Many people experiencing burnout notice an inner pressure that says,
Keep going,
Try harder,
Or don't stop.
In this guided practice,
I invite you to get curious about this part of you that drives you to push harder and to not stop and not rest with compassion rather than judgment.
Let's take a moment and get settled.
Feel free to recline backward.
To have some cushions behind your back and behind your head.
You can either sit cross-legged,
Or you can extend your legs in front of you,
Or you could have your feet on the ground.
Just begin to notice your body settling in to whatever you're sitting on.
Take a moment and feel the weight of your body sinking into the cushions,
The chair,
The sofa.
And feel the support of what you're sitting on rising up to meet your back.
Your buttocks,
The backs of your thighs.
Your feet,
The backs of your arms,
Maybe the back of your head.
And have the intention to relax your abdomen.
Just a little bit.
Allowing yourself to become present.
As you feel your natural breath flowing in and flowing out.
Often we experience pressure as coming from outside of us.
Sometimes there's also an inner voice.
An internal force,
A propulsion,
Or a motor that seems to have a mind of its own.
It's the one that keeps asking you to do more,
To achieve more,
To do something else.
It might be saying,
What's next?
Now what?
It has a hard time.
Giving you space.
See if you can locate this part of you.
And however you experience it,
Whether it be a voice,
A body sensation.
You might experience it as a shape or an image.
And notice where it lives inside or around you.
It could be in a particular area of your body or in your head.
Could be outside of your body.
And begin to bring some curiosity to this part.
To this shape,
This voice,
This sensation,
Without trying to change it,
Just noticing it with some curiosity.
You might describe for yourself what you're noticing.
Just begin to look at it if you can.
Or feel toward it.
And what is it telling you to do?
See if it communicates to you what it's telling you to do.
And what does it think you need?
You can ask,
What do you think I need?
If it had an age,
How old might it be?
Has it always been with you?
Or did it arrive at a particular time in your life?
What does it want for you?
You can ask,
What do you want for me?
And ask it,
What is it afraid would happen if it stopped pushing?
Getting a sense of what job it's been trying to do for you for all of these years.
What does it most want you to understand or to know?
And then just take a moment and let it know you appreciate what it's shared with you.
You appreciate knowing more about what this part is trying to do for you and what it's afraid of.
See if it feels natural for you to thank this part for everything it's been trying to do for you.
Even if it also makes you feel stressed and it makes you feel like you can't relax.
Perhaps it's been working very hard to protect you.
And you don't need to change that today.
Just getting to know it is enough.
Ask it if it's okay to be in communication with it going forward.
And just check in with how you feel about doing that.
Does it feel like something you want to do?
And just before we close,
Notice how you feel internally in this moment.
Perhaps you still have a little bit of space from this part and just noticing what that's like.
And maybe you don't,
Maybe this part is still very much present in your system and that's okay too.
And let's close by taking a deep,
Full breath in.
And let's let it go out the mouth as we exhale.
If there's anything you'd like to write or draw out on a piece of paper,
Feel free to do that now.
