Mindfulness for Brains That Never Shut Up

The Neurodivergent Girl's Guide to Burnout Recovery: Week 1 🧠🩹

Aug 21, 2025

✨Welcome to Follow Through—essays on showing up, staying the course, and building something that lasts.

The Neurodivergent Girl's Guide to Burnout Recovery: Week 1 🧠🩹

For 10 weeks, I’ll be exploring something really important to me: burnout recovery.

Each week, I’m focusing on a different aspect of burnout, why it happens more often for neurodivergent folks, and how to heal. Thank you so much for coming along on this journey! 💖

My first time experiencing burnout was in 2018. I was fresh out of college, working a 9-5 for the first time ever, and struggling to find my place in the world.

This isn’t a particularly unique story: former gifted kid graduates from college and short circuits when her identity no longer revolves around getting good grades.

Until this point, I thought I was doing pretty darn well in life. I graduated summa cum laude, had a 9-5 in Social Media Marketing waiting for me upon graduation (this was back when that kind of job was just starting to pop up on the radar), and thought I had everything figured out.

And then… reality hit me smack in the face.

What do you mean, working 40 hours a week won’t make me enough money to pay my student loans, let alone move out of my parents’ house?

What do you mean, I need to find a job that offers health insurance or I’ll be SOL in 4 years?

What do you mean, I’m an adult? Don’t you know I’m just a baby?!?!

Oh, on top of all of that, the 9-5 was NOT at all what it was cracked up to be. I was working for $17/hr with no benefits, no training, and no over-time. Juggling the roles of at least four different people, constantly getting screamed at over the phone, and spent every lunch break at Taco Bell because it was all I could afford.

Cue the inevitable crash out.

After a few months of this, I noticed myself lagging. I needed coffee just to make it through the day. I was running on auto-pilot, treading water, and wondering how all of those tv shows made life in your twenties look so much easier than it was.

It got harder to get out of bed.

I stopped caring about hobbies, catching up with friends, doing my makeup… everything that made me me felt useless.

At first, I thought it was just depression. I started working out more, hoping that might fix things. No luck. It ended up just draining the small amount of energy I had left after a long work day.

All I could do was lay in bed, watch The Office, and hope that tomorrow would be better.

I ended up back in therapy when I finally accepted I couldn’t get myself out of this rut on my own. I learned a lot, and I’m hoping to share some of it with you over the next few weeks.

It turns out, what I was dealing with wasn’t just depression. It was burnout. A lot of the time, these two terms are seen as interchangeable, but you can’t treat burnout the same as you would depression.

It requires a gentler hand and a lot of patience. There’s no magic pill. No easy way out—not that there is with depression, but that’s beside the point.

At one point a doctor I was working with gave me this nugget of advice: “It’s been proven that people who practice mindfulness can recover from burnout in as few as three months, compared to about three years for those that do not practice.”

Three months isn’t necessarily a quick fix, but it was quicker, and I knew I needed to at least give this mindfulness thing a try.

What mindfulness is (and isn’t)

I used to think mindfulness meant doing yoga at 6 AM, meditating in silence, and sipping tea while journaling about my thoughts and feelings. And sure, those things work for some people! But if your brain is anything like mine, the trick is finding ways to seamlessly integrate mindfulness into my day instead of viewing it as another chore to try to tack on at the end of a long day.

Here’s how I see it now:

Mindfulness is the act of noticing what’s happening in your body and in the world around you without trying to change or judge it.

That’s it. Noticing. Without judgment.

It can be as simple as taking a few deep breaths when you notice your heartrate picking up or counting five things you can see, four you can feel, etc.

Why mindfulness helps with burnout

When we’re burnt out, our brains are constantly on high alert. We’re scanning for danger, spiraling into worst-case scenarios, reacting instead of responding. Mindfulness helps us to slow tf down.

The goal is to create s p a c e between your

thoughts

and

your

actions.

It gives your nervous system a chance to breathe.

When I can force myself to pause and notice the world around me, I’m able to come back to my body instead of fighting it.

I stop feeling like I’m drowning because I’ve remembered I can float.

Small ways to practice mindfulness

You don’t need a routine. You don’t need a meditation app. You just need a moment.

Here are a few that have worked for me:

The five senses check-in: Name one thing you can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. (Even if “taste” is just toothpaste or coffee.)
Box breathing: Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4. Repeat 3x.
Noticing without fixing: “My chest feels tight.” “I’m overwhelmed.” “I’m craving sugar.” Say it or write it down, but resist the urge to immediately solve it. Acknowledgement can go a long way.
Micro-mindfulness: Feel the warmth of your mug. Notice the softness of your hoodie. Listen to the birds outside. Pick one small thing to pay attention to.
Lazy body scan: Where are your shoulders? Are you clenching your jaw? Is your foot asleep? Bring awareness, adjust if needed, and move on.

One final reminder

If your brain drifts? That’s okay. If you miss a few days? Also okay. Mindfulness isn’t about being good. It’s about continuing to try over and over and over again.

You don’t have to sit cross-legged in silence. You can be mindful while brushing your teeth, folding your laundry, or walking to the mailbox.

The most important part? Stop judging yourself so much. I guarantee you’re doing better than you think.

🌱 Try this today:

Right now, wherever you are, take a deep breath.

Let your shoulders drop.

Look around the room and find one thing that feels comforting. Let it ground you.

That’s mindfulness. You’re doing amazing. 💛

This week, try picking one tiny mindfulness habit to add into your day. What’s one small moment you can give yourself to breathe, notice, or just be? I’d love to hear what you try!

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