🪷 Breathing Through Burnout 🪷

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This meditation creates a safe space for anyone navigating unknown territory, feeling burnout, or carrying the weight of worry and stress. It offers practical techniques to release tension and reconnect with your center, reminding you that uncertainty doesn't mean you're lost—it means you're still becoming.

• Guided body scan to release tension in the head, jaw, shoulders, and hands
• Box breathing technique (inhale, hold, exhale, hold for counts of four) to calm the nervous system
• Visualization exercise to release the "heavy backpack" of burdens you never meant to carry
• Self-compassion practice with the affirmation "I can care without carrying"
• Permission to rescript your inner dialogue and give yourself what you truly need
• Reminder that healing begins with care and acknowledging where you are

Remember, you can return to this meditation whenever you feel stressed, burned out, or uncertain. You are allowed to take care of yourself—it's what you're here for.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, this meditation is for anyone
navigating the unknown.
You know those moments when,when the ground beneath you
feels maybe a little shaky, orwhen the answers aren't clear,
and when the weight of worry andstress or burnout feels like

(00:27):
almost too much to carry alone.
This is a space to breathe, asafe place just to listen to my
voice and soften A space and aplace to return, to arrive.

(00:47):
Be here with me in this presentmoment.

(01:15):
Let your eyes close or gentlysoften your gaze.
If you can't close your eyesand allow the breath to come
just as it is, no need to fix itor change anything yet.

(01:38):
Let's begin by gently scanningyour body, starting at the crown
of your head, your jaw, yourshoulders.
Notice where you may be holdingany tension, gently breathing

(02:23):
and with your next exhale maybeinvite even just 5% more to
release.
Feel unhinging slightly, yourhands and wrists loosening.

(02:48):
Let your body begin to rememberwhat it feels like not to brace
.
No-transcript.

(03:58):
I am safe in this moment.
I am allowed to pause.
Let's practice a breathtechnique called box breathing,

(04:23):
which is known to calm thenervous system and reduce stress
.
So you're going to inhale for acount of four, three, two and
one, two and one, holding forfour, three, two, one and exhale

(04:58):
for four, three, two, one andhold three, two and one.
Let's do three full roundstogether Inhale two, three, four
.
Hold two, three, four.
Exhale two, three, four.

(05:21):
Exhale two, three, four andhold two, three, four.
Inhale two, three, four.

(05:44):
Hold two, three, four.
Exhale two, three, four.
Hold two, three, four.
Inhale two, three, four, exhale, doing great, three, four and

(06:07):
hold Two, three, four.
Nicely done.
Now let's return to yournatural breath, but stay
connected to that rhythm.

(06:29):
Let's do a visualization now.
I want you to visualizeyourself carrying a heavy
backpack.
It's full of things that don'tbelong to you anymore Old fears,
responsibilities you nevermeant to pick up, silent pain

(06:54):
that you're holding unspokentension.
And I want you now to gentlyimagine taking that backpack off
, loosening it off of oneshoulder and then the other,
gently setting it down, watchingas the earth accepts it, as you

(07:23):
release its weight.
You don't need to carryeverything.
It's not on.
You.
Take a deep breath here andexhale any extra weight,

(07:53):
whispering to yourself I cancare without carrying, I can
release without letting go ofmyself.
Now, offer yourself somecompassion.
Let's set an intention to do so.

(08:20):
Let's set an intention to do soan intention to offer yourself
some compassion.

(08:48):
Burnout often comes when weforget our own needs and push
beyond in order to fulfill oldneeds, others needs, unrealistic
things.
But you are not a machine.
You are a living, breathing,beautiful, feeling human being.
Place a hand over your heart oranywhere that feels nourishing,

(09:09):
silently repeating May I givemyself what I need, may I soften
my inner dialogue, may I trustthat healing begins with care

(09:41):
and my access to healing beginswith me, with slowing down, with
acknowledging where I am, withtaking the time to breathe and

(10:02):
re-center.
This is your permission to giveyourself what you need.
Rescript your inner dialogue toserve you.

(10:26):
Let go of anything that isholding you down, and trust when
I tell you that healing trulybegins with care.

(10:49):
As you continue to breathe intothis intention, begin to slowly
draw your awareness back to yoursurroundings.
What might be feeling different, simply by taking the time to

(11:10):
unwind, to let go, to stopholding on so tightly.
Wiggle your fingers and toesnow, as if for the first time,

(11:30):
discovering these beautifuldigits that you hold.
Smile if they make you smile.
Toes and fingers can be funnyif we let them Notice the
support beneath you, unassumingand unconditional.

(11:57):
Take one more deep breath ininhaling possibility and
exhaling heaviness as you moveback into your day.

(12:20):
Know this this you are allowedto circulate and rejuvenate your

(12:41):
energy.
You don't need to protect it,you simply need to take care of
it.
You are allowed to take care ofyourself.
It's what you're here for.
And uncertainty, my friend,does not mean that you are lost.

(13:03):
It means that you are stillbecoming.
That is a beautiful place to be.
You can return to thismeditation whenever you feel

(13:41):
stressed or burned out,overwhelmed or uncertain.
Namaste, my friends.