Burn Brightly without Burning Out
“Burnout often starts as self-neglect disguised as discipline.”
Hey Legends
One of the gifts of training hard and pushing through boundaries is that you learn you are more than your excuses. The thoughts and feelings that once held you back become the soundtrack for growth and empowerment. This capacity can become addictive.
But if being able to push through and grind is your only skill your run the risk of ignoring signs to rest and recover and will likely push into burnout, chronic stress and sub par performance (in the gym and in life).
One of the challenges is pushing through excuses got you where you are, so it can be scary to change gears and hard to differentiate between a good reason to back off and just another excuse. But being able to tell that difference is one of the foundations to sustainable high achievement.
One tool you can use to help facilitate recovery, down regulate you nervous system and get in better touch with your body is the body scan meditation.
You can do this after a workout to speed up recovery, before bed to help fall to sleep, in the morning to get in touch with your body and breath or anytime you need to step out of the rat race and into presence.
TRY THIS:
Set a timer for the duration of your meditationn (6-45 minutes for a bodyscan)
Find a comfortable position either sitting or lying down and allow your body to settle.
Begin by noticing your breath.
There’s no need to change or control it — simply feel the physical sensations of breathing.
Bring your attention to your feet. Slowly scan attention from the feet all the way to the head - take your time and notice all parts of the body as best you can.
from your head let awareness scan back down the body to the feet.
Continue this process for the duration of your meditation.
When your done slowly start to move your body and make note of anything you noticed.