🪷 Breathing Through Burnout 🪷

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Meditation Space
• 1:38 Body Scan and Tension Release
• 4:29 Box Breathing Practice
• 6:52 Visualizing Release of Burdens
• 9:11 Self-Compassion and Healing Intention
• 12:20 Returning with New Awareness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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, or when the answers aren't clear, and when the weight of worry and stress or burnout feels like almost too much to carry alone. This is a space to breathe, a safe place just to listen to my voice and soften A space and a place to return, to arrive. Be here with me in this present moment. Let your eyes close or gently soften your gaze. If you can't close your eyes and allow the breath to come just as it is, no need to fix it or change anything yet. Let's begin by gently scanning your body, starting at the crown of your head, your jaw, your shoulders. Notice where you may be holding any tension, gently breathing and with your next exhale maybe invite even just 5% more to release. Feel unhinging slightly, your hands and wrists loosening. Let your body begin to remember what it feels like not to brace. No-transcript. I am safe in this moment. I am allowed to pause. Let's practice a breath technique called box breathing, which is known to calm the nervous system and reduce stress. So you're going to inhale for a count of four, three, two and one, two and one, holding for four, three, two, one and exhale for four, three, two, one and hold three, two and one. Let's do three full rounds together Inhale two, three, four. Hold two, three, four. Exhale two, three, four. Exhale two, three, four and hold two, three, four. Inhale two, three, four. Hold two, three, four. Exhale two, three, four. Hold two, three, four. Inhale two, three, four, exhale, doing great, three, four and hold Two, three, four. Nicely done. Now let's return to your natural breath, but stay connected to that rhythm.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Let's do a visualization now. I want you to visualize yourself carrying a heavy backpack. It's full of things that don't belong to you anymore Old fears, responsibilities you never meant to pick up, silent pain that you're holding unspoken tension. And I want you now to gently imagine taking that backpack off, loosening it off of one shoulder and then the other, gently setting it down, watching as the earth accepts it, as you release its weight. You don't need to carry everything. It's not on. You. Take a deep breath here and exhale any extra weight, whispering to yourself I can care without carrying, I can release without letting go of myself. Now, offer yourself some compassion. Let's set an intention to do so. Let's set an intention to do so an intention to offer yourself some compassion.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Burnout often comes when we forget our own needs and push beyond in order to fulfill old needs, 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 or anywhere that feels nourishing, silently repeating May I give myself what I need, may I soften my inner dialogue, may I trust that healing begins with care and my access to healing begins with me, with slowing down, with acknowledging where I am, with taking the time to breathe and re-center. This is your permission to give yourself what you need. Rescript your inner dialogue to serve you. Let go of anything that is holding you down, and trust when I tell you that healing truly begins with care.

Speaker 1: 10:49

As you continue to breathe into this intention, begin to slowly draw your awareness back to your surroundings. What might be feeling different, simply by taking the time to unwind, to let go, to stop holding on so tightly. Wiggle your fingers and toes now, as if for the first time, discovering these beautiful digits that you hold. Smile if they make you smile. Toes and fingers can be funny if we let them Notice the support beneath you, unassuming and unconditional. Take one more deep breath in inhaling possibility and exhaling heaviness as you move back into your day. Know this this you are allowed to circulate and rejuvenate your energy. You don't need to protect it, you simply need to take care of it. You are allowed to take care of yourself. It's what you're here for. And uncertainty, my friend, does not mean that you are lost. It means that you are still becoming. That is a beautiful place to be. You can return to this meditation whenever you feel stressed or burned out, overwhelmed or uncertain. Namaste, my friends.