In this episode of WILD Walks, we explore the pressure many leaders feel to stay in a constant state of bloom—always delivering, always producing, always proving. But like perennial plants, healthy leadership requires seasons of reflection and rest.

This guided walking meditation offers a pause from urgency, inviting you to reconnect with your natural rhythm and the deeper truth: you are not meant to bloom year-round.

🌿 What you’ll experience:

• A breath-based intention setting ritual
• A grounding metaphor rooted in seasonal growth
• Reflection prompts to challenge urgency and overextension
• A walking practice to slow your system and realign with purpose
• A closing prompt to carry calm and clarity into your week

🎧 Press play. Step outside. Lead with rhythm, not rush.

Want more WILD? Learn more here.

So whether you are hitting the city streets or a park or piece of nature near your place, I hope you enjoy. And if you're not already walking, now's the time to get moving. So lace up. Step outside, dress for the weather. Bring [00:01:00] headphones if needed, water if it's warm. And today this is not about a destination, it's just a willingness to begin.

This walk will take around 10 or 15 minutes. Not long, not far to go. Let's just take a few breaths to arrive. I want you to invite the words I have while breathing in and invite the word arrived when you breathe out. So breathing in, I have breathing out. Arrived. I have. Arrived. All right, let's begin.

And this is something we talk with the leaders in our community a lot. It's this urgency loop, and it doesn't just wear you down, it doesn't just affect you. It trains your team to overextend. To override, to overdeliver until burnout becomes the baseline. And when everything feels urgent, nothing is sustainable, but just like always, nature offers us another way.[00:03:00]

So as you walk, I want you to set the intention to reconnect with rhythm. To step out of urgency and back into alignment with yourself.

For an intention, you might say, I allow for cycles and

or rest and reflection are part of growth.

Or one more intention you might use that I've been using a lot lately is I am allowed to pause.

Let your body walk and rhythm with that truth.

Now, I want you to notice your body. How fast are you walking? I

are your shoulders tense, your jaw clenched?

Is your breath shallow? Can you slow down just a little bit?

I want you to notice your surroundings. Now. Look up.

Notice what's in bloom,

what signs of seasonality can you see where you are right now?

Even in a city, nature's cycling. It's pausing, emerging, decaying, returning. So look around. Let yourself notice what's not trying to rush,

It's seasonal, not constant. It's rhythmic, not reactive, but in our urgency, culture. It feels like we try to force spring year round. We push ourselves and our teams to stay in a permanent state of bloom, always delivering, always producing, always proving.

But without that rest, we burn out without pause. We forget why we're doing any of it in the first place.

So as you continue to walk slowly consider. Where in my leadership have I replaced Rhythm with rush?

When was the last time I truly paused without filling the gap?

What part of me is craving a resting season?

and as we continue to move, let each step just slow your system down.

Let this walk be your fallow field. A moment where there's nothing to prove,

and you might say to yourself, I don't need to be blooming to be growing.

This pause is part of my purpose.

Now I want you to notice the difference between motion and momentum. Between action and alignment.

Let's return to our breath again and return to the original intention you set at the beginning of our walk together.

Say quietly to yourself if you wish. I honor the season that I'm in.

I release the pressure to rush.

And as your walk begins to close, ask yourself, what's one way I can build reflection or pause into my weak without guilt?

What could shift in my team if rest and white space were baked into how we work, not treated as a reward. I,

you are allowed to slow down. You're allowed to recover. You are allowed to lead from rhythm, not reactivity.

If this walk helped you soften or slow, come back to it any time and share it with a teammate who may need permission to pause too. Until next time, stay present. Lead with heart and stay wild.