

Working Yourself Into Illness: When Burnout Becomes a Health Crisis

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. Yeah, it was. So my path, my story is, it’s not a linear path, like most people. So I have a PhD in psychology. I practiced as a mental health therapist for about 10 years, and then got an opportunity to work in administrative positions in healthcare and mostly in senior living, which was great. I really loved it at first, but living through COVID, living through just the industry changing into more of a corporate structure, it really, really affected me. And I got burnt out, you know, when, especially in healthcare, it’s always do more with less. It’s always work harder, faster, longer. There are no holidays. There are no breaks. It’s 24-7, 365. You’re getting calls on vacation. And I just, I was not doing well. I really worked myself into illness where I got COVID and E. coli poisoning at the same time, and I could not get well. It was really terrible. And I just, I knew that I had to make a change and I had to do something.

Turning Crisis Into Opportunity: Starting a New Business From the Couch

So while I was laid up on the couch for two months, I decided, well, I might as well use this time productively. And so I’d always wanted to work with people again individually. I always knew I was going to go back to that. So I thought, well, why not now? So I decided to hang out a shingle as my dad would say, and start my own business. And here I am, and I’m loving it. And I’m so glad that I made the switch. But while I was working in healthcare, I did have some tips and tricks and techniques that I did with my team to reduce turnover, reduce stress, to build resilience, build a cohesive team so that we all had time back in our day so that we could manage it as best we could in the environment that we had.

Healing Modalities That Actually Work: From Meditation to Functional Medicine

Gloria Grace Rand: Well, that’s a perfect segue then for perhaps for you to share a little bit, you know, because especially I assume you also maybe used some of that yourself besides taking the two months of rest, which you certainly needed. I’m sure your body and your mind and soul all needed that rest. But what were maybe, maybe what are like one or two that you’ve found have been really helpful for foes? You mean modalities of healing? Yeah. Yeah.

Healing Your Body Like It’s Your Job: A Holistic Approach to Recovery

Jesseca Tighe: Oh, gosh. Well, I personally, you know, I couldn’t work. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t get up. It was really bad. So I really, I tried to heal my body like it was my job. Like I would, I did meditation. I did yoga. I got a naturopath. I got a functional medicine doctor. I had a Western doctor. I had, I did sound baths. I did massages. I cashed in all my gift cards that had been piling up, and which was also a sign that I, you know, I never used them because I never had time to use them.

I really went into it with a mindset of, all right, I, there’s something really wrong because I just, I could not get well. And it was just day after day of not being able to get any better. And this was the fourth time I had had COVID. And so it’s not like I didn’t have it before. It was just, gosh, worse this time around. I mean, being in the healthcare, I was, you know, you’re exposed. It doesn’t matter if you’re vaccinated to the help, but you know, you still get it. But I, I just, I took it very seriously. I did everything that I could. I took every, I took every supplement, every, anybody told me to take. I, I, I really put my heart and soul into, into healing myself and my body.

Signs Your Body Is Finally Healing: From Hair Loss to Healthy Nails

And it, you know, after about a month or so, you know, my hair stopped falling out. You know, the, the, my skin wasn’t as dehydrated. Like there were, there were serious functional changes that were starting to happen that, you know, are still continuing really to this day. But, you know, I just noticed the other day, I’m like, oh, the ridges in my nails are gone. Oh, cool. I must be properly hydrated now or whatever it is, whatever caused, I have no idea. But you know, I, that’s what I did. I just, I took it really seriously. I went in whole hog and I, it was the most important thing that I was doing at that time was trying to get better and heal my body. Cause I, I knew no matter, even with this new business that this venture that I went on, if I wasn’t well, there’s no way it was going to work. And I didn’t want to go back. So.

Why There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Solution to Healing

Gloria Grace Rand: Oh, wow. And, and I think that’s a good lesson sometimes is that you do have to try a variety of things. You know, there is no one cure all thing for everything. Sometimes you have to go through a few different things to, to try and, and, and, and maybe they also accumulate. And I, and I’m sure some of this, you know, helped because of, you know, I know I’m a big proponent of meditation for instance. So I knew that that is a good, great thing to help you with stress levels. But then of course, when your body is debilitated by illness, then you’re going to need other things. So yeah, so it makes sense. You try to variety of things to, to do. Cause that’s sometimes what you got to do.

Servant Leadership: How to Reduce Team Stress Without Sacrificing Results

You mentioned, I do want to go back to, you mentioned that with your employees though, you were helping them with you know, a couple different strategies to help them with their stress level, especially so you don’t end up like you did when you’re on the couch. Sometimes you can still do while you’re working. So what, what, what did you recommend to them over a couple of things?

Putting People First: A Heart-Centered Approach to Management

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. Yeah. Well, when I, when I work with clients on a leadership level as a leadership coach, there’s a whole program that I take them through. But you know, for just for some simple tips and tricks, there were some things that you can do to build cohesion. And I’m a, you know, I, I consider myself a servant leader. Yeah. I didn’t think I was any better than anybody else. I didn’t carry myself that way. I took a very heart centered approach. And I think also because of my psychology background, I really took their mental health and wellbeing was the most important thing to me. It wasn’t, you know, necessarily managing to the numbers on the spreadsheet or, you know, doing what the shareholders wanted. Yeah. Don’t tell them.

I mean, of course there was a business and you’ve got to run a business. And I, it’s not that we didn’t do those things. It’s not that we weren’t successful, but I think that you can do those things and still take care of your people and take care of your employees in a way that is effective and that makes sense. And so I, you know, I’m still friends with, you know, people that I supervised, you know, years and years ago. I, you know, people still reach out to me and, you know, just talk about what a great experience they had. And, you know, I, I, I think that that was just the main thing that I did. I just treated them as people. I put them first. I put their mental health first.

“I Love You, Get Out”: Protecting Your Team From Toxic Work Culture

I, I, it was just very important to me, you know, even though I was the boss and, you know, I, I was, you know, working and going a million miles an hour. I, you know, I should have taken more care of myself, but I was very cognizant of taking care of them and making sure if they had just finished a huge project or had worked at a bunch of days in a row or worked a weekend, like, all right, well, I don’t want to see you until tomorrow. Like, I love you, go home. You see, I love you, get out. I, I really wanted to make sure that they got rest and relaxation. And I really fought against the healthcare culture that says, you know, you’re going to work 16 hours today and then get up and do it again the next day. And then that’s the norm. I didn’t want that to be the norm in our workplace, and it was not. So I think I was successful, at least for them.

The Three Types of Burnout: Warning Signs Professionals Often Miss

Gloria Grace Rand: That’s good. Now, I know that you, you work with leaders going through tough transitions. So what are the earliest warning signs of burnout that professionals and entrepreneurs maybe miss or ignore?

Burnout Is an Official Diagnosis: What the WHO Says About Workplace Stress

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. So burnout, a lot of people don’t realize. So burnout is an actual ICD-11 diagnosis. So the, the WHO in 2019 labeled burnout as an ICD-11 diagnosis. So you can actually get diagnosed with burnout as a workplace phenomenon.

Frenetic Burnout: When You’re Giving Too Much and Getting Too Little

And there’s three, there’s actually three different kinds. There’s frenetic burnout, which is when you’re channeling way too much energy into your job and those regular rewards and benefits are not enough to compensate you. So if someone’s feeling like they’re, they’re just putting way too much in and it’s, you know, merit increased time or raised time, and they’re like, woohoo, I, I, I’d rather have my weekends off. Or I, you know, I’d rather have this other benefit. Like it’s just not enough to compensate you for the energy that you’re putting in.

Worn Out Burnout: When External Pressure Becomes Overwhelming

Then there’s worn out burnout, which comes from external pressure from the culture, from the workplace culture, just from our culture as a whole, saying that you, you, you have to be here. I need you to come in on Saturday. I need you to do this. I know you just worked on a really huge project. I’m sorry, you can’t take that vacation. I need you here. It’s those external pressures that people are feeling that lead to that worn out burnout.

Under-Challenged Burnout: The Milton From Office Space Syndrome

And then the less common one, um, is the, um, it is, uh, unman, unmanaged burnout in terms of people are not, are under challenged. And so they think of like Milton from Office Space. So, you know, someone’s under challenged in their role. They are just kind of going through the motions and they’re not happy and they’re frustrated. So it can be the same amount of frustration. It’s just coming at them in a different way.

What Burned Out Professionals Really Want: Energy for Life Outside Work

So there’s actually three types. So if people are feeling like they’re putting way too much energy in and, or they’re, you know, a lot of people have both the people that work with me usually have both frenetic burnout and worn out burnout. They have both. And I work with a lot of healthcare folks because that was just the, the, the community that I’m, that I’m from. And I, I go, I get them. I understand. And I, they, they come and they, they just say like, it’s just, it’s not enough. The benefits aren’t enough. The, the, the money isn’t enough. You couldn’t, you know, it doesn’t matter if I, I get another whatever fill in the blank raises. Like it’s, I’m just, I’ve got nothing left at the end of the day. And that’s what they really want to feel is that they can go home. They have energy for their family, their friends, their children, their lives. They have energy for hobbies. That’s really what they’re wanting. And that’s what I help them get back.

The Impossible Balance: Working Like You Don’t Have Kids, Parenting Like You Don’t Have a Job

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah. And I can, I can relate to that. I remember a time when before I started my business, I was working, I used to work in television and I worked, um, originally was working for public television for the nightly business report. And so we had a show that would go on every day. And then I, I think because I wasn’t feeling challenged enough, I went to work for another program, but now I was doing almost everything that we had a whole bunch of other people doing. And then I was doing two shows a day. And then at one point, my, I had two little ones with me, one in kindergarten, one in preschool. And I think, I think it was my daughter got sick or maybe my son got sick, whatever, but they weren’t able to go to school. So then I wound up bringing both of them with me to the office. Luckily I had my own office, but I mean, it was, it was not fun.

Caregiver Stress: Managing Life When You’re Taking Care of Everyone But Yourself

And so, which leads me to my question, because I think you addressed it a little bit, because you kind of talked about external things, but what about, you know, you know, people who are dealing with, you know, either childcare issues or sometimes now I’ve got, I’ve got a dear friend who’s got a, um, you know, a husband who is in hospice right now. And so she’s, their furnace broke down. And so, and then they’ve got a storm coming. So the hospice people had come today instead of tomorrow when she thought she was going to do some other stuff. So, I mean, she’s fortunately not working a job right now, but if she was, I can only imagine the even more added stress she’d have on her. So how, how do like things like that, like, you know, external pressures, like at home, how did that, how does that weigh in as well?

Stress Is Stress: Why Caregiving Takes the Same Toll as Any Job

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. Yeah. Well, stress is stress. And I, um, I actually work with, um, uh, caregivers too. So people who are providing care for a spouse or an older parent, um, on their stress levels and, um, making sure they’re taking care of themselves because what happens when they get sick, what happens when they get injured, um, and making a plan for those things. So I do help those folks as well. Like your friend, um, and I feel for her. Um, yeah, it’s, it’s difficult. You know, stress is stress, whether it’s coming from, you know, an actual job or because your, you know, care, your, your job is caring for someone and, you know, caring for someone, you know, small or big, it’s a huge job and it takes a lot out of you. It’s this constant hypervigilance, which is that, you know, huge nervous system response. That’s it’s really not good for us to stay at that level all the time.

Why Netflix and Wordle Might Not Be the Rest You Actually Need

So it’s about figuring out these little moments throughout the day, um, where people can actually rest and recharge. We talk about what rest actually looks like, what actually does recharge your batteries because sitting on your phone, playing wordle and watching Netflix might not be what you need to be doing to actually rest and recharge. There could be some other things that would actually work better for you so that, um, you know, you actually get to, you know, recharge your batteries and actually heal yourself while you’re resting.

So there, there are some things there, there’s not a lot of time during the day for those folks that are caring for others. Um, but there are some things that you can do. And I totally get it. I have a young son and, you know, I remember being on calls 24 seven and missing dinners and practices cause I’m on the phone or I’m like, I have, there’s an emergency and I can’t get home and who’s going to pick him up from school. I mean, it was just, you know, it’s, it’s that constant, I think, you know, for, for men and women, you know, there’s that, that saying you have to have a job like you don’t have a child and you have to have a child like you don’t have a job. It’s, it’s so true. And there, but there are some ways that you can, that you can manage it and, and get through it.

Micro Skills for Stress Relief: Simple Techniques That Work in Minutes

I work with like a, I work with a trauma nurse who she’s like, I can’t even go to the bathroom during my 12 hour shift. Like what, what, what, you know, what can, what are you going to do for me? So we talk about, you know, little micro skills and actually building in those moments throughout your day so that you actually can get some rest, get some recharge and just, you know, bring that nervous system down just a little bit so that your, your body can relax.

Gloria Grace Rand: Well, what, what’s an example of what would be a micro skill that you would, that you teach?

The Toddler Meltdown Breath: What Kids Teach Us About Calming Down

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. Yeah. So let’s talk about just a simple breathing technique. So if you’ve, if you’ve ever had small children or been around small children, you have seen a weapons grade meltdown. Like you made peanut butter instead of chicken nuggets, you monster. And they’re crying, they’re sniveling, they’re, there’s snot bubbles coming out of their nose. It’s the end of the world. And then all of a sudden you see them go, and that just that, that’s your nervous system taking care of you. That’s your nervous system saying like, dude, take a breath. Just, it’s just PBJ. It’s okay.

But they’ll go. And then you’ll notice if you, if you watch these small, small little beings that then they’ll start to actually calm down because they’re, their nervous systems engage and they can actually relax. Like Neo. Neo’s here. He’s helping. So that’s, that’s an opportunity. So like with the, the nurse that I told you about in my example, I’m like, do you have time to like go? And she’s like, well, yeah, I can do that. So we talked about these little tiny little breath work exercises that she can do without her shift, just to calm that nervous system down a little bit so that she can, you know, move on with her day so that it’s just not so heightened all the time. And then things to do before and after shift so that she can actually rest and recharge.

The Power of Breath: How to Activate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah. And, and it is amazing that the breath is so, you know, something we take for granted, but if you consciously focus on it, I, I could, I can see how that even just doing that kind of a, you know, that just said, okay, yeah.

Jesseca Tighe: Breath work’s very important. It’ll kick your nervous, your parasympathetic nervous system in so that it can actually do what it’s meant to do and to decrease your stress level. And it, it will take care of you. We just have to let it.

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah, absolutely.

Why Running 30 Minutes a Day Might Make Your Burnout Worse

You know, what is, what would be a commonly held belief perhaps about either stress or, or burnout for that matter that you passionately disagree with?

The Problem With Generic Stress Advice: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Jesseca Tighe: That’s a good question. I think what I, I don’t necessarily disagree with some of the conventional advice out there. I think I would just caution people on what they attach to. If you Google, you know, if you’re, if you’re burned out and stressed out, you’re trying to take care of yourself. If you’re Googling how to deal with burnout, you read these articles and the articles kind of say you should exercise at least 30 minutes a day, which is, which is great. Yeah. Get those good endorphins going. We all know that that’s good for us. You know, eat, you know, eat well, lots of leafy greens, you know, there’s this conventional advice that they kind of go through.

Adding Stress to an Already Stressed System: A Cautionary Tale

And I’ve had clients come and work with me after reading some of this stuff or doing some of this conventional advice. Like I had a client and that, that came in and said, and she’s never been a runner. She’s, you know, kind of had exercise plans here and there, but she’s like, well, I knew I needed to, you know, run for 30, I read this article and I need to run for 30 minutes a day. So I’ve been doing it for two weeks, but I’m so exhausted. And I’m, now I’m a vegan and I’m still not feeling any better. And I’m like, well, yeah, like you’re, you’re already, you’re putting more stress on an already stressed system. So unless those things are beneficial to you and you know that they are, and it’s a practice that you commonly do, and you know how your body’s going to react to that stress, don’t do that. You don’t need to do all those things. It’s, it’s more about making, you know, doing things that are, you know, smaller in terms of self-care, finding out what actually really helps you personally rest and recharge. Cause it’s different for all of us.

Baby Steps to Recovery: Why Small Self-Care Actions Beat Big Lifestyle Changes

Um, you know, we all can’t, you know, run for 30 minutes a day. I can never do that. If somebody’s chasing me, like I’m the saber tooth tiger is going to get me on, but you know, we, so I, I would say it’s not that I don’t agree with those things. It, those things are important. They are a part of, you know, my program for clients, but it’s in a different way. And I think that they should just be aware that some of that advice doesn’t, isn’t necessarily going to be what’s good for them.

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah. Yeah. Cause we’re all unique individuals and, and also depending on how your overall health is, if you started like, you know, trying to run and, and I can say this from experience, because I did, I did a marathon. I’ve done a couple. I did my first one when I was in my forties, I was not in very good shape. So I did run walking, but still it took me a fricking long time, like over seven hours to finish this marathon, you know, when it should have been more like, you know, four and a half to five hours or something, if I’d been in decent shape to do it. And, and yeah, I can see it’s just going to cause more stress and, you know, it could even cause a heart attack, frankly, if you’re trying to run a half an hour and you’re not used to doing it. So absolutely. Baby steps. I like how you, you know, micro steps or baby steps, you got, you got to start small and, and do things that are going to be friendly to you, not add more stress.

Jesseca Tighe: Absolutely.

Reconnecting With Spirituality: Rediscovering Meditation and Journaling

Gloria Grace Rand: Oh my goodness. I’m going to change gears just slightly here. Cause I like asking my, my guests this and it’ll be interesting to see, especially in your, in your field. What are you curious about right now?

Exploring the Liminal Space: A Return to Spiritual Practices

Jesseca Tighe: Oh gosh. What am I curious about? I am, I’m kind of on, so I, I’ve always been a very spiritual person, but I, you know, kind of got out of my practices for a while there. So I’m just kind of rediscovering. I’m reading a lot of my old books. I’m getting more into meditation. I have a pretty active journaling practice and just trying to, you know, connect with that liminal space. So that’s what I’m, I’m doing. I’m trying to reconnect with, you know, that, that spiritual part of myself. I’ve never been super religious, but you know, I am pretty agnostic. I do believe that the universe gives us things. And so I’m just trying to explore those things and those energies. So that’s what I’m doing.

Book Recommendations: Care of the Soul and Essential Spirituality

Gloria Grace Rand: Well, that sounds good. Any, what, what, what books are you reading? I’m curious, but I’m not going to look out for new, good spiritual books to read.

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. One of my favorites that I’m rereading right now, I first read it in grad school 20 years ago now, but it was it’s called care of the soul by Thomas Moore. And it’s, it’s a very, It goes really deep, but it’s a. It’s a very simple. It’s a quick read. It’s, you know, you can, you know, probably read it over a day or two or on a weekend. And it just, you know, kind of goes through really simple, practical ways to, you know, care about the. The part of us that is eternal and how to recognize those things. And it talks about intuition and things like that. So that’s. That’s a favorite of mine. I also really like. I’m. I’m also kind of rereading. I have, like, a stack of books I’m always kind of getting through. So I’m rereading Essential Spirituality, which is kind of a book of vignettes. So you can kind of pick it up and Put it down. So that’s a, another one? Gosh, I don’t know. I have a, I have a pretty, pretty big library, so I can, but those are the, those are the kind of the two that I’m, I’m going through right now on that front.

The Power of Journaling: A Three-Journal Practice for Mental Clarity

Gloria Grace Rand: All right, well, one other thing I want to ask you because again, it’s, it’s nice, it’s nice to hear. I’ve been having actually this discussion about self care lately with a bunch of other people. Is what’s your favorite? Like if you had to pick just like one, go to practice for your own sake, which one would that be?

Getting Off the Ruminating Carousel: Why Writing Helps Process Thoughts

Jesseca Tighe: For me, it’s journaling. So I have, I can get in my head a lot. I don’t know about you, but I can. And journaling really helps me process those thoughts, get out of that, you know, ruminating carousel. Kind of helps me get off of that and just actually get thoughts down on paper.

The Three-Journal System: Gratitude, Negativity, and Data Dump

So, and I, I have a three journal practice. So I have a positive and gratitude journal, a negative journal where I just like let it rip. And then I have a data dump journal which I usually keep by my bedside so that when I wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning, I’m thinking about something, I can write it down and then I’m able to go back to sleep.

Journals Everywhere: Making Self-Care Accessible in Your Daily Life

So I do, I have three journals and I have them all over my house because I know myself. If I’m up, you know, in my office and my journal’s downstairs, I’m like, I’m not gonna walk all the way down there. So I actually have journals everywhere and I have like the little pocket journals in my purse so that I can have them with me. And if I’m like waiting, you know, picking up my kid from practice or something like that, I can, you know, journal something really quick. So that, that’s my main go to just. Because it really helps me process my thoughts and it helps me not, you know, ruminate on negativity.

Gloria Grace Rand: So I, I, I love that. And I, I have several as well. In fact, I have, I’ve got a gratitude journal that I always do before I go to bed at night. I’ve got, I do a journal in the morning. I also have one on my computer because sometimes I do, you know, because, because if my journal is in the other room, it’s like, well, at least I can get some thoughts out on my, on my computer that way too. So, so it’s, there’s lots of different tools out there that you can use. So it’s it’s good that you found that.

The Serious Truth About Stress: Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore the Warning Signs

Is there anything else that I should have asked you about that I didn’t or any other last point you’d like to leave with our viewers and listeners today?

Three Friends Lost in Two Months: A Devastating Reminder That Stress Kills

Jesseca Tighe: I, the, the only thing I can think of is, you know, the, the other thing that happened to me while I was building this business is I lost three really good friends and colleagues in a span of two months from stress related illnesses. And so I say that, to say that this is serious. And I think we all know someone or know of a friend or a family member or a colleague where, you know, you can just see it on their face. You can see, you can see the toll that stress has taken on them and on their body. And you know, it’s not just this thing that’s out there. It is right here in front of our face.

You Can’t Function at Breakneck Speed Forever: Taking Action Before It’s Too Late

And we can really take, we can really take advantage of the resources and skills that we have. They’re out there. There’s wonderful resources out there. They can also book a session with me. But there’s things that you can do, but it is serious, it is going to take a toll on you. And you know, you can’t, you can’t just function at this breakneck speed for your entire life. Even though our culture tells us that we can. That’s not correct. And we all know it. We know that it’s not normal. And there are some things that you can, that you can do. Even if your external world, your external work environment isn’t going to be supportive of that lifestyle, there’s still things that you can do.

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And it requires sometimes reaching out. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Perhaps, you know, contact someone like you said, you know, contact you and you know, or people like that reach out in your community. You can even find, you know, especially I know suicide has been like so rampant over the past few years that, you know, there are people out there that you can, you know, go online, search for it and, and you can call someone and get, get like a number so you don’t have to, to go it alone.

How to Connect With Jesseca Tighe: Resources for Career Burnout Recovery

Which brings me to, you know, if someone does want to contact you, you know, and maybe share about, I don’t know if you have any other, other resources that, that people can access through you. Where’s the best place for people to do that?

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah, yeah. So they can get ahold of me in a lot of different ways. So my website is Soulutions for Health. S O U L utions for Health for Spelled out. And then it’s Jesseca Tighe. And it’s J E S S E C A T I G H E on all the socials. And you can message me, you can get on my website and email me. There’s a, there’s a free guide on freeing yourself from career burnout you can subscribe to on my, on my website. And I do have a blog where I post weekly educational resources, little tips and tricks for people. So you can subscribe to my blog as well.

Final Thoughts: Listen to the Taps Before You Get Hit With a Brick

Gloria Grace Rand: Excellent. Well, I hope you will all take advantage of that and I will have all that information in the show notes as well so that you can connect with Jesseca and. Yeah. And be able to spare yourself. You know, don’t, don’t wait until you hit burnout. I think is probably also the lesson here. Maybe listen to those signals that, you know, you talked about that stress is knocking on your shoulder and saying hello. Right.

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. Sometimes it taps you on the shoulder and sometimes it throws a brick at the back of your head. So just. Why don’t listen to the taps first?

Gloria Grace Rand: Yes, yes, absolutely. Be proactive. Don’t, don’t wait until it’s, you know, you don’t want to end up like, you know, like you were with having to spend, take two months off of work. It’s not good. That’s doesn’t help anybody.

Jesseca Tighe: Yeah. 10 out of 10 do not recommend.

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. I really enjoyed our conversation and I know people got a lot of value out of it, so I appreciate you.

Jesseca Tighe: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Gloria Grace Rand: Yeah. And I want to thank all of you for watching or listening, whether you’re watching on YouTube or you’re listening on your favorite podcast podcast platform. And I hope if you’re not subscribed already, that you will. And that way you’ll be able to get notified of our next episode and get some more information how to be able to really improve your life. So that, as I always say at the end, I encourage you to go out and be able to live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.