This interview is with Lolita Guarin, Stress Management Expert, Speaker & Author, Be Amazing You.
For Featured readers, how do you introduce the work you do as a stress management expert, speaker, and author?
I help people understand stress in a way that feels human, practical, and doable. As a stress management expert, speaker, and author, my work focuses on helping individuals—especially high-achieving professionals—recognize the hidden patterns that keep them in survival mode and learn how to move toward clarity, resilience, and self-trust.
Rather than teaching people to “push through” or manage stress with willpower alone, I focus on working with the nervous system and real-life experiences. My approach blends lived experience, emotional awareness, and simple tools that can be applied in everyday moments—at work, at home, and in relationships.
At its core, my work is about helping people create sustainable success and well-being without burnout, overwhelm, or self-abandonment.
What moment or experience set you on the path to specializing in stress management and writing about it?
My path into stress management didn’t begin with a career plan—it began with lived experience. As an immigrant building a life and career in a new country, I spent years navigating pressure, responsibility, and the constant feeling that I had to prove myself. I became very good at functioning under stress, but not at recognizing what it was costing me.
The turning point came when that way of living caught up with me. After years in high-stress environments, I experienced burnout that forced me to slow down and look honestly at how stress was shaping my health, decisions, and relationships. I realized that stress wasn’t just something to “manage”—it was something to understand. That experience changed everything.
I began studying stress through a more human lens and developing practical tools based on what actually helped me move out of survival mode. Writing became a way to make sense of that journey and to share what I was learning with others who felt overwhelmed but didn’t yet have the language for it. What started as personal healing gradually became the work I now do to help others create clarity and resilience without burning themselves out.
Building on that, for someone brand-new to your CALM Process, what is the very first step you want them to take during a typical workday?
The very first step I want someone to take is to pause and notice. During a typical workday, stress often shows up automatically—tight shoulders, shallow breathing, racing thoughts, and the urge to push harder. Before trying to fix anything, I invite people to slow down just enough to recognize what’s happening in their body and mind.
From there, I encourage a simple question: What is actually within my control right now? This small moment of awareness creates space between the stress response and the action that follows. It’s the beginning of moving out of survival mode and into clarity.
You don’t need to change your entire schedule or add another task to your day. Even a 30-second pause—before responding to an email, walking into a meeting, or making a decision—can reset your nervous system and shift how the rest of the day unfolds.
On the practical side, what micro-break practice has most improved your own focus and energy that busy professionals can copy?
The micro-break practice that has most improved my focus and energy is what I call a 60-second nervous system reset. It’s simple, discreet, and doesn’t require stepping away from work.
A few times a day, I pause whatever I’m doing, place my feet firmly on the ground, and take three slow breaths—longer on the exhale than the inhale. While I breathe, I gently relax my jaw and shoulders and bring my attention back to my body instead of my to-do list.
This tiny pause interrupts the constant stress response that drains focus and creates mental fog. It helps my system shift out of urgency and back into clarity. The key isn’t how long the break is—it’s the consistency.
These brief resets throughout the day do more for my energy than pushing through fatigue ever did. It’s something anyone can do between emails, before a meeting, or even while sitting at their desk—and over time, it noticeably improves both focus and resilience.
When you advise leaders and teams during rapid growth, what single change in how the work is organized most boosts stress resilience?
The single most impactful change I recommend is creating clarity around priorities and decision ownership. During rapid growth, stress often comes less from workload and more from constant ambiguity—unclear expectations, overlapping responsibilities, and too many decisions being made by too many people.
When leaders clearly define what matters most right now, who owns which decisions, and what can wait, teams spend far less energy in reactive mode. This reduces mental overload, shortens decision cycles, and helps people trust that they’re focusing on the right work.
Stress resilience improves when work is organized around clarity instead of urgency. When people know what’s expected, what success looks like, and where their responsibility begins and ends, they can bring more focus, energy, and creativity—even in fast-moving environments.
Shifting to mindset, what daily practice do you use to help clients strengthen a more positive, self-supportive inner dialogue?
The daily practice I return to with clients is conscious self-talk paired with awareness. Instead of trying to force positive thinking, I help people notice how they speak to themselves during stressful moments—especially when they feel behind, overwhelmed, or disappointed.
Once that inner dialogue is noticed, the practice is to gently shift the tone from judgment to support by asking a simple question: “What would help me right now?” This reframes the moment from self-criticism to self-care without bypassing reality. Practiced consistently, this small shift changes how people relate to pressure.
Over time, they develop an inner voice that guides rather than pushes, supports rather than shames—and that’s what makes resilience sustainable.
In moments of acute anxiety, what one-minute reset do you personally rely on to calm your nervous system?
In moments of acute anxiety, I rely on slowing my breath and grounding my body at the same time. I place my feet firmly on the floor, soften my shoulders and jaw, and take slow breaths with a longer exhale than inhale—usually in through the nose for a count of four, and out through the mouth for six. While I breathe, I quietly remind myself, “I’m safe in this moment.” That combination—physical grounding, breath, and a reassuring cue—helps my nervous system shift out of alarm mode and back into the present.
It’s not about eliminating anxiety instantly; it’s about signaling safety to the body. Even one minute of that reset can noticeably reduce intensity and help me respond with more clarity instead of reacting from stress.
To keep progress visible, how do you help clients track improvements in mental wellness without adding more to their to-do list?
I help clients track progress by shifting the focus from metrics to moments. Instead of adding new tasks or tracking tools, I invite them to notice small, real-life signals that change is happening—things like recovering more quickly from stress, pausing before reacting, sleeping a bit better, or feeling less mentally exhausted at the end of the day.
We often use one simple reflection question at the end of the day or week: “What felt a little easier this time?” That single question keeps progress visible without turning wellness into another item on the to-do list. When people learn to recognize these subtle shifts, they start trusting the process. Progress becomes something they can feel and observe naturally, not something they have to measure or manage.
As a closing takeaway, what is one small commitment you recommend readers make this week to protect their mental health?
One small commitment I recommend is to intentionally do one thing each day that you believe will support your mental health. It doesn’t have to be perfect or impressive—just something that feels genuinely helpful to you in that moment.
The power isn’t only in the action itself, but in what it reinforces. By doing it, you’re proving to yourself that your needs matter and that you’re not abandoning yourself in the middle of stress or pressure. That consistency builds trust in yourself—the kind of trust that reminds your nervous system that you can take care of yourself now and in the future.
Over time, that self-trust naturally lowers stress, because your system no longer feels like it has to stay on high alert to survive.