Breaking Up With Burnout: How 30 Seconds Changed Everything

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From eye-rolling skeptic to daily practitioner, my mindfulness journey wasn't sparked by spiritual awakening but by necessity when burnout finally caught up with me. After years of dismissing mindfulness as fluffy self-indulgence for those who had the luxury of sitting still, I reluctantly gave it a try—starting with just 30 seconds while brushing my teeth.

The science ultimately convinced me. Research from Harvard and Stanford shows that even brief mindful moments (1-3 minutes) reduce stress hormones and rewire how our brains respond to triggers. This isn't mystical mumbo-jumbo; it's your nervous system recalibrating and your brain taking a break from autopilot. And contrary to what I'd always believed, there's nothing weak about choosing presence. Mindfulness doesn't eliminate difficulties—it builds your capacity to face them without immediately reacting.

Most days my mind still races like "a toddler on red cordial," but the difference is tangible. When someone cuts me off in traffic or life throws me sideways, I don't immediately go from zero to one hundred. For fellow skeptics, my advice is simple: don't make time—use time. Incorporate mindfulness into activities you already do. Focus on one sense. Notice resistance but stay anyway. You don't need candles, chanting, or even calmness to practice mindfulness—you just need willingness. What beliefs about mindfulness are holding you back? Where in your life do you push through instead of pausing? What's one way you could try mindfulness on your terms this week? Join the conversation and share your experience.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome back to another edition of GDW, unspoken
, where we discuss stuff wedon't typically talk about but
probably should.
And we're here with Season 10,episode 3.
I didn't believe in mindfulnesseither, and so here's what's
changed.
I'm not going to lie to you, Ididn't believe in it.
I actually didn't believe atall.
I thought it was fluffy, a bitself-indulgent.
But the spiritual crowd forpeople who, I guess, just like

(00:40):
to sit still and I am definitelythat person If you've ever met
me, I'm not the person who canjust or likes to sit still, and
I've never been that person.
So today or tonight, I want totake you back into my before,
before I saw mindfulness as atool and before I understood the
science, before I stoppedrolling my eyes and started
breathing on purpose.
Because here's the truth I usedto think mindfulness was a

(01:03):
waste of time.
I was too busy and I was tooresults-driven and too focused
on productivity.
And part of me maybe a reallybig part said I didn't want it
to work, because if it did work,it meant I'd have to stop, I'd
have to slow down, it meant Icouldn't outrun the stuff I
didn't want to feel and I'dbuild an identity around myself
just pushing through and gettingthrough the hard stuff and, I

(01:25):
guess, building some kind ofidentity about that.
I don't know about you, butdoes that sound familiar?
We live in a world now wherewe're rewarded for performance,
not presence.
So when someone told me to justbreathe or be still, I thought,
yeah, that must be nice.
But behind that sarcasm wasburnout.
I was fatigued.
I actually had a nervous systemthat was screaming for a
circuit breaker.
I was actually wound up, cooked, struggling, and so what

(01:51):
changed me wasn't some spiritualawakening, it was silence, it
was stress, it was survival.
I hit a wall and what I had thepushing, the powering through
it wasn't enough anymore.
So, reluctantly, I actually gaveit a go, and I think I've
mentioned it before in a podcast, because I saw a couple of
athletes who were doing it andthey were telling their
testimonials about how it helpedthem.

(02:12):
So I didn't have a crack for 30minutes, or with candles, or
with chanting or anything likethat, I just gave myself 30
seconds.
I picked one moment I think Iwas brushing my teeth at the
time and I told myself, okay,just be here, just notice the
feeling, just the sound, eventhe change in my breathing, and
it felt so weird, I felt soresistant, but I did notice

(02:33):
something subtle.
I didn't rush off to the nextmoment because I wasn't going
quite so fast, so I kept goingwith it.
And then I read the researchabout it because I wanted to
know the science behind it.
And when I researched it,especially recently, it says
that from Harvard and Stanfordthey show that even short
moments of mindful attention,like 1-3 minutes, can reduce

(02:54):
stress hormones, improve focusand rewire how our brain
responds to emotional triggers.
So what does that mean?
It means it's not magic, it'syour nervous system coming back
online.
Means it's not magic.
It's your nervous system comingback online.
It's your body remembering it'ssafe.
It's your brain taking offautopilot, even just for a
minute.

(03:15):
And here's the kicker and thething that most of us don't want
to admit.
Sometimes we'd rather strugglethan soften, because pausing
feels vulnerable, because restfeels unproductive.
We've been conditioned toequate stillness with weakness.
We've been conditioned to saythat if you work harder and put

(03:37):
that constipated, look on ourface.
We look busy, we're strugglingand we walk past people with
this cranky face that makes uslook like we are maybe more
important than others, becauseit looks like we're busy in our
face, past people with thiscranky face that makes look like
we are no-transcript.
It's supposed to say that youmust be a hard worker, you must
be under stress, you must bedoing hard things, but here's

(03:58):
what I've learned, and this isthe hard way.
There's nothing weak aboutchoosing presence, there's
nothing passive about facingwhat you've been out running.
Mindfulness doesn't make thehard stuff disappear, it just
makes you strong enough to staywith it, to face it, and that,
my friends, that's actuallypower man.
That was a change in mindset,though, for me, and don't get me

(04:19):
wrong, I don't still have aboard of statue or anything like
that.
I still have days when my brainis a toddler on red cordial, in
fact, most days it still is.
But when someone cuts me off intraffic or life throws me
sideways, I don't go from zeroto 100, I actually take a breath
.
Now, sometimes I still react,sure, but I come back a lot
quicker.
And mindfulness didn't turn meinto a chilled out monk.

(04:39):
It did give me more controlover my reactions and that's
what I loved.
It had me having morecompassion for my humanness than
just blowing up deluxe becauseI was fully wired up.
So if you're aware where I wasskepticalceptical, busy,
emotionally allergic to sittingstill.
Here's some things I suggest.

(04:59):
Number one pick a moment.
You already have Morning coffeeshower waiting for the kettle.
Don't make time, use time.
Number two anchor into onesense, just one.
What do you feel in your hands,what do you smell, what do you
hear?
And number three notice theresistance and stay anyway.

(05:23):
Mindfulness is not aboutenjoying it, it's about not
leaving yourself.
That's it no pressure, noaffection, just presence, and
identify the things that you'refeeling, hearing, smelling,
touching, all those things whichwe use with our senses.
So look, here's three generalprompts.
We always talk about writingthem down, and this is

(05:45):
especially for my fellowskeptics out there, because that
was me.
Number one what was your initialbelief about mindfulness and
where did that belief come from?
Was it cultural?
Was it personality-based?
Was it a fear of slowing down,like me?
What was your belief about it?
What is it at the moment?
Number two where in your life doyou just push through instead

(06:06):
of pausing, and how's itactually costing you?
And you might say, oh, don'tworry, I'm a high pressure job
or I need to get stuff done, soI just do it and I don't have
time for this.
Are you burning people alongthe way?
Are your relationships stillgood when you're doing that?
Are you actually present aroundpeople and having those
authentic connections withpeople around you?
Or are you just busy being busy?
And if you are, and you havepride in that, that's fine.

(06:26):
But what's your plan with that?
Have you got two, five, ten ofyour plan doing that?
Is that a good life for you?
I 10 year plan doing that.
Is that a good life for you?
I don't know.
Be honest, where are youforcing what needs space?
And number three, what's oneway you can try mindfulness this
week and do it on your terms?
So no pressure, no apps, justsomething real.

(06:48):
Just something real.
As I said before, my style ofcleaning the teeth Now it's
coming downstairs early in themorning before going to teaching
and boiling a jug and gettingthe grinder going and just
smelling that coffee.
That first smell of the beansbeing broken up in the grinder
just allows me to be present,walking out, letting the dogs
out of the cage and giving thema pat, coming back in washing

(07:11):
hands, getting the coffee on,setting up a laptop for the
morning, going through my goals.
This podcast isn't talking alot about me, but I'm trying to
get you to think about how's itgoing for you, what are the
routines you currently do thatyou can just be present in that
moment where I think, okay, thiscoffee, dogs, shower, laptop,

(07:34):
just be present in what you'redoing, be mindful of actually
what you're doing right there,and then you know you don't have
to become someone else topractice mindfulness.
You don't have to be calm orspiritual or in the mood, you
just have to be willing.
I'm Gary, thank you for comingon to the show and I look
forward to your company in ournext episode to the show and I

(07:57):
look forward to your company andexcept so,