Stress Is Not the Enemy — Lack of Recovery Is

For the longest time, I believed stress was the problem.

In many of my corporate roles, it wasn’t even considered cool to take a lunch break. Every minute needed to be accounted for. So what did we do? We grabbed our lunch, ate at our desks, and answered emails between bites. Sometimes we squeezed in a “lunch meeting.” We prided ourselves on multitasking. But we had neither a productive meeting nor a restful lunch.

A truly restorative lunch would have meant sitting with a colleague and talking about something other than work. But who had time for that?

The ability to hustle from meeting to meeting all day long — and somehow still get the “real work” done — was viewed as a foundational skill of a high performer. Foregoing lunch was practically a heroic act. I remember days when I rushed from one meeting to the next and even taking a bio break felt like something I had to apologize for. Always on. Never a minute to breathe.

If you work in a corporate environment, you know what I’m talking about. Constant change. Tight deadlines. Shifting priorities. The need to influence without authority. Organizations are complex systems with countless interdependencies. Even CEOs — who we imagine have full control — are navigating industry disruption, regulatory changes, and economic uncertainty.

Stress is built into the system.

There’s a lot to be said about how we perceive stress. Our mindset shapes whether we experience something as a threat or as a challenge. For some, reframing comes naturally. For others, it takes practice.

But mindset is only half of the story.

Here’s the surprising truth:

Stress is not the problem — lack of recovery is.  In fact, when paired with adequate recovery, stress makes us stronger and more resilient. (Ben-Shahar, 2025).

Think about going to the gym. We don’t lift weights for eight hours straight to build muscle. We stress the muscle — and then we allow it to recover. That’s when growth happens.

Somehow, that common sense has slipped away in corporate culture. We glorify overexertion. Back-to-back meetings. Late-night emails. Weekends online. We’ve confused constant activity with effectiveness.

Small recovery moments sprinkled throughout the day can make a big difference with respect to our wellbeing. They include, for example, a 10-minute walk outside, a coffee break where you don’t talk about work, a few minutes of deep breathing before your next meeting. The key is mental detachment. Let your brain rest. Think of them as your happy habits (Ben-Shahar, 2025).

In their book “The Power of Full Engagement”, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz argue that time is finite — we all get 24 hours. But energy is renewable. Managing energy, not time, is what fuels creativity, innovation, and sustainable performance. Your energy determines how well you think, lead, and connect (2003).

Stress, when balanced with recovery, elevates performance. Without recovery, it erodes it.

So here’s a question for you:

Where can you insert one small recovery moment today?

Maybe it’s stepping outside between meetings. Maybe it’s eating lunch without a screen. Maybe it’s three minutes of slow breathing before your next call.

Stress isn’t your enemy.

But skipping recovery might be.

References:

Ben-Shahar, T. (2025). Happy Habits: A happier, healthier life own minute at a time. Alcove Press.

Loehr, J., Schwartz, Tony (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal time. Free Press.