Celebrating Wellness Month: What Does Workplace Wellness Actually Look Like?

We often hear “wellness” and immediately think of things like wellness challenges, exercising, nutrition, meditation apps, or self-care activities. Those things can certainly be part of wellness, but they aren’t the whole picture.

Workplace wellness is also about how we manage stress, how we recover, how we interact with others when we’re under pressure, and whether we’re building habits that allow us to do our work sustainably.

Work is inevitably going to come with deadlines, difficult conversations, competing priorities, unexpected changes, and periods of higher pressure. We don’t always have the ability to eliminate those things, but we can build awareness and habits that help us navigate them without constantly running ourselves into the ground.

The Science:

Dr. Georges C. Benjamin said on the official American Psychological Association (APA) podcast, “Stress isn’t just a feeling. It is a biological response.” Stress itself isn’t inherently bad. It’s a normal response that helps the body alert and mobilize when we run into a threat or challenge. The problem is when that response is activated repeatedly without enough opportunity to recover. Chronic stress can affect physical and emotional health, including sleep, mood, concentration, and cardiovascular health.

AEC professionals don’t experience workload in a straight line. Project deadlines, client demands, submissions, staffing changes, and shifting priorities can create periods of intense pressure followed by slower stretches. That unpredictability itself can make it harder for the brain and body to fully recover.

In this article, I wanted to provide a few science-backed and personally tested wellness tips to help you manage your stress.

Wellness Tips:

1. Learn Your Stress Signals

When we’re stressed, other people typically only see the tip of the iceberg. Those behaviors above the surface behaviors might look like:

• Becoming quieter
• Getting short with people
• Overworking
• Becoming overly controlling
• Having trouble concentrating
• Withdrawing
• Saying “yes” to everything

I tend to internalize my stress and go into overdrive, which isn’t always healthy or balanced. There have been times I have fully depleted my energy to finish the task that I think is the driver of my stress, only to leave me completely depleted when I go home to my family or am only halfway through the week.

The actual drivers of stress underneath the surface tend to be:

• Feeling overwhelmed
• Self-doubt
• Fear of letting people down
• Feeling out of control
• Worrying about falling behind
• Frustration
• Feeling like you must handle everything yourself

None of these responses or feelings are “right” or “wrong.” This just reveals that we all have patterns under pressure.

Ask yourself, “What are the first signs that I’m starting to get overwhelmed?”

Challenge yourself to try to identify your own early warning signs, rather than waiting to act until you’re completely depleted. Then, reset in the ways that work best for you, whether that’s taking a walk, talking to someone you trust, eating lunch away from your desk, or just pausing to rest. Small recovery moments count. For me, taking a quick walk outside serves as a real stabilizer, especially when someone comes with me. It is amazing what some fresh air or perspectives from a trusted person can do.

2. Pause Before You React

When something triggers us, like a stressful email, difficult conversation, unexpected mistake, or frustrating interaction, our body’s stress response can kick in before we’ve had time to fully process the situation. Stress can affect concentration, decision-making, and emotional regulation.

When this happens, try a pause before sending that email, responding in the meeting, or picking up the phone. Ask yourself,

• What am I feeling?
• What actually needs to happen next?
• What response will help rather than escalate the situation?

In the built environment, the thought of taking an extra moment can be difficult to stomach. For many AEC professionals, “busy” isn’t just a feeling, it’s built into the business model. When utilization, billable hours, deadlines, and client expectations are all competing for attention, it can be difficult to recognize when you’re operating at an unsustainable pace.

Taking a pause isn’t avoidance or slacking off. It’s a way to create enough space to choose your response with a clear mind.

3. Focus Your Energy on What You Can Influence

Stress often comes from spending a lot of energy trying to change something we don’t actually have control over. In these situations, separate which parts of the situation you invest in based on what you can control or influence.

You can control… your response, preparation, communication, boundaries, priorities, and next action.

You can influence… other people’s understanding, collaboration, outcomes, and certain decisions.

You cannot control… other people’s reactions, organizational decisions outside your role, unexpected changes, or things that have already happened.

Fostering wellness means directing our energy toward the areas where we can make a meaningful difference. Small individual choices, like taking a five-minute walk or stepping away for a reset, matter alongside the conditions that support well-being, such as realistic deadlines, adequate staffing, clear expectations, supportive managers, and a culture where people can actually take a break. Sustainable burnout prevention also requires organizational support and systemic changes.

4. Protect the Basics: Sleep, Movement, & Connection

Sleep

Sleep isn’t something to sacrifice indefinitely to “get everything done.” Consistent, good-quality sleep supports stress management, mood, and cognitive functioning. While not always controllable, not getting enough sleep deeply impacts my day. Something as simple as tracking my sleep has helped me get into a better routine where I am feeling consistently well-rested and clear-minded.

You don’t need an elaborate workout routine to benefit from movement. A walk, stretching between meetings, taking the stairs, or simply getting away from your desk can be a useful reset. This month, DesignForce has put on several small events to get our staff moving. We had a 15-minute stretch and breathing exercise before we had team training, which calmed our minds before a 90-minute session. We also had a “Color Walk” to encourage focusing on the present, where we all chose a color and took a stroll outside, taking pictures of everything we saw in that color and sharing with our team afterwards. Lastly, we did a Monday morning desk cleaning time block set, for everyone to have the chance to get organized and have a fresh start to the week. While these were all relatively small “events”, I felt a significant difference this month having those activities built into our week. We highly recommend you give these a shot!

Connection

Stress can make us withdraw or try to handle everything ourselves. A quick conversation with a coworker, laughing together after a tough meeting, or simply knowing someone has your back can be a legitimate part of stress recovery, not a distraction from work.

Take inventory and know what helps you when you’re stressed, and don’t be afraid to tell the people who can support you.

5. Give Yourself Permission to Ask for Help

One of the easiest wellness habits to overlook is asking for help before you absolutely need it.

In a busy AEC environment, it can be easy to feel like you should be able to handle one more deadline, one more client request, or one more round of revisions on your own. But recognizing when your capacity is stretched and communicating that early can prevent a manageable challenge from becoming an overwhelming one. Sometimes the most efficient thing you can do for a project is raise your hand before you’re underwater.

I’ll admit, this is one I’ve had to learn myself. As a perfectionist, I can get into a very “I’ll just do it myself” mindset because it feels easier or faster in the moment. But I’ve learned from experience that I feel better and more supported, and my work is usually stronger, when I ask for help from someone I trust. Asking for support doesn’t mean you can’t handle the work; it means you care enough about the work to know when another perspective, set of hands, or second set of eyes can make it better.

Instead of:

“I’ll figure it out.”

Try:

“Here’s what’s currently on my plate. I can get X done by Friday, but I’ll need help prioritizing Y and Z.”

Wellness Is an Everyday Practice, Not a Rescue Plan

Workplace wellness doesn’t have to mean completely changing your routine or adding another thing to your already-full to-do list. In fact, the most sustainable wellness habits are often small: taking a break before you’re exhausted, recognizing when your stress is starting to show up, asking for help, getting outside for a few minutes, protecting your sleep, or pausing before responding when you’re frustrated.

This Week, Try One Thing

☐ Take one intentional break during your workday

☐ Notice one early sign that you’re becoming stressed

☐ Ask for help before you feel completely overwhelmed

☐ Take a 10-minute walk without your phone

☐ Identify one thing you can control, one you can influence, and one you can let go

☐ Protect one block of time for something that helps you recharge

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