Rest, Renew, Restore

We are not immune from burnout here at Mindful. It takes constant communication for our small but mighty team to feel supported, balanced, fair, healthy—to create the psychological safety necessary for all of us to show up, make mistakes, fix them… and be real together so we can make quality things together.

We use weekly “Too Hot To Handle” check-ins to take each others’ temperature, see who’s “on fire,” and discuss how we can spread the work around to make sure we’re hot enough to keep us warm, not burn us out. Sometimes our systems fail us. Sometimes we take on too much. It takes all of us working together to maintain compassionate systems that support our thriving at work.

This New Year, rather than offering you a “New Year, New You” issue, we wanted to to explore how mindfulness can help with one of the most complex problems of our time: burnout. Because burnout isn’t an individual problem, it’s a collective challenge partially fueled by our disconnection from each other. Burnout happens to people who have been pushing themselves to perform for an extended period of time. It’s a byproduct of passion and drive embedded in unkind systems. But those systems were created by people, which means they can be updated.

I’m excited to share that we just launched a new Mindful at Work program, to help organizations learn the foundational skills of resilience, focus, and self-compassion and foster high-quality interpersonal relationships. And we packed this issue with some of the themes we think are important for healing burnout.

On page 12, public health innovator Jenée Johnson offers a practice to rest, relax, and release stress. On page 24, writer Mara Gulens shares the latest research on strengthening clear, vulnerable communication at work. On page 38, meditation teacher Caverly Morgan reveals how we can remember our belonging. And on page 58, we curated a meditation retreat to help you take your individual practice into your relationships and your community.

Your personal mindfulness practice can help you create respectful boundaries for yourself, connect you to your purpose, and reveal your values. By building that knowledge of yourself, you learn how to more deeply respect others. And when we can build respect for each other, at work, at home, and in our communities, we can create the kind of positive culture change where caring for yourself and others is the norm. And from there, we can begin to repair. Together.

With love and gratitude, mindful. at work .