burnout can feel overwhelming — Burnout can feel overwhelming

Burnout often feels like an overwhelming weight—too many tabs open in your mind, too many demands, and not enough calm.

But what if you could take all that stress and overwhelm and turn it into something meaningful and even magical? On Day 7 of the 12 Days of Burnout Breakthrough, we had the pleasure of hearing from Kate, founder of Generate Magic, who shared her unique approach to burnout, stress, and overwhelm.

Kate’s philosophy is all about using what you already have to create balance and resilience, helping you transform even the most challenging experiences into powerful opportunities.

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What Is Generate Magic?

Kate’s concept of "Generate Magic" is both a philosophy and a practice. It’s not about pulling rabbits out of hats but about recognizing that everything you need to create balance and joy already exists within you.

As Kate puts it, "Every moment is an opportunity to generate magic."

This mindset is especially helpful when dealing with burnout, where the temptation to pile on external solutions can often add to the overwhelm. Instead, Generate Magic focuses on simplicity, resourcefulness, and self-acceptance.

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Burnout and the Power of Balance

Like many of our guests during this series, Kate highlighted the importance of balance. Burnout is often a signal that you’re out of alignment—physically, emotionally, or mentally. But instead of trying to "fix" everything at once, Kate encourages us to pause, breathe, and find calm in the chaos.

One of her favorite practices is simply breathing deeply and using mantras like:

“I am the balancing breath.”
“I am the resurrection and the life.”

These affirmations serve as a grounding force, helping you accept where you are and gently shift your state of mind.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities

Kate’s philosophy goes beyond managing stress; it’s about transforming it. She uses a process she calls "Alchemizing Crap into Gold," which involves seeing the hidden value in your challenges. For example:

A job loss could open the door to a new, more fulfilling career.
A failed project might teach you resilience or reveal a better path forward.
Even small frustrations, like a noisy computer, can become opportunities for humor and creativity (like her computer’s pirate-inspired "R" obsession!).

This approach aligns with the idea of the Hero’s Journey, where every obstacle is part of a larger narrative leading to growth and transformation.

Quick Wins for Overcoming Burnout

Kate’s methods for managing burnout are refreshingly simple and effective. Here are some quick wins you can try today:

Pause and Breathe

Take a few moments to breathe deeply.
Use a calming mantra to center yourself.
Remember: Every moment is a clean slate.

Accept and Release Emotions

Instead of labeling emotions as "good" or "bad," accept them as they are.
Say to yourself, “Thank you. I love you.” This simple act of acknowledgment can help dissolve tension.

Reframe Challenges as Lessons

Ask yourself, “What is this experience teaching me?”
Look for the "gold" in difficult situations—how they’ve helped you grow or opened new doors.

The Hero’s Journey: Rewriting Your Story

One of Kate’s signature coaching tools is guiding clients through their Hero’s Journey. This process helps you:

See your life as a cohesive narrative, where every experience has purpose and meaning.
Embrace your strengths and perceived weaknesses as integral parts of your story.
Transform setbacks into stepping stones for growth and success.

By reframing your experiences in this way, you can move from a place of frustration or despair to one of empowerment and purpose.

Key Takeaways

Kate’s philosophy of Generate Magic reminds us that we already have everything we need to overcome burnout and stress.

By pausing, breathing, and accepting where we are, we can shift from overwhelm to clarity. And by reframing our challenges, we can turn even the most difficult moments into opportunities for growth.

Connect with Kate

Kate’s work is rooted in helping individuals and organizations find balance, rewrite their narratives, and turn stress into strength. To learn more about her coaching, courses, and unique insights, check out:

Her website and email list for inspiring content. www.generatemagic.com
Her group coaching programs, which explore transmutation and the Hero’s Journey. www.generatemagic.com/coaching-services
Whether you're facing burnout in your career, relationships, or personal life, Kate's Generate Magic approach offers a transformative perspective. By embracing the principles of balance, self-acceptance, and mindful transformation, you can begin to see your challenges not as insurmountable obstacles, but as opportunities for growth and renewal.
Remember that the power to transform overwhelm into opportunity lies within you, and every moment presents a fresh chance to generate your own magic. Through simple practices like mindful breathing, emotional acceptance, and narrative reframing, you can start your journey from burnout to breakthrough today.

To begin your own transformation with Kate's guidance, explore her coaching programs and resources. Your hero's journey awaits.

About the Author:

Kathie Owen is a seasoned corporate wellness consultant, life coach, and former fitness and wellness director with over two decades of experience in creating healthier, happier workplaces. With a psychology degree from the University of Houston and a passion for motivation, Kathie has dedicated her career to ending toxic workplace cultures through holistic wellness programs that truly make a difference.

*Kathie Owen,* *Corporate Wellness Consultant since 2012 (Our Story*)

Having worked in both corporate and fitness environments, Kathie blends her expertise in employee engagement, leadership development, physical health, and mental well-being to design programs that prevent burnout and inspire thriving teams.

She’s been a certified fitness trainer since 2002 and has personally coached hundreds of individuals to reach their wellness goals. Now, she’s on a mission to share her strategies with companies that value their people.

Through her 12 Days of Burnout Breakthrough series, Kathie combines personal stories, expert insights, and practical tips to help you recognize, prevent, and heal from burnout. Her goal? To show you how a little bit of wellness can transform not only your workplace but also your life.

When she’s not leading workshops, coaching aspiring wellness professionals, or writing her next blog post, you’ll find Kathie walking her dog Rusty, diving into her favorite self-development books, or dreaming up her next big idea to inspire and uplift others.

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Transcript

Kathie: 0:00

All right, welcome to another day of Burnout Breakthrough with Kathie's coaching podcast on these episodes, we have been learning so much about burnout, what it is, all different kinds of ways to deal with it, and also a lot of quick wins. And today I'm really excited about this episode. My friend, Kate from Generate Magic. It's going to give us some tips on all kinds of interesting things. And I've been really excited about this particular episode. So I'm going to turn it over to Kate for just a minute and let her introduce herself to you and kind of tell you what she does and maybe get some ideas about what we're going to talk about today. Very

Kate: 0:44

cool. Yes, Kathy. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited for this as well. And yes, so generate magic. I like to say that it's not just a brand or a business. It's also a way of life. And every moment is essentially an opportunity to generate magic. And so when I first came up with the name, for my company, I believe it was in 2017. And I was just kind of thinking about what I essentially what I wanted to stand for. And when I thought about it, you know, magic is really As I like to say, it's not just pulling rabits out of hats or making something out of nothing, but rather the magic comes from within you. And generate indicates that it's a very like active process. And so it's, it's using the raw materials of your life, anything that you experience, any thought, any feeling, all of that is an opportunity to create magic. And so it's really great because you don't have to find any, you don't have to go and assemble any ingredients outside of yourself. It's all within you. And, and also I, I don't know if you've experienced this, but I was in the state where I was learning a lot of great tools and a lot of great programs, but it becomes a little bit overwhelming after a while. And that I would just have this long list of like meditations and processes. And I was like, Oh man, by the time I do all this stuff, that's like, The whole day is gone. But by adopting the philosophy of generating magic, it's like you don't have to do any of these outside processes. You can just go and live your life and then everything then becomes an opportunity to generate the magic within you. So it's a really great system, how it works out. Very efficient.

Kathie: 2:40

I love that, and yes, I have had that, and I think that that's a great segue into talking about stress and overwhelm and burnout because I have had that overwhelm of all these different processes of the different programs and I really like how you said, um, use what you have because that's something else we've been talking about inside these episodes is finding balance and finding things that are just in your life. You don't have to go out and make more and do this and do that. So tell us how, generate magic. deals with burnout, stress, or overwhelm, what you call it, and kind of give us a little glimpse into what it's like to work with you.

Kate: 3:26

Absolutely. And so this is actually very convenient because just today I was feeling very overwhelmed and now It, I realized it all happened exactly as it was meant to because it provided an opportunity for me to now talk to you and to your audience about how I dealt with it. And so I have a big project that I'm currently working on. Which means I have a lot of tabs open on my computer and my computer, it's a very old computer. And so it's having a lot of difficulty handling all these various tasks. And so the, the fan sort of like running very loud, loud, like the computer was getting very overwhelmed, like overheated. And it was literally, the fan was like making these noises, like these grinding noises. And then it was doing this thing for the keyboard. I don't know what it is. It's like the keyboard is like possessed. And so it just like, starts like typing R's for some reason. That's like its favorites. It's funny. My boyfriend was like, Oh, it's kind of like you're a pirate. And it's like, just like spewing R's everywhere. And, um, and like, yeah. And then on top of that, I was, um, I had all these people messaging me about different things on my phone. And I was like, Oh no, it's too much. And I was actually starting to feel very like panicked. And then, um, people, you know, how people, these what I'll call gurus are always like, you know, go back to your breath. And I would, for a long time, I was, I just kind of like dismissed this. I was like, I don't have time for that. But I was like, okay, I'm going to try it. You know, I, so I just, I just sat there and I took a couple of breaths and I have like some mantras that I think kind of like. Kind of working with and, um, one of them is like, I am the balancing breath and another one is like, I am the resurrection and the life. And so like, as I'm, as I'm like breathing in and out and saying those mantras, I actually really did begin to feel calmer. And it reminded me of, I've been saying this a lot in my videos, mostly as a reminder to myself. I feel like every, everything that I put out, whether I'm working with somebody or putting out a piece of content, it's like something for my, it's a reminder for myself. And because I truly believe that we are all one. Then other people will benefit from these as well. And sure enough, I'm always getting people telling me, thank you for the reminder. And so anyway, one of them is like, I am is always there for you. And kind of every moment is a clean slate. And so it doesn't matter kind of how seemingly far gone you are. And so in the past I would have kind of beat myself up like, Oh, I, I let myself get stressed or I let myself, you know, get worked up about all these things. And it's like, no, it's, it's acknowledging wherever you are is perfect. And just accepting wherever you are. And. And then accepting that clean and telling myself, okay, what do I choose to experience now? Not what should I experience now? Should is a word that I try to avoid whenever possible. But rather, what would I like to experience now? Yeah, and just, and just taking those deep breaths. And it's just very comforting to know that I could be my own resource. As helpful as it could be to talk to somebody else who has like a calming presence in those moments, sometimes nobody else is around and in those moments that's when you need to be your own resource. And again, that's, I think that's what Generate Magic is really about, is resourcefulness.

Kathie: 7:21

Wow, that was so helpful. And I had to just chuckle when the R comes up. And that your friend said it was your, your computer was a pirate. I mean, I'm thinking about putting a pirate up on the screen in my editing to just give us a little oomph in that to bring that to light. Yeah, because. What I love about what she just taught us is bringing everything into balance and just Letting it be for a minute and sitting in that space and that silence is a great place to be because we're trying to fix so much. And when we get burnt out, it's like, just take a deep breath and relax. And I like her mantras. You can come up with your own mantras. I, I like to say everything in life is balanced, in balance. It's as, as it's supposed to be. That's something that I tell myself a lot of times when I get overwhelmed and stressed. And so that right there is a quick win. And I like the name of her business, how it generate magic. And Kate is one of my experts that I work with inside my corporate wellness program, where we just discuss different things and Kate. Real quick, I want to touch on this because I think this is pretty powerful. So, Kate is a master copywriter. I love the way she, she writes. You've got to sign up for her email list on, inside the show notes and description below because I'm going to have a blog post that goes on every video that has all the links to what we talk about today. as well as where you can sign up for Kate's email list because when I get her emails, I'll read them and I'm like, it just feels so much better. Like she said, um, I'm one of those people that go, thank you. I needed to hear that. I'm right there with you. I understand that. And I do a lot of my content the way she does. So I'm going through something, I learned a lesson and I want to share it. And so, um, one thing that Kate's an expert at and she does in her coaching is she does the hero's journey with you and she'll help you rewrite your story or perhaps show you where your strengths are. Where your perceived weaknesses are and how to rewrite those and just real quick, Kate, I, you know, I'm probably going to have you back on another episode to really dive deep into this, but I'd like to hear a little bit about what you do. So my, my audience can kind of. get a little nugget and we'll tease them for the next time.

Kate: 10:03

Yes, absolutely. And so when I come to think about it, I feel like everything that I do is in a sense kind of walking people through the Hero's Journey framework. Even, um, I really like EFT as well, like, um, tapping. And because when you're tapping, what you're doing is first like acknowledging whatever it is that you're experiencing, right? And so I am so angry, I'm so sad, you know, whatever it is. And then, but then you say, but I deeply love and accept myself. And I love that component of it because it's not like you're It's not like you're fighting against it. It's not like you're kind of wrestling against the emotion. Instead, you're just kind of moving, you're accepting it and loving it, and then moving through it. And, um, and yeah, the love and acceptance for me has been huge. And that's another thing that I do sometimes too, if I don't necessarily have time to tap, if I have some sort of thought or feeling that's really like agitating me, I just say like, thank you. I love you. And then it's, it's so weird. It's just like, it dissolves. And so, yeah. And so it's, it's kind of like moving, it's kind of moving them through that. And, um, and then you're kind of moving to whatever it is that you would like to experience. And so the hero's journey is the same way in that it's very integrated. And so I like things that are very like integrated and that every part is essential. And so you're not, you're not saying this is a bad experience or this is a good experience. Or this is like a bad thought, a negative thought, whatever, or this is a good thought. It's not like you're, you're putting labels or categories. Instead, you're kind of weaving them together into a cohesive narrative. And you're seeing how everything fits together. And how everything is just like, uh, a book or a movie. And so any, any great work of art. You can see how there's, there's light and there's darkness, there's sad moments, happy moments, but you wouldn't be, you wouldn't be saying, oh, I only want the happy moments in the movie or the book, because then it wouldn't be what it is, right? And so it's like every part is like contributing to this beautiful masterpiece. And so the hero's journey is getting to see your own life as being this beautiful masterpiece. And I think it really kind of helps. Because I feel like a lot of, um, a lot of kind of mainstream manifestation techniques, um, well they can be helpful. I think one reason they can be problematic for some people is that I feel like it can cause like disassociation or disconnection. Where you do like a visualization and so you're in this kind of nice, What you kind of see as being like this nice fantasy land, and then you just go about your, your daily life with all your perceived problems, and you, and there's like this disconnect, and you're like, okay, how do I close that gap? Um, and so the hero's journey is really a way of closing the gap, because you see how everything, even the challenges, are leading you to the actualization of all your goals and desires. And so I would say the principle is really like transmutation. And so like in my group, group coaching programs, we do a lot of activities around transmutation. And one of my favorites is actually called Alchemize Crap into Gold. Yeah. And so it's literally somebody will take, like, what they perceive as being some, like, unfortunate experience, and it's getting them to see the gold in that experience. And so you could say, oh, well, maybe, you know, I lost my job, or I had a bad breakup, or I was rejected, whatever, but then you can see how it actually ended up opening the door to something that was even better for you.

Kathie: 14:07

Wow, I love that. But I really like this because it's going to be a great segue into my guest that's my friend Nick, he is going to be talking about tapping, and he actually helped me do everything Kate just talked about just yesterday, he helped me through some anxiety I was having. We called it anxiety and he walked me through the tapping and it brought my anxiety way down. But what it did and what I really want to hone in on here is it helped me to accept the emotion that I was feeling. And on top of that because I was accepting the emotion and I wasn't labeling it good or bad and that's exactly what she said when you don't label it good or bad. And then Kate turned something, one of my favorite books is The 50th Law. And she talked about turning crap into sugar, whereas 50 Cent calls it turning S H I T into sugar. And it, it's so helpful to transmute that emotion, feel the emotion, And don't label it and let it go. And it lets everything come into balance back where we started. And that is a great way to just end this episode. And I will definitely be having Kate back on because Kate and I work together a lot and we have, um, we're part of a mastermind. So we both. connect on so many different levels and talk about different things. And I really love how she teaches and coaches on her channel. I will have links to that again in the show notes and description below in the blog post that goes with every episode that I have on my channel. And so having said that, that's our episode for today. I trust that you found it helpful. And if you know somebody who can benefit with this, Please share it with them and until next time. I will see you next time. Peace out and namaste.