By Anasha Soisette
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June 12, 2025
The Weight of It All- Burnout doesn’t always arrive with a bang. Sometimes it creeps in quietly a constant tension in your shoulders, the fog in your brain, the heaviness in your chest when your alarm goes off. It’s the feeling of being bone-tired, yet unable to rest because there’s always more to do. For so many women, burnout isn’t just about being busy it’s about carrying the weight of careers, caregiving, relationships, and the invisible emotional labor of keeping everyone else afloat. It’s holding it all together while feeling like you’re coming undone. In a world that tells us to hustle harder and push through, we need a different approach. As the saying goes, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” This isn’t just a clever line—it’s a survival strategy. Slowing down, doing less, and taking intentional, bite-sized steps is how we reclaim our peace and our power. Somewhere along the way, “doing it all” became the gold standard for women—juggling deadlines, school drop-offs, meal prep, emotional check-ins, and maybe even remembering to drink water. We’re praised for being superwomen, but beneath the surface, it often feels more like survival than strength. The truth is, this constant drive to do more, be more, and give more leaves little space for rest, joy, or simply being. Multitasking may feel necessary, but research shows it actually makes us less effective and more stressed. The pressure to keep everything afloat isn't just external—many women carry internalized guilt when they slow down, ask for help, or say no. But here’s the truth that no one says loud enough: you’re not supposed to do it all. You’re human, not a machine. Releasing the myth of “doing it all” is the first step toward living with more ease, intention, and sanity. Burnout isn’t just about being tired—it’s about feeling trapped in a cycle you can’t seem to stop. You wake up already behind, your mind racing with a list that only grows longer. You bounce from task to task, never quite finishing one before jumping to the next. You forget what you walked into the room for. You open your phone and can’t remember why. These are the spinning moments—when everything feels urgent, and yet nothing actually moves forward. It’s paralyzing. For women especially, this spiral often comes with a side of guilt: I should be able to handle this. I should be grateful. I should be doing more. But here’s the truth: overwhelm isn’t a failure. It’s a signal. A signal that it’s time to pause, breathe, and come back to center. You don’t have to escape the spiral all at once. You just need one grounding step—one breath, one choice, one bite at a time. When you’re spinning in overwhelm, you don’t need a massive transformation—you need a lifeline. Just one small, grounding action to remind your body and mind that you’re safe, capable, and in control. That’s where these bite-sized tools come in. They’re simple, fast, and surprisingly powerful. ✅ EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique – Tapping) EFT, or tapping, is a gentle yet effective way to calm your nervous system. It combines light tapping on specific acupressure points with verbal affirmations to release stress and anxiety. Try this in the middle of a spiral: While tapping on your collarbone or the side of your hand, say: “Even though I feel overwhelmed and pulled in a million directions, I deeply and completely accept myself.” Repeat this a few times, breathing slowly. You’ll likely feel a subtle shift almost immediately. ✅ Affirmations That Ground You Words are powerful, especially when your thoughts feel like a runaway train. Swap “I can’t keep up” with “I’m allowed to go slow.” Replace “There’s too much” with “I’ll do one thing at a time.” Here are a few affirmations to anchor your mind: “I am not behind. I am exactly where I need to be.” “Doing one thing well is enough today.” “Rest is not a reward—it’s a right.” ✅ Breathwork to Reset Your Body Breath is one of the fastest ways to interrupt stress and bring you back into your body. Try this when your chest feels tight or your thoughts are racing: Box Breathing: Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4. Repeat for 1–2 minutes. 4-7-8 Breath: Inhale for 4, hold for 7, exhale slowly for 8. This calms your nervous system and lowers anxiety. Even just one of these tools, done in a quiet corner or while sitting in your car, can reset your whole day. You don’t need to fix everything—you just need to feel a little more grounded than you did five minutes ago. Productivity doesn’t have to mean pushing harder—it can mean showing up with intention. When you’re constantly overwhelmed, the idea of “getting things done” starts to feel like a burden rather than a goal. But what if you could redefine productivity? Not as checking 27 things off your list, but as giving your full attention to one thing at a time—and letting that be enough. Ask yourself: What’s the one next right thing? Not the five things you “should” do, or what everyone else expects—just the one thing that would move you forward with clarity. This mindset shift—from frantic multitasking to focused, mindful action—is how you start eating the elephant, one bite at a time. Here are a few gentle reminders for building mindful productivity: Pick your top three: Each morning, identify your three most important tasks. Let the rest wait. Protect your focus: Turn off notifications. Give yourself permission to be unavailable for a while. Celebrate small wins: Crossing off even one task with your full presence is a victory. Rest before you're empty: Don't wait to crash. Build in short breaks, even 5 minutes, to reset your nervous system. When you work from a calm center, not only do you get more done—you do it with less resentment, more clarity, and far more grace. You don’t have to keep proving your worth through exhaustion. You don’t have to outrun burnout or push through the pain to be seen, valued, or productive. You are allowed to slow down. You are allowed to rest. You are allowed to take life one bite at a time. The world may not always make space for a gentler pace—but you can. You can pause when the noise gets too loud. You can breathe before you respond. You can tap, affirm, and reset your nervous system whenever the spiral starts again. These small moments of self-rescue matter. So, the next time you feel like you're drowning in the never-ending list, remember: you don’t have to eat the whole elephant today. Just one bite. One breath. One step. That’s more than enough. Choose the gentle path. Your peace is not a luxury—it’s your power. With Love, Light and a Splash of Magic Anasha, The Alchemy Coach
