Six months ago, I started feeling the same burnout symptoms I felt two years prior.

The anxiety. The fatigue. The loneliness.

I didn't understand why. Sand and Salt Escapes was entering into a new phase of growth beyond what I could have hoped for. I was doing work that was deeply meaningful that aligns to who I am as a person.

Everything was clicking. But I wasn't well inside.

From a young age, we're taught to identify with external labels. It's not that those things aren't true. They do make up some part of us.

They're just limiting. Really limiting.

Who we are starts internally. But we often don't take the time to see ourselves through this lens.

The call to the unknown is different for all of us and is different at every stage of life. It could be as small as striking a conversation with the stranger at the coffee shop who's reading your favorite book. It could be as big as quitting your job and moving to a new city.

It's never easy to step into the darkness, but it's where life happens.

When I burnt out at the end of 2021, I was a shell of myself. I had shingles. I was experiencing anxiety attacks. My brain felt so tangled and so lost. I didn't care about the things that used to bring me joy.

It was a state of existence I had never felt before. I felt heavy shame for what I was experiencing. I didn't recognize myself and I didn't know how to start feeling better.

The pressure to always be on - to always be productive - takes a toll. But it's in these moments, where if we can find ways to rest the mind, we're able to step back and approach life with more clarity.

Whether or not we're conscious of it, our breath is constantly having a physiological impact on our body. When we become aware of our breath, we can use it as a tool to improve our performance at work.

There are two techniques you can start using today whenever you feel nervous or aggravated - box breathing and diaphragmatic breathing.

Social psychology scholar Dr. Barbara Fredrickson identified the 10 most common positive emotions experienced by humans.

Understanding the 10 positive emotions can serve as an impactful framework to provide more meaning for our teams, drive higher engagement, and yield more productive outcomes.