5 Resets

Dr. Aditi Nerurkar is a Harvard stress expert, speaker and television correspondent. In this book she offers a fresh approach to stress and burnout built on five small mindset shifts. She argues that stress is not simply bad. It is a healthy biological response that helps us meet life's demands, and it becomes a problem only when it falls out of step with the pace of our lives. At that point it can lead to burnout, fatigue, sleep disturbances and other physical symptoms.

Drawing on more than two decades of clinical experience, she presents five science-backed resets for hard times: get clear on what matters most, find quiet in a noisy world, sync your brain and your body, come up for air, and bring your best self forward.

Nerurkar also explains why common attempts at resilience, such as multitasking, sleeping less and making huge lifestyle overhauls, do not help a stressed brain. Her alternatives are practical, time efficient and free, and they suit almost anyone. They include the Resilience Rule of 2, which means making no more than two changes at a time because more is unsustainable. They also include accepting that multitasking is a myth, since the brain is wired to do one thing at a time, and the Bookend Method, which sets boundaries that respect the brain's need for compartmentalization.

Together, the five shifts and fifteen techniques form a road map for changing your relationship with stress, restoring balance to your biology and feeling calmer right away.