Ep. 3 Preventing Burnout through Breath: 3 simple practices you can start using TODAY!
In this episode, Ash discusses the importance of mindfulness and its role in avoiding burnout. She highlights the high levels of stress experienced by women and the need to prioritise self-care. Ash explains that mindfulness is a practice that can regulate emotions and the nervous system, leading to improved mental clarity and overall well-being. She shares three breath practices - diaphragmatic breath, box breath, and alternate nostril breath - that can be incorporated into a mindfulness practice. Ash emphasises that mindfulness is a powerful tool for navigating the chaos of everyday life and unleashing one's true potential.
The episode highlights are:
00:00 - Introduction: Mindfulness and Avoiding Burnout
02:51 - Mindfulness as a Foundation for Transformation
08:01 - The Importance of Physical Transformation
10:19 - The Challenge of Change and Breaking Patterns
12:24 - Emotional Transformation through Mindfulness
20:06 - Physiological Response to Mindfulness
23:27 - Breath Practices for Mindfulness
31:29 - The Practice of Meditation and Noticing Distractions
33:41 - Conclusion: Mindfulness as an Anchor
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Ash Butterss (00:01.095)
Hello everyone, my name is Ash Butters and I'm the makeover mentor here to guide you through a physical, emotional and spiritual makeover. How are you all? Welcome back to another solo episode. I am so excited to be here today. I felt so called to record this episode for you all because a few days ago I ran a masterclass for my community which was titled, How to Destress for Success.
And what this masterclass was all about was empowering women with mindfulness based practices to really help them avoid burnout. So understanding that most women today are extremely busy and they're juggling so many different things, whether it's how to show up as a mother, a wife, a friend, a sister, a colleague. Like there are so many hats that we are wearing all the time and the mental load in
running a household, you know, it's really interesting. I have to be honest, the majority of my friends carry the mental load of their households. They have fantastic partners and husbands or wives, but for some reason they take on the responsibility of, you know, it's little things, right? Like knowing that there are enough snacks in the pantry for the kids' lunch boxes the next day. Like it's all those little...
things? Is there enough washing powder in the laundry to get through enough cycles until you go to the shops over the weekend? All those little things that really add up over time and then you compound that with the day to day of life and it's a lot. It's a lot, which is why I guess it's no surprise that I read a statistic recently that 93 % of women reported experiencing extreme stress.
in the previous 30 days. Like that just blows my mind to actually truly think about that. 93 % of women compared to 88 % of men, which is still really high, like way too high. And yet this is kind of just the way that we have allowed our lives to become. Nobody's really stopped to question it. And the solution seems to be to do more.
Ash Butterss (02:23.789)
rather than to actually pull back. And so I felt inspired to create the masterclass and it was off the back of a presentation that I had actually presented earlier in the year at the law biz conference up on the Gold Coast. So I knew that there was an appetite for this and I just wanted to be able to share it with more people. So I thought, why not jump on the podcast and share with all of you guys what the content of that masterclass looked like. So.
Obviously today I'm going to be talking about mindfulness. Now, what is mindfulness? Well, mindfulness, meditation, they're all sort of one in the same. Like, yes, you can get technical, but I'm not here to get technical. This is called the unedited woman. I'm going to share with you my real raw experience and how this practice has truly transformed my life. It's become an absolute foundation to my transformation. And it's something that if you had listened to
my earlier episode, the Kickoff episode, you will have heard that I have actually incorporated this into my morning routine because I find that when I find space to practice mindfulness, particularly in the morning, it then sets me up for the day. So I allow it to help me create my intention for how I wanna show up in the day, how I wanna move in the world, how I want to be with those that I love and those that are around me. And so it's a really integral part of my morning routine.
But it's also something that I'll do throughout the day as well, particularly if I'm feeling overwhelmed, if I'm feeling anxious, stressed, maybe if I have an uncomfortable conversation that I need to have, any of those sorts of things. Even if I get triggered by a text message, I can come back to these mindfulness -based practices, which are really, really beautiful. And mindfulness is actually one of the foundations to the transformation program that I've created, the Makeover Method.
So when I talk to my clients about a true transformation, holistic transformation, I talk about the physical, the emotional and the spiritual. Now, why do I talk about all three? Well, it's been from my experience that I needed to experience a deep transformation in all areas of my life to be able to create the life that I have today, which is a life that I am deeply aligned with and one that I am deeply in love with.
Ash Butterss (04:48.3)
That's the truth of the matter. know, four and a half years ago when my world fell apart and I hit my own personal rock bottom, I had been doing a bit of therapy and you know, so I, I, I in my mind had thought that I'd been working on my mental health and for a period of time, I thought that that would be enough. But what I came to realize through the process of doing a lot of therapy, which I'm a big fan of, was that
When I only focus on talk therapy, for instance, like I'm talking about the stuff that's going on and I'm getting feedback and working through that stuff with a qualified therapist, it's fantastic and it's helpful. But it also almost allowed me to bypass the somatic experience of what was going on within my body. You know, our bodies are so, so wise.
Like I truly believe that our bodies are way more intelligent than our minds. And yet most human beings are never taught how to actually tune into their physical bodies and listen for the messages that are coming up to be able to live intuitively rather than reactively. And that requires stillness, which we can only get through mindfulness based practices. So can see how this all ties in.
But coming back to the somatic healing, there's so much in that. You know, there are so many beautiful books written about this stuff. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. There's actually a book right behind me here called Somawise by Dr. Luke Sinekke. I highly recommend that as well, which is all about how incredibly intelligent the body is and how it seeks to communicate to us all the time.
And so what I started to do was I started to incorporate all of these different somatic practices and body work, which really started to kick my transformation into another level. And that also incorporated things like emotional regulation. And then I started to move into more of the spiritual realm and enhancing my spiritual life. Because what I found was if I was just purely focused on the somatic healing,
Ash Butterss (07:01.622)
I wasn't attuned to the universal messages that were coming in. What was the universe trying to tell me? were my guides, the angels, all of those things that I believe in, God, my high power, what were those messages? And so I really started to open myself up to creating a connection with God, but also creating a connection with something greater than me, an energy source that's greater than me. And in doing so, that really allowed me to
connecting with my intuition and to feel that deep sense of connection within myself. And so that's when I knew that it was this three -pillared approach, mind, body, spirit, physical, emotional, and spiritual. You know, the physical is so important because I truly believe that, you know, even though we're spiritual beings having this human experience, you know, we've been given this vessel to carry our soul and we need to look after it.
You know, the way we look after our bodies is so intrinsically linked with our self -worth, our confidence, our self -esteem. And I know this from being somebody who lived with alcohol addiction for two decades. I know that when I was abusing alcohol and doing drugs and eating shitty food and all of those things that came with it, it was all being fueled from a deep sense of unworthiness. If I truly loved myself,
If I truly respected myself, I wouldn't be doing those things to myself. And that's a journey that I have been on over the last four and a half years to actually really start to deeply love and respect my body. And in doing so, you wouldn't believe it. I've rebuilt my self -esteem. I've started to build a deep confidence within myself. I respect myself and the woman that I am today, but I'm also strong. I'm strong and I
Believe in myself, which is something that I never really had before so that's why I truly think that the physical transformation is so so important and actually taking care of yourself and Unapologetically looking after yourself, you know, comes back to I talk about this all the time this idea of women Allowing themselves to put themselves first because we have grown up in a culture Where we're told that we can't be selfish and that we need to you know
Ash Butterss (09:28.705)
being women as well, there's that nurturing instinct to want to provide and look after your families. And I think that's incredibly important, but who's looking after you? Yeah, like we have to be our own biggest supporters and to do what can often feel uncomfortable, which is put yourself first. Like, let me tell you right now, if you are a chronic people pleaser, which
I absolutely identified as being for a long, long time because it was driven by a need to want to make everyone around me love me because I didn't love myself. If you are a people pleaser and you are somebody who has always put others first, then the idea of actually putting yourself first is going to feel really uncomfortable. And this may not be easy to hear, but the truth of the matter is if you
Like it is much harder to make a decision to do something for yourself and to break the cycle of repeated pattern than it is to continue doing the same thing. It is much easier to stay in a victim mindset than to actually take the action to make the change in your life. And yet many of us can get stuck in this cycle of
blame and victimhood because the thought of actually changing that is too uncomfortable. And yet
My true transformation happened the day I realized that it was up to me. You one of my favorite sayings is nothing changes if nothing changes. And I remember it was the day that I stopped blaming my circumstance, the people around me, the bad things that had happened in my life. When I stopped blaming all of that and I actually empowered myself to start to take contrary action to what I'd done in the past.
Ash Butterss (11:27.604)
that's when the change occurred. And no, it wasn't easy. And yes, there was an incredible amount of resistance that came up in my body, but I believed that I could do it and I continued to show up. And guess what? It got easier. And then the life that was available to me on the other side of that, once I had broken those habits has truly been a life beyond my wildest dreams. So I want to empower you to really
Think about how you can start putting yourself first. Okay, I went off on a bit of a tangent there, but you know, I get really passionate about that. coming back to mindfulness, let's talk about this. So mindfulness, as I mentioned, falls within the emotional transformation. And it also, it falls into spiritual transformation because when we practice mindfulness, we open up our energetic channels to really allow God in or to allow spirit in, which is absolutely beautiful. But what I wanna focus on here today is
the emotional transformation that occurs when we have a mindfulness based practice. So what I love about meditation is that meditation has truly allowed me to regulate my emotions, to regulate my nervous system. So many of us move through the world in a reactive state. And so what tends to happen is we get triggered by something. So there is an external source.
that triggers us. Say you have an argument with your partner and then based off previous behavior, previous things that have happened in your life, you will go into a fight or flight response. call it fight, flight, freeze, which is when you are in your sympathetic nervous system. Now what happens here is that the body dumps cortisol, which is a stress hormone into your system. And then
you're unable to think clearly. The reason it's doing this is because it's a physiological response. So back in the day when we were living in caves, we needed this fight or flight response to be able to get ourselves out of danger really quickly. And so what the body does is it restricts blood flow and it stops performing its natural functions that are deemed not important. things like your digestion,
Ash Butterss (13:53.6)
things like your menstrual cycle, things like your sleep patterns can all be thrown out of whack when you are in a perpetual state of stress or when you're in this fight or flight response. I don't know if anyone can relate to that. That's why it can be really challenging to lose weight if you're stressed because the body's holding onto the fat because it feels like it needs it for protection.
It can also be some other people have the opposite reaction where their metabolism speeds up when they're stressed and they lose weight because their body's trying to release everything out of the body. So you find that you'll go to the toilet a lot because you know, if you're having to run from a saber -toothed tiger, you don't want your dinner in your belly. You need to be as light and as agile as possible. So there are so many detrimental impacts to when we hold on to this stress within the body.
This vital flight response is the quickest way to lead to burnout. It honestly is. When we are in that perpetual state of anxiety and stress, it is so much harder to function in the world. Mental clarity is really impacted. So your ability to think clearly, you know, I don't know if you guys can ever relate to like having brain fog. Often that's a result of actually being quite stressed.
then impacts your mental health. So you will have increased levels of stress, anxiety, which can then perpetuate trauma as well. So your ability to function in the world is highly impacted, which then results in physical illnesses. So one of the dangers of holding onto stress in the body is the creation of inflammation within the body. And we know that inflammation leads to the development of cancer in the body. So it can create
really deep, dangerous disease within the body if we don't deal with this stress, if we are living in a constant state of stress, then it could really start to impact our health. You know, I mentioned sleep issues, things like insomnia and disrupted sleep, know, sleep is so, so integral for the body to do its own detoxification process mentally and physically. You know, the brain clears itself when we're asleep.
Ash Butterss (16:20.777)
We process trauma in our sleep and the body releases toxins. It's why we sweat while we sleep. All of these, all of these really important processes aren't able to occur if we are in this constant state of stress. And then we start to turn to really unhealthy coping mechanisms, right? So for me, it was alcohol. For other people that I know, it might be
something that's more socially acceptable like overeating, numbing out with food, or maybe it's an addiction to your phone or social media or unhealthy relationships. You know, when we're in that state of stress, a way we might distract ourselves is to go back to a toxic relationship. You know, I see it time and time again, that inability to be alone. And yet what mindfulness and meditation teaches us
is how to be with ourselves, how to sit in the stillness and to have a sense of curiosity, of inquiry to the experience rather than trying to fix it or change it.
And so like I said, 93 % of women reported experiencing extreme stress within the last 30 days. So if you're listening along here, I'm going to assume that you probably have experienced some level of stress yourself. And here's the other crazy thing.
The brain does not know the difference between perceived stress and actual stress.
Ash Butterss (18:02.077)
So what that means...
Ash Butterss (18:29.451)
Start again.
And here's the thing, the brain doesn't actually know the difference between perceived stress and actual stress, like the reality of something really happening. So what I mean by this is your body will elicit the same physiological response to receiving an email or a text message from somebody that perhaps you've got beef with.
Ash Butterss (19:04.787)
One more time.
And so here's the crazy part. The brain doesn't know the difference between perceived stress and real stress, like actual stress. And so what that means is your body will have the same physiological response to an email or a text message as it would to perhaps hearing somebody break into your home, right? So one is a true survival instinct. The other
is something so minor in the grand scheme of things and yet our bodies have been conditioned to have this same physiological response. This is why learning to harness the power of your mind becomes so so pivotal when we look at how to improve your overall health and well -being. So let's dive into how mindfulness can actually start to change the physical
the physiological response within your body. So basically what happens is mindfulness will interrupt the thought patterns that actually create the stress response within the body. just as the brain can send danger signals to the body, you know, preparing yourself to run from danger, the body can also send signals to the brain.
to tell it to calm down. And the way that we do this is through slow, deep, intentional breath. So the brain is, and the body are so, so intelligent. I remember how I was saying to you before, I actually think the body is wiser. How crazy is this? So we have these nerve fibers over our chest. And what happens when we take a slow, deep breath in,
Ash Butterss (21:02.174)
is that these nerve fibers notice the change in movement and actually send signals back up to the brain telling it to chill out and to short circuit the fight or flight response. Amazing, right? So the next time you feel triggered or you feel like you're experiencing a state of stress or anxiety, the first thing I want you to do is start to slow down your breath, taking slow...
deep diaphragmatic intentional breaths. So what is a diaphragmatic breath you ask? Well, your diaphragm is a muscle that lives just underneath your sternum. So if you take your fingers and you kind of like plug it in for those watching, you can see where I'm pointing to. This is where your diaphragm lives. Now, when you take a deep breath in, the diaphragm expands. So it looks like this. And then when you exhale, the diaphragm contracts.
Ash Butterss (22:04.651)
So perhaps try that now, placing one hand over the diaphragm. As you take a deep breath in, you feel the belly press outwards. And then as you exhale, it softens back in and contracts. That's when you know you're taking a deep breath because what can tend to happen when you're feeling stressed or anxious is you breathe into your chest or even your shoulders. That's why you see a lot of stressed people with raised shoulders, right? So we wanna send the breath down into the diaphragm.
and to slow it down. It might even be helpful for you to count. So as you take a deep breath in, you count one, two, three, four, exhale for one, two, three, four. And you can do that two, three, four times. And that should be enough to start to send that signal back up to the brain.
so that you can chill out and start to regulate that nervous system and that automatic nervous system response. And the beautiful thing that starts to happen from there is your heart rate will start to slow down and you'll start to feel more connected to your body. And when that occurs, you get more mental clarity and then you can start to actually evaluate the situation and be more prepared to handle whatever's in front of you.
So I love that one. It's such a simple, simple task. And the really cool thing about mindfulness over time is that it has an accumulative benefit. So if you practice mindfulness regularly, scientists have done research around this. They say that eight weeks of mindfulness practice allows you to create connections in the brain that are actually associated with managing stress within the body. So it starts to become.
The more calm natural response starts to become the automatic response rather than you flipping into that fight -or -flight state which is so cool and then of course the benefit of that is that you have a stronger immune system because your organs are able to function at their optimal capacity you also have increased productivity because you have that mental clarity so rather than you know, it's really interesting
Ash Butterss (24:25.481)
I work with a lot of high level corporate people and CEOs. And one of the first things that they often say to me is I don't have time for this practice. And what I try to explain to them in that instance is that even though it may feel counterintuitive to take 10 minutes out of your day to practice mindfulness, the time that you buy back is tenfold. Because if you are stressed when you are at work, you are not functioning.
at 100%. You might be functioning at around 60, 70%. Yet you take that 10 minutes to allow yourself to connect in to gain mental clarity and then you'll work more effectively and more efficiently. So you'll actually get more done in a shorter amount of time. So that's where this increased productivity piece comes in when we allow ourselves to actually eliminate stress within the body. So like I mentioned,
I recommend and scientists recommend, so not just me, 10 minutes of meditation each day is the goal, right? But if you don't have time to do 10 minutes of meditation, then there are some really simple breath practices that you can do instead. So we just tried the diaphragmatic breath together. Another one that I really love, which I will take you through now is called a box breath.
So a box breath is really fantastic if you are feeling highly anxious or overwhelmed. So maybe you've got a big meeting or a big presentation, or you have to have an uncomfortable conversation. This is the perfect time to do your box breathing. So how it works is we're going to use a count of four for simplicity. If you have a longer breath, you can do a count of six. It's totally up to you. But for the purpose of today's exercise, let's work with a count of four.
And what we're going to do, I'm actually gonna guide you through this so you can have a little practice yourself and you can keep your eyes open. So if you're driving, don't close your eyes. If you're not driving, feel free to, you're most welcome to close your eyes. But what we're gonna do is I'm going to count you for an inhale for four, then you're going to hold the breath at the top for four, then you're going to exhale out the nose for four and then hold for a count of four. So for those of you watching along,
Ash Butterss (26:48.573)
We inhale for four, then you hold for four, exhale for four and hold for four. You'll see that I'm creating that box shape with my hand. That's why it's called a box breath. So let's try this together. I'll guide you through a couple of rounds. So wherever you are, exhale the breath, now let it go.
Ash Butterss (27:09.681)
Inhale one, two, three, four, hold two, three, four, exhale two, three, four, hold two, three, four, in two, three, four, hold two, three, four, exhale two, three, four, hold two, three, four.
Pretty simple, hey? It doesn't take long. You can do more rounds if that feels better for you. I've got some clients of mine that will say to me, my goodness, I was feeling overwhelmed last night and I did like 20 rounds of box breath and I can't tell you how much it helped. So definitely works. If you're still feeling stressed, just do more of it and eventually you'll have that beautiful relaxation of the nervous system and you can come back to your body.
And then the third and final breath practice that I absolutely love to teach my clients is one called Nadi Shodhana. And this is a beautiful yogi pranayama, which is all about alternate nostril breathing. So it's a little tricky to explain over a podcast, especially if you can't see me, if you're not watching this and you're just listening. But let me give you a little bit of an overview. So this is a really beautiful breath practice for creating
balance and clarity within the body. So the idea of the alternate nostril breath is that we inhale through one side of the nose and exhale through the other. And while that's happening, we're actually using our thumb and our ring finger to block the alternate nostril. So we inhale through the right, which is our masculine side, and then we exhale out through the left, which is our feminine side.
And then when you want to inhale through the left and exhale out through the right. So that's one full round of breath. Now, what I love about Nadi Shodan is it gives you a really beautiful insight into your internal conditioning for that day. So I will really notice if my feminine energy is a little lackluster, if it's needing a little more attention, my left nostril will often be a little more blocked. Same with if I'm feeling
Ash Butterss (29:35.044)
more lacking in my masculine energy, which is, you know, the energy that I utilize when I want to get things done. And when I'm in that really type A type of energy, when I'm hustling, when I'm in my entrepreneur mode, you know, I really lean into that masculine side. And if I'm feeling burnt out there, then it can often be the right nostril that's a little more blocked. If you are super blocked in your nostrils, this probably isn't the best breath practice to try. But if you are clear,
then it's amazing and definitely one that I recommend doing first thing in the morning. So you can try that. I've actually got a recording of that. If you want a copy of that, you can reach out to me, just message me on Instagram or DM me at Ash Butters and I can send you a recording of that one if you want to be able to practice that at home as well, which is really, cool. So they're the three different breath practices. You've got your diaphragmatic breath, you've got your box breath and you've got your alternate nostril breath, which are all
still part of a mindfulness practice because mindfulness in its essence is being mindful of the breath, right? If you wanna take it up a notch and sit in meditation, then I am a big fan of guided meditations, especially if you're new to meditating because what guided meditations are great for is really helping that monkey mind, that distracted mind that can take us away from the present moment.
Whereas I find that guided is really beautiful because it helps me just to come back. You know, if I've got a really busy mind, I will always pop on a guided meditation. And here's something that I really want to share with you all. You know, so many people say to me, I'm not good at meditating. And what I would say back is that there's no such thing as not being good at meditating. Meditation isn't about creating no thought, because that would be impossible, because as humans, we have thoughts, right?
Meditation for me is actually more about the practice of noticing when you've been distracted. So every time you notice that you're no longer focused on the breath and your mind has started to wander off into the day, into the supermarket, whatever, whatever distraction has come up, noticing that that has occurred and then lovingly bringing yourself back to the present moment.
Ash Butterss (31:54.305)
That is the magic of meditation. That is the magic of training the mind. And the more you can do that, it's just like strengthening any other muscle. You know, you go to the gym to strengthen your biceps. You meditate to strengthen your mind muscle. And so you have this beautiful accumulative effect of the more you do it, the stronger it becomes. And then guess what? Those periods of stillness in the mind will become greater. But that's also not to say that you won't have a day where you are super distracted and you are
Finding that your mind wanders every 10 to 20 seconds Not one meditation is better than the other they are all just different remembering that the body is so wise The body will give you what you need at any given time So if you haven't tried a guided meditation before and you want to you can head over to my website ash butters comm There is a freebies section in there Jump on and you can get yourself. I think it's five free
guided meditations to get you on your way. So try that. There's also some great apps like Insight Timer that you can check out. That's a free one. And then of course there is, I've used Calm and I've used Headspace, but they're both paid apps. So see how you go and let me know. I'd love to know how you find the experience, especially if you're new to meditation, or maybe if you haven't been practicing for a while and you're just coming back to it, message me and let me know how you find it. Because honestly, the transformation that occurs with a simple mindfulness
practice is unbelievable. Like I find that I am a better person to be around when I am committed to my mindfulness based practice. So I'd love to know how that impacts you as well.
Ash Butterss (33:41.553)
And so the last thing that I want to leave you here with today is this quote. In the chaos of everyday life, mindfulness is the anchor that helps us navigate the Transcend burnout.
Ash Butterss (34:00.147)
Start again.
Ash Butterss (34:03.731)
And so here's a thought that I wanna leave you with today. In the chaos of everyday life, mindfulness is the anchor that helps us to navigate the storm, transcend burnout and unleash our true potential for productivity and wellbeing. If you've loved today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you could jump on and leave a rating and review. And if you're not doing so already, don't forget to hit subscribe.
and follow this podcast. I have absolutely loved being here with you today and sharing my own experience around mindfulness and meditation. Be sure to let me know how you.
Ash Butterss (34:59.357)
And with that, that's a wrap on today's episode. If you have gotten value out of today's episode, it would mean the world to me if you could jump on and leave a rating or review. And if you're not doing so already, make sure that you hit subscribe to this podcast. I will be here at the same time next week. I can't wait to see you then. Bye for now.