A promotion triggers the same physiological cascade as a deadline. That is the core finding Wellify Co-Founder Laura Fuqua lays out in her first wellness blog for SALON TODAY, published October 2, 2026: the body responds to the intensity and duration of a stressor, not to whether the cause is welcome or unwelcome.

"This is why even happy events, like a promotion or a wedding, can leave you feeling wired and worn out," writes Fuqua, citing research from Roberts & Karatsoreos (2021) defining stress as the body's natural reaction to challenges, demands, or changes in environment, thoughts, or circumstances.

Fuqua draws a hard line between two types of stress. Eustress is short-term and sits within a person's coping ability — the excitement before a first date or a big game that sharpens motivation and focus. Chronic stress is different. The stressor is too intense and too long-lasting, overwhelming the capacity to cope and triggering the fight-or-flight response. Heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure rise, extra energy flows to the muscles, and stress hormones release into the system (Scott, 2026).

That response once kept our ancestors alive. Triggered constantly in modern working life, it does damage. Fuqua points to American Psychological Association data (2024) showing chronic stress affects the respiratory, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, musculoskeletal, and reproductive systems.

For salon owners and stylists — a workforce that runs on back-to-back bookings, standing work, and client-facing emotional labor — the mechanism matters because recovery is trainable. To recover, the rest-and-digest response must kick in: heart rate slows, blood pressure drops, relaxation follows. Breath is one of the few parts of this system a person can intentionally control.

The physiology is straightforward. Each exhale naturally slows the heart rate slightly. The longer the exhale, the stronger that slowing effect, nudging the body back toward rest-and-digest mode (Zaccaro et al., 2018).

Balancing the two systems — stress response and recovery response — is the key, according to Fuqua. One studied technique (Balban et al., 2023, published in Science Direct, Vol. 4, Issue 1) is built around exhaling for twice as long as the inhale. Fuqua highlights the popular 4-7-8 technique as a practical application:

• Inhale through the nose for 4 counts.
• Hold for 7 counts.
• Exhale through the mouth for 8 counts.
• Repeat several times.

Breathwork alone is not the full picture. Fuqua frames active stress management as a set of habits: consistent exercise, quality sleep, and even hobbies, all working to keep the two systems in balance.

The credentials behind the advice come from the executive world, not the treatment room. Fuqua spent more than two decades as a senior executive leading large teams before burning out herself and witnessing the toll burnout takes on employees and leaders. She returned to school to become a nationally board certified Health and Wellness Coach. Two years ago she partnered with technology entrepreneur Jon Decker to launch Wellify, a free wellness and health tracking app that lets users monitor vitals, manage stress, and build healthier daily routines.

Her argument lands at a moment when salon and spa operators are paying closer attention to staff wellbeing as a retention lever. If the body genuinely cannot distinguish celebratory stress from damaging stress, then growth periods — new chairs, bigger books, expansions — carry the same physiological cost as crunch periods unless recovery is built into the schedule. Fuqua's closing prescription is likely to shape how salon teams approach that balance in the year ahead.