Running on Empty

(bright gentle music) Let's take a few minutes away from the to-do list. It'll still be there when we're done. Find a position where your body can actually rest, even a little. And when you're ready, letting the eyes close. Breathing in slowly through the nose, letting your chest and belly both rise, and then letting it go through the mouth like you're setting something down. Once more, nice and easy, in and out. And now, letting your breath settle into whatever rhythm it wants. Burnout doesn't always look like how we expect it to with everything falling apart. More often, it looks like getting everything done and feeling almost nothing while you do it, just going through the motions. For a lot of us, worth and output get tangled together. What you do becomes who you are, what you produce becomes how much you're worth. So when the tank runs low, the instinct isn't really to stop, it's to push a little harder and hope nobody notices you're running on empty. That can show up in different ways. A shorter temper than usual, a kind of flatness, even around things you used to enjoy, trouble sleeping or sleeping and still waking up tired. A sense of dread on Sunday that starts earlier every week. When you run on empty for so long, it's easy to feel like that's the baseline instead of a warning light. Just notice how it feels to tell yourself you deserve to rest, that you're allowed to take a break, noticing whatever your first reaction to that is. Is it guilt? Is it denial? Is it disbelief? Let yourself notice those feelings, not judging, just noticing. Now, letting yourself, if you can, feel where the tiredness actually lives in your body right now. Maybe it's an aching in your back or a tightness in your shoulders. Perhaps it's a restlessness in your legs. Just noticing the physical weight of the burnout wherever it happens to sit. That's the body keeping score of what the mind has been pushing through. Burnout isn't a personal failure. It's not proof you're weak or you can't handle things. It's closer to a signal, the same way physical pain tells you something's injured. Burnout is letting you know it's time for a break. Now, taking a few more breaths here in through the nose and out through the mouth. And whenever you're ready, opening your eyes....