Thrive & Be Whole

Thrive & Be Whole is a website/blog run by Ayana Labossiere Burke, a former Bay Area teacher. After experiencing teacher burnout, Labossiere Burke created this source to assist teachers and other professionals going through the same thing. She has multiple blog posts about managing a healthy work/life balance, self-care, healthy self-talk, shame, and maintaining sanity during high-stress times. Labossiere Burke promotes a “chronically healthy lifestyle” to combat stress. In regards to exercise, she argues that “physical stress is hard on your body, and that makes your body work less efficiently”.

Labossiere Burke suggests mental methods of dealing with stress. While many of my other sources cite exercise and external self care as means of stress management, Labossiere Burke argues that an effective method to dealing with a stressor would be to change your relationship with that stressor. For example, if work is your main stressor, you may find that your perception of the stressor changes once you attempt to find a positive or spiritual connection with your job. Similar to Sapolsky, Labossiere Burke suggests social support and meaningful relationships with others as a method to approaching stress management. Thrive and Be Whole is relevant to my research as it addresses the effects of stress (specifically workplace stress) an individual’s mental health and sanity.

Labossiere Burke, A. (2019). thriveandbewhole.com. [Blog] Thrive & Be Whole. Available at: thriveandbewhole.com