A Quiet August Reset For Tired Minds

August can feel like a pause button you didn’t ask for, but might actually need. We’re in the last stretch of summer, and instead of pushing a new routine or chasing a “better version” of ourselves, we take a gentler route: reflection, release, and real rest. If you’ve been feeling tired, stretched thin, or quietly overwhelmed, this conversation is a reminder that you don’t have to fix your whole life right now. Sometimes the most powerful reset is deciding what you’re no longer willing to carry.  

 The episode ends with an August-inspired guided meditation to help you breathe, soften, and create space for what’s next. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review, and tell us: what are you ready to release before September?

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Transcript

Summer Check-In And Gratitude

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Hello everybody, I'm your host, the Gentle Yoga Warrior, and this is a special summer edition of the podcast, which is coming to the end of its 20th series. So when we come into the autumn, the fall, it will be the 21st series, which is a major achievement. And I'm so grateful for you who are listening that are new, who have been listening for a long time, or we may have been listening for neither long or short time. Either way, big thank you. So why a special summer edition? Well, it's August as I record this, and people either traveling to holidays, traveling back from holidays, and interestingly, I'm not getting a holiday in August, but don't feel sorry for me. I've got a holiday later in the year. But I know most people are either dealing with looking after their kids or their relatives or all kinds of different things. And maybe you're not doing that, but we're all busy in our own separate ways. So, you know, January is a time where we try and like put the seeds down for reinventing ourselves. August feels like another pivotal point of the year. It's the last month of official summer here in the northern hemisphere. Well, it is in the UK anyway. I can't speak for other countries, but I know in the UK it's the last official month of summer. I know September can still be really hot and we can have some summer days there, but it's the kind of month where it gives you permission to kind of wind down and slow down a bit. So I was looking at the grass, and the UK is known for its green, luscious grass. But since, I guess since about June, with the heat, it's kind of unless it's been watered, it's tight, kind of turned to dry, almost like straw. And come the autumn, the fall, the rains will bring it back to life. But at the moment, it just feels like it needs a rest. And it made me think what needs to die this August. And I really feel that August is a lot like January

August As A Second New Year

SPEAKER_00 3:24

in a sense, we can put down, we can do a reassessment of what's been happening so far in the year, and maybe look at the idea of what we want to achieve for the run-up from fall, autumn to Christmas, holiday seasons. And instead of trying to do big things, maybe we don't need to start a new routine now. Maybe we don't need to start a new habit and mindset or new version of ourselves. Equally, if you've started something because this has given you the space to do it, then please don't throw the towel in, of course, continue with that. But I'm seeing it from a I'm sharing this more from a point of view for those of you who feel a little tired at the moment. And perhaps you'll run up to the holiday season, you want to start a wonderful gym membership, but you're travelling and it's August now. I'm just giving you a hypothetical example which may not be really mature at all, but I'm just trying to share what I'm trying to say. So basically, I would use this month to let go of the things that you really don't need to do. August has a different feeling. It's it's quieter than January, because January is all up about action, or so people perceive it should be. If you listen to my January episode, I think January is about putting down seeds. And maybe August is just the month before you harvest everything. But instead of just going out about and harvesting what you've done for the year, instead, could you kind of have a reflection of what's happened over the year and just pause and a chance inside to maybe just ask a different question? Not what you need to do, but what needs to go. And it might sound a bit drastic, but it could be worrying about pleasing everyone. Maybe that needs to go on. Things that we've kept living with for a long time that haven't helped us. Maybe they need to stop. Maybe it's a belief system that needs to go. You know, they need to prove ourselves. Come on, we all try and do that, don't we? Political things, and we're always trying to prove ourselves we don't want to do that. Our family lovers, and if they don't, that's their problem. The a friendship that maybe one-sided, you know, maybe doesn't mean you don't have to be friends with them, but maybe just you don't have to make all the effort. The habit of saying yes when you know the whole body feels no. I've done that so many times before in the past, when you don't want to do something, you don't want to go there, but then you kind of feel that you need to to please other people. Of course, the situations where we do have to sometimes go to places with family that we don't as want to do, but I'm talking about putting down boundaries

What Needs To Go Now

SPEAKER_00 6:30

where things are really not comfortable for you. The version of my of success that looks good from the outside, but leaves us feeling empty inside. So in my youth, it would have all been about what I looked like. I had to have the latest hairstyle, the latest clothes. I could kind of be a certain way. And you know what? Of course, those things can help lift us, but if they make us feel empty inside, it's the stuff on the inside to work on rather than looking external for validation. We spend so much time building better lives that we rarely stop for the pause. And if this heat wave here hasn't said pause, then I don't know what is going to give you the hints that it is time to pose. So could you go and buy yourself your favourite book? That book or novel that you've wanted to read for a long time, or if you don't read, I don't know, that music if you want to listen to, that soul nourishing thing you wanted to watch. You know what? We often celebrate beginnings, like trying things, but you rarely celebrate endings. I'll give you an example, and it's not an ending, but it's kind of a point. So I've been a fitness for most of my life, but I've never been a runner. I don't know why, I've just always loved walking for miles and miles and miles. But running is not really something that's been that much on my radar. So I started doing that NHS couch potato to 5k thing. Today I ran for like 20 minutes, and I could have gone longer, which was a good sign, but that was the first time probably since school that I've run for 20 minutes. So of course you can celebrate the start of doing that, but celebrating the fact that I hit 20k, 20 minutes, sorry, not 20k, 20 minutes is something to really allow myself to feel. But every meaningful chapter begins because another one closes. So the space that I made to do that running was a chapter closing to enable a new chapter to open. And here's the

Celebrating Endings And New Chapters

SPEAKER_00 8:47

comfortable part. I think most of us already know what needs to end. We just keep giving it another chance. Perhaps it's going past the bakery and buying that cake every day that we don't need to get. You know, it's not to say we can't have things that we enjoy, but could we cut that down to once a week? Or scrolling, I always go on about this, but scrolling on our phones, and that before we know it, we've lost the day. We can call it loyalty, we can call it hope, we can call it patience, but sometimes it's just fear. For if we let go of these habits that hold us back, then we fear the disappointment of other people. Sometimes when we're succeeding of things, people don't mean it, but they can kind of try and hold us back, or they don't like the fact that you may not be drinking anymore or that you you may not be eating so much sugar because then it shines a light on them. But I say worry about yourself, and it's not your job to make everyone feel comfortable. Of course, there's no there's no reason to make people feel uncomfortable either. As the saying goes, before we speak, is it kind, is it necessary, and does it improve on the silence? And I think that's a really good thing to feel. And sometimes kindness is telling the truth, and sometimes we have to have the courage to be disliked. Fear of who we'll be without the thing we're holding on to, so we can let go of that fear because even painful things become familiar, and familiarity can feel safer safer than freedom, but it's not always the case. So maybe wellness isn't another morning routine, maybe it's having a difficult conversation with someone, maybe it's a mitten you're burned out instead of pretending you're just busy. Maybe it's a letter that steals two hours of your time. I can vouch for that. Maybe it's letting go of the expectations that you have to be everything for everyone all the time. Maybe it's forgiving yourself for not being where you thought you'd be by now. I tell you one thing, no one ever is. I've got friends that are LD and they've said to me that there's one lesson that they learned in life is that we're never where we thought we should be at that specific time. It doesn't work like that. Maybe it's forgiving yourself, maybe because you're not because you're giving up, because you're making space. So I would say August, use this time to make some space for yourself. If you're on holiday with your family and you're on the beach, could you read that book? Like I said, you could write down some ideas, pruning things out that you no longer need to be.

Boundaries, Burnout, And Self-Forgiveness

SPEAKER_00 11:39

A tree doesn't grow because it keeps every single branch. I know some trees they will let go of branches that they don't need anymore to help them grow. So, dear listener, here's my invitation for you this August. Don't make another list of everything you need to improve. Instead, just ask yourself one question. What am I carrying that I don't want to take into September? What am I carrying that I don't want to take into September? And for you, that will be a very personal thing. You don't have to fix your whole life this month. You just have to stop feeling something that's already asked to be released. Because sometimes healing doesn't arrive with a breakthrough, sometimes it arrives with a goodbye. Here is a special August-inspired meditation. Top tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross-legged on the floor with a nice straight back. Always nice to sit on a block or a cushion, or that's not available for you. You sit in a chair with the back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching. And if you're doing something that requires you concentration, all you need to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, let's begin. So, August, the sun in the normal northern hemisphere is bright. And even if you're in a different hemisphere, tune into the weather of where that is. The need to go and be and improve, and to please everyone, and to fit in to what other people's expectations of our life shall be. That is not the road for you, dear listener. For we travel

August Meditation And Forest Visual

SPEAKER_00 13:41

this road with kindness, compassion, and understanding for others, love for others, but also for ourselves. And to love people truly and fully is to allow yourself to be and have a life that feels balanced and kind. And allowing yourself to fully break free. So imagine yourself in a beautiful forest at dawn. It's not too cold and it's not too hot, for this the sun hasn't quite yet baked into the sky. You are shielded. But through the shieldedness of putting your boundaries, the light so beautifully cascades between the trees. And that light is the light of possibility. And of course, the tall grand trunks of these trees have to be there for they bring grounding and cooling to Earth situation. But if there was too many branches here, then you would not be able to see the wood for the trees. You would not be able to feel your path. For now in this August, as you wander through this imaginary forest, you feel utterly held. You realize it's okay to relax, it's okay to let go, it's okay to put away the to-do lists for now. Allow yourself to simply be. As you just focus on your breathing for the next few minutes, the sound of your inhalation, the sound of your exhalation. Come back into the room.