Soul Joy: Ditch Burnout and Fall in Love with Life

Brain Boosting Breath

• Dr. Julie Merriman

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 Wellness for helping professionals 

Meditation has moved from ancient wisdom traditions to the forefront of modern neuroscience, becoming a necessary component of holistic self-care for professional helpers. Scientific research confirms that regular meditation practice rewires the brain for greater resilience, sharper focus, and enhanced compassion—all critical elements for sustaining professional effectiveness and preventing burnout.

  • Meditation increases gray matter density in brain areas crucial for learning, memory, and emotional regulation
  • Regular practice reduces amygdala size, decreasing stress reactivity and improving our ability to respond thoughtfully
  • Meditation activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting better sleep, digestion, and overall recovery
  • Enhanced attention and working memory translate to improved concentration during client sessions and better recall
  • Even 2-5 minutes of daily meditation can begin rewiring neural pathways when practiced consistently
  • Micro-meditations throughout the workday (three deep breaths before sessions, mindful transitions) reinforce benefits
  • Non-judgmental awareness during meditation helps cultivate self-compassion and sustainable empathy
  • Professional helpers need meditation not just as self-care but as maintenance for their most valuable tool—their brain

Visit juliemerrimanphd.com to sign up for my self-care challenge and get this podcast plus bonus self-care techniques delivered to your inbox. Please subscribe to help reach more professional helpers.





Speaker 1:

Hey y'all, I'm Dr Julie Merriman and welcome to SoulJoy. Today we're diving into a practice that has moved from ancient wisdom traditions to the forefront of modern neuroscience meditation. We're exploring the scientific imperative of integrating a regular meditation practice into the lives of us professional helpers, because this is a very necessary component of holistic, sustainable self-care, also known as wellness. All right, hello, hello, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. I have had such a fun day. I got to be a guest on a podcast today. I can't wait for y'all to hear that. If you have a chance to check out the podcast. Well, anyway, I'll drop a promo about that and talk about that. But it was fun. I just wanted to share that. I think it's really important, as professional helpers, for us to find places to have fun and share our knowledge, and it's really important, as professional helpers, for us to find places to have fun and share our knowledge, and it's just a great time. So home chat, just right. Quick, y'all know I think I've talked about our new puppy named Clark. We have a puppy named Lewis and we have a puppy named Clark. Get it Lewis and Clark the explorers, because they do some exploring. And I got to cut mom's hair today. I put myself through college as a hairdresser and it's so cute how my mom still thinks I'm the only one who can cut her hair 45, 50 years later. It's really cute, but I got to hang out with her and that was fun. So, okay, professional helpers, I take a moment to share about home, because I just want to illustrate and normalize that we need to find joy in all aspects of our life right, work and home, and just, you know the little things. I want us to be able to stop and pause and appreciate the little things, because those little moments add up to the big moments that equal our life. So, professional helpers, this podcast is for you, and I have dedicated it to preventing and overcoming the occupational hazards of this amazing career that we've chosen, and those hazards are burnout, compassion, fatigue and vicarious trauma. Are burnout, compassion, fatigue and vicarious trauma. So, and if you want to know more about those, I highly encourage you to hop over to my website, wwwjuliemerrimanphdcom, and pick up a copy of my book In Pursuit of Soul Joy. I also have a pretty I think badass blog over there and there's some just there's various things. I really encourage y'all to check out my website.

Speaker 1:

Okay, in our demanding roles as helpers, professional helpers. We're constantly giving, processing complex information and navigating intense emotional landscapes. Y'all our minds, you know they're active, right, they're going all the time. Our empathy is engaged and our nervous systems are often on high alert.

Speaker 1:

It's easy to dismiss practices like meditation as a nice to have kind of thing or maybe a luxury we simply don't have time for. I know, over the years I've had the luxury I'll go ahead and say that of participating in meditation retreats. I've gone out to California and done it with Deepak Chopra, and, oh, I went out to Connecticut and did a two-week silence, just various things over the years. It's good stuff. But I want you to consider if a consistent meditation practice isn't just about relaxation. But what about if it were literally about rewiring your brain so you could have greater resilience, so you could have sharper focus and enhance compassion, which helps to sustain your professional effectiveness? The science y'all is increasingly clear and I know you've seen it, y'all are uber professionals, but the science is clear. Seen it, y'all are uber professionals, but the science is clear Meditation is a powerful tool for optimizing brain function and protecting our mental and emotional health. So today we'll strip away any mysticism, you know any woo-woo and focus on the tangible. Focus on the tangible, evidence-based reasons why meditation is no longer optional for you to be a thriving helper. We'll explore its impact on your brain, on your body and on your ability to show up fully in your role as a professional helper, and then I'm going to offer practical, accessible entry points for you to develop your own practice.

Speaker 1:

So let's ground ourselves in what I might mean by meditation in this context. So I'm primarily referring to mindfulness meditation, the practice, you know, the practice of intentionally bringing one's attention to the present moment, observing thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations without judgment so important, zero judgment, just curiosity. Yeah, this is a mental training exercise. It's really a lot like lifting weights. You're training your mind, just like you train your brain.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the scientific community has extensively studied mindfulness and not only mindfulness, but mindfulness in relation to meditation, and they've moved it well beyond anecdotal claims. So what exactly is happening under the hood when we meditate? Okay, I've got several things here I've researched. I want to share. I think three or four, but let's just roll with it. So we've got brain structure and function and that's our neuroplasticity. So that's your gray matter. Density. Okay, research, notably by Dr Sarah Lazar and her team at Harvard. They've shown that regular meditation literally increases gray matter density in areas of the brain y'all that are crucial for learning, memory, emotional regulation let's underline that one that's a big one for us professional helpers and perspective taking. These areas include your hippocampus, you know, that's your memory and learning, and parts of the prefrontal cortex really important stuff that's your executive functioning and your decision making.

Speaker 1:

So amygdala shrinkage, let's talk about that. The amygdala is our brain's alarm center, red alert. Your amygdala is responsible for the fight or flight or freeze response. Studies indicate that mediators often show decreased gray matter in the amygdala, leading to reduced reactivity. Okay, the gray matter has shrunk so that reactivity is going to be slower, it's going to be reduced, is going to be slower, it's going to be reduced, and this reactivity is reduced to stress situations, no-transcript. So we want to take care of that amygdala, we want to be sure that it's not oversized. The shrinkage in that particular area would be something that we want so that we're not so reactive. Right, stress happens, we can hold a pause, we don't kick directly into catastrophic thinking.

Speaker 1:

And then there's cortical thickening. Some studies suggest that meditation can lead to thickening of the prefrontal cortex and this is associated with attention, concentration and conscious decision-making. So this is a good thing. If we can get that enhanced, we're going to be better decision-makers. And this is a good thing. If we can get that enhanced, we're going to be better decision-makers. And what do we do all day long? I know for myself as a therapist, sitting with clients all day long, we are making decisions all day long, and I know doctors are, I know nurses are. I mean that's what we do as professional helpers. We are making constant decisions daily. So if meditation can help us with our gray matter in a manner that's going to help us with decision making, help us with concentration and help us be better helpers, it's worth giving meditation a try. Worth giving meditation a try.

Speaker 1:

Next, meditation helps with stress reduction and nervous system regulation. So here you're going to experience reduced cortisol. Meditation will help you lower levels of cortisol and y'all know that's the primary stress hormone. Chronic high cortisol levels are detrimental to your physical and mental health, as it is to our clients. So I hope you're talking to your clients about the benefits of meditation.

Speaker 1:

So also we want to talk about parasympathetic activation. Now this shifts the autonomic nervous system from sympathetic fight or flight freeze dominance to parasympathetic rest and digest dominance. So this means better sleep, better digestion and overall recovery Very important, and overall recovery, very important. And then we have improved emotional regulation. So see, by practicing observing thoughts and feelings without immediate reaction, we're just watching and letting them go. We're not judging, we're just being curious. This helps meditators to develop a greater capacity to respond thoughtfully to difficult emotions rather than being overwhelmed by them. All good stuff, right. And have you heard the price tag on this? Thus far, I'm seeing a big goose egg. It's free, okay.

Speaker 1:

So the next thing we want to look at from meditation, you're going to experience enhanced attention, focus and working memory. So enhanced attention, enhanced focus and enhanced working memory. By continually bringing the wandering mind back to the present moment, we strengthen neural pathways which are associated with your focus and sustained attention. This directly translates to improved concentration during your client sessions, better recall of important details and reduced distractibility in a busy work environment. Plus, y'all think about teaching this to our clients. This is a gift to give them, and those of you that might work with kiddos what a great way to help them train their brain at an early age. It's just, I mean, it's a win-win, okay. So how do these scientific benefits directly translate to the daily experience and effectiveness of you, a professional helper? Okay, you're gonna have experience.

Speaker 1:

Elevating client care, see, with increased focus, improved emotional regulation and enhanced empathy stemming from a calmer amygdala, you can be more fully present for your clients. You're going to listen more deeply, you're going to be able to pick up on subtle clues and you're going to respond with greater clarity and compassion. Respond with greater clarity and compassion. And then let's look at meditation through the lens of burnout prevention. My, that's my jam. So meditation, y'all. It's a powerful antidote to chronic stress and emotional exhaustion, right, see, by regulating your nervous system and reducing your reactivity, you're going to build an internal buffer against the constant demands of your role, because they are constant and they can be very demanding. So this meditation is just a natural prevention of burnout.

Speaker 1:

Also, you need to consider sharper clinical judgment, because we're talking about decision making, right? Better attention with improved executive functioning means clearer thinking and you're more effective in your problem solving and there's a greater ability for you to make sound, ethical decisions, especially in complex or ambiguous situations Enter a therapy room. Ambiguous, that's, I mean. As professional helpers, we face ambiguity constantly. There's lots of ambiguous things, so we really need to have a sharp frontal cortex that's going to help us with our clinical judgment.

Speaker 1:

And you also want to think about increased resilience. Your ability to bounce back from difficult situations happens better after you meditate. See challenging outcomes, or, let's say, professional setbacks. See challenging outcomes, or, let's say, professional setbacks. Those are significantly enhanced. Well, your ability to deal with those let's say that is significantly enhanced when you're resilient, and that resiliency comes from meditating. You're less likely to ruminate and more able to be adept, so you're going to be more present when you get home, right. You're going to be more present on your weekends. You're going to be more present with each client.

Speaker 1:

And finally, I want to talk to you about sustainable compassion. I'm a big, big, big proponent of self-compassion. We give lots of compassion to those that we serve. But, yeah, when your own inner resources are replenished and your nervous system is actually regulated, your capacity for genuine, non-enmeshed compassion for others becomes more enduring. It is the star on top of your Christmas tree. It is brilliant. And because you're meditating on a regular basis, you're building neural pathways. You are more available For yourself, for your clients, for your loved ones.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I really think y'all this evidence is compelling. But you know how do you actually integrate this into an already packed schedule, right, I know y'all are busy. I know y'all are busy, busy, busy. So how do you go about getting this integrated? Okay, see the good news, you don't need to do this for hours a day. Consistency trumps duration. So start small, be consistent. Number one start small, be consistent. Begin with five minutes a day, two minutes a day, just begin, and you can use guided meditations. Y'all there's great apps out there. There's Calm, there's Headspace, there's Insight Timer all great resources. Youtube has some great resources.

Speaker 1:

You place it strategically, the meditation. You place it strategically in your day and you know how your biorhythm goes. For me, it's going to be first thing in the morning, but maybe you need to do over a lunch break, or maybe in between clients. I do that sometimes. I'll do a body scan between clients just to refresh myself for that next person coming in, or maybe you do it before your last task of the day. Wherever you do it, place it strategically and, for goodness sake, do it. And a scientific tip regularity helps with brain changes, so you don't do it once every now and again. You put it on your calendar and you do it regular.

Speaker 1:

Second, I want to talk to you about integrating micro meditations throughout your day. So, as I said, I do a full body scan in between clients. So this is what I'm talking about here the pre-client pause before each session. Simply take three deep breaths, ground your feet on the floor, tap them, tap them, tap them and bring your attention fully to the present moment. You can practice mindful transitions when walking between appointments or to your car, consciously notice your breath and sensations in your body, and I would invite you to go into a full body scan with that. And if you go back to season one, episode one or two, I take you through full body scans. I think they're great. You're checking your chakra systems from the root all the way up to your crown. It's relaxing and it's very informative. I have my clients do on a regular basis because I think it's very, very important.

Speaker 1:

Next, let's discuss mindful breathing breaks. Instead of checking your phone during a short break, simply close your eyes and focus on your breath for one minute. Easy peasy, right Scientific tip. These short bursts of mindfulness reinforce neural pathways and break cycles of reactivity. All good stuff.

Speaker 1:

Next, let's talk about embracing non-judgment. I think as therapists, as professional helpers, we're doing this, but are you doing it for yourself? I know you do it for your clients and patients. Are you doing it for you? Your mind is going to wander and that's not a failure. When you're meditating, your mind is going to wander and we're not going to judge that it's not a failure. When you're meditating, your mind is going to wander and we're not going to judge that it's not a failure. That's why it's called a practice right. Every time your mind wanders, you just gently bring your attention back, without criticizing yourself, just noticing and offering compassion and continuing the practice. And offering compassion and continuing the practice. The scientific tip here is that this non-judgmental attitude is key to reducing that amygdala activity and fostering self-compassion.

Speaker 1:

And next, let's talk about connecting meditation to your, why you want to remind yourself that this isn't just self-care. It's so much more. It's the veritable foundation that your life is built on self-care, aka wellness. This time to meditate is a direct investment in your professional competence and your ability to serve others effectively, your ability to fall in love with your life, your ability to fall in love with your practice, your ability to be present for those you love. The scientific tip here is that intention can prime the brain for desired outcomes. It's pretty powerful.

Speaker 1:

So, y'all, integrating a meditation practice is no longer just about personal wellness choice for helping professionals. It's a scientifically supported strategy for enhancing cognitive function, which we use on a regular basis, regulating your emotions, which, come on, we get triggered. I mean we've got to be emotionally regulated to even interface, to be professional helpers, and it helps build resilience and sustaining the very capacities that make you, me, us, effective in our demanding roles. Y'all think of it as an essential maintenance for your most valuable professional tool, right? Are you going to want to see a surgeon with a dull instrument? No, and your clients don't want to see you with a dull instrument. So we've got to keep our brains sharp. It's our most valuable professional tool because we are the person of the therapist, we are the person of the professional helper. Your own brain and nervous system are your most valuable tools. Even a few minutes a day can begin to rewire your brain, making you more present, more effective and a more resilient helper for the long haul.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's all for this episode of Soul Joy. I want to invite you to hop over to my website, wwwjuliemerrymanphdcom and sign up for my self-care challenge. I think it's just a great thing to have, and if you're not already getting this podcast and my bonus self-care technique in your inbox, please sign up to get this podcast in your inbox. I want to thank you for tuning in and for your dedication to both your own well-being and the well-being of those you serve. And you know, until next time. I want you to take a moment to breathe, ground yourself and experience the quiet power of the present moment. Okay, as I said, subscribe to my email list. Please subscribe to this podcast so I can reach more. And until next time, take care of you.