B+

There’s a quiet moment in practice—usually when you’re not looking for it—when you realize your internal settings have changed.

For me, it showed up in front of a laundry basket.

Once, that basket was a crisis. A referendum on competence. A trigger for a full-body tightening. Classic A+ living: fast, braced, constantly managing life like it might fall apart without my vigilance.

Meditation didn’t flip a switch. It worked the way water shapes stone—slow, steady, almost imperceptible. Ten minutes here, a breath there, learning (often clumsily) to sit with the urge to fix instead of responding to it like it was law.

Over time, the screws loosened. I shifted from A+ to A-, still capable, still organized—but less clenched. Less convinced that urgency equals importance.

And eventually, something different arrived.

B+.

Not checked-out. Not apathetic. Just… steady.

Research backs this up: mindfulness has been shown to reduce burnout, improve

emotional regulation, and lower stress levels across dozens of studies. Emotional exhaustion—the hallmark of burnout—drops significantly for most people who practice regularly. Mindfulness literally trains the nervous system to stop living in “threat mode” all day long.

And that’s what B+ feels like.

Life is still full. Responsibilities still exist. The laundry still needs doing. But the internal spike? Gone.

Will it get done today? Maybe.

Tomorrow? Also maybe.

But here’s what I know for certain:

I am nowhere near burnout. Not even on the same map.

Meditation didn’t make me less effective. It made me less frantic.

And in that shift, laundry became laundry—not a measure of my worth.

B+ isn’t a downgrade.

It’s freedom.