September can bring this strange pressure to get your life back on track. New routines, new goals, getting back into work, ending the year strong. But what if you’re already carrying too much?

When everything on your plate already feels like one thing too many, adding more goals or routines can just make you feel even more overwhelmed. And sometimes the hardest part isn’t even the busyness itself. It’s the story underneath it. The belief that you should be able to handle it all, that everyone else is managing more than you are, or that slowing down means you’re not doing enough.

That’s what I’m working through in this episode. I’m taking the same five prompts from my free Calm Mind Blueprint, but focusing them specifically on the September stress you might be carrying right now. We’re looking at what’s actually making this season feel so heavy, the story you’re telling yourself about it, whether that story is even true, what you actually want your days to feel like, and the smallest step you can take toward that.

You don’t have to carry September’s stress into October. And you don’t have to wait until the end of the year to realize that the way you’re doing things isn’t working for you.

If September has felt heavier than you expected, this is your chance to slow down enough to understand what’s actually going on and make a small shift before that same energy follows you into the rest of the year.

Resources Mentioned:

• Calm Mind Blueprint: A gentle, proven framework for busy women who crave peace & fulfillment but feel too overwhelmed to find it.

Work with me:

1. Lighter: finally release the weight attached to your plate www.samanthapenkoff.com/lighter
2. The Leaders Table: https://www.samanthapenkoff.com/leaders-table
3. Breakthrough Intensive: You already know you should slow down, delegate more, stop overcommitting & be emotionally present. So why can't you? That's what we figure out in 90 minutes + integration call 1 week later. Book your Breakthrough
4. Exhale Private Coaching: For women ready to do this work until it sticks and you can't revert back. 3 open spots: Work with me

Connect with Sam: Instagram | Facebook

Welcome to Beyond Awareness. I see some people share how September is like the second New Year's. Honestly, I feel like I've done an episode or two or just mentioned how maybe I felt that way. It's like how September is a time that you can goal set, you can determine new routines, you can regain ambition. And honestly, I want to be on board with that. I think I've

Had seasons where I am on board with that, but for some of us, that's just not the case. What I'm seeing from my clients, especially and a lot of the members from the leaders table right now, is that this season, maybe it's just this September, is busy. New routines, I will say, are just kind of natural as like kids are going back to school and whatnot, but that doesn't always come.

With new ambition, with new drive, with the desire to set goals or just keep pursuing the goals that we have, or you know, that new sense of like, let's end the year strong, even if we want that. What it does come with sometimes is physical busyness and emotional busyness. And anything new that we want to pursue.

Can feel like one more thing on our to-do list, which is just too much. It feels like over the top. It's like tipping us over. And then we risk putting ourselves last if we do add that on. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through my five strategic journaling prompts to help you make sense of your busyness so that you don't let any chaotic or stressful.

September energy bleed into October or worse, the rest of the year. And you can actually prioritize your career and your business if you're a business owner and yourself without burning out. And it is possible if you're like, my gosh, no way. It's literally my job and what I help people with. So these are the prompts that will help you do that. For these prompts, you can use them in a few different ways. First, you can journal on them.

If you do journal, you can either do all of these prompts at once, and it might take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. As you're listening, just pause me after each one, or just say this episode and come back to it. You could also do one prompt a day, and that could take like two to five minutes each, not a ton of time. These are the same prompts that I guide you through in my free calm mind blueprint. The link for that's in the show notes, but

The way that I'm guiding you through them in today's episode is specifically geared towards the September energy that we're that you might be feeling. And in that freebie, you also get emails to remind you to show up each day with the prompt. So that's one option. But also you could just type them in your notes app on your phone, like your responses, or just reflect on them. Some of you aren't journalers and I totally get that. Just think on it. Take some time to reflect.

And that is enough. You still might get a lot of clarity from that. So let's dive in. The first prompt is awareness. This is where I want you to brain dump, as I call it, an emotional brain dump. Write out or think through how am I feeling? What's my schedule? What's overwhelming me? And this can be either a free write.

Or what some of my clients find helpful is doing like bullet point lists. There's no right or wrong format here. Misspell all the words that you want, doesn't matter. And some things to maybe think through to get you started is the physical stuff might be things like your kids starting sports or starting new routines. rushing out the door in the morning can be stressful. And then on the emotional side, don't forget to tap into that. That's

Even more important, I think. And what came up for me when I was doing this is how I was doing a lot of prep work for my son and with my son to prepare him for kindergarten. He does not typically like drop offs, even though he've been doing, you know, some form of daycare since he was one year old. It's just always really tough for him. So I've been doing a lot of mental and emotional work.

To make sure that, or to try and make sure that day one was a smooth transition. And on day one of kindergarten, I was like, my gosh, finally, today is the day. And we did day one, and it was honestly a pretty smooth day. And I get home from drop-off and I expected this huge sigh of relief. And I realized it was just this slight sigh. It was like, it was a slight sigh, and then I held my breath.

Almost because I realize I have to do this all over again tomorrow. And then the next day. And I'm probably gonna feel this stress of this type of transition and how is Griffin gonna do for the next few weeks? And that's a lot to carry. And maybe yours is different, but emotionally, how are you feeling? So tap into that.

Moving into the second prompt, this is meaning. What story are you telling yourself about why this month feels or maybe is so hard, so difficult? Maybe that story is I should be able to handle this. So you've got a lot on your plate and you should be able to do it. Maybe the story is everyone else is managing the same amount or more. Why can't I?

Maybe a story is it'll calm down once XYZ happens. So I just have to get through this. So that's why you're quote unquote pushing through. I was on a belief breakthrough call with the leaders table members, and one of the members said, We got to this point in our journaling. And she said, This is silly. I almost feel silly saying this, but what came up for me, the story that came up for her is if I don't work hard.

And I slow down too much, what comes up is I'll be useless. And I told her, that's not silly. That's literally like the number one thing that comes up for my clients. So, what is your story beneath all of the work that you're that the busyness that's going on for you right now? What does it mean if you stop doing it or if you're the one that can't handle it all?

Moving on to our third prompt, curiosity. This is where we ask a few questions, starting off with is that story or are those stories true? Just questioning is that has that ever actually happened? Do those people actually think those things about you? And I hope you went there. A lot of people say, like, it doesn't matter what other people think of you.

It doesn't matter what they think of you as a mom or as an employee or as a boss, but our mind goes there anyways. So let's question that story. So is that true? Yes or no. Doesn't we're not looking for a specific type of answer here. And then other questions are whose expectations are driven beneath it? Are they truly yours that you want to live by, or were they adopted by your parents or your first boss?

Or someone else in your life that taught you that it's important and maybe even noble to do everything yourself. So just kind of play devil's advocate here of is it true? whose expectations are driven beneath it? What are the standards I'm trying to live up to this month? Are they mine? Who could how far back can I think of as to who else's they might be similar to? And see what you can come up with.

Prompt for is clarity. So many people that I work with have the problem, and they're like, I'm so busy. And what I want is to not be busy. Right? They they kind of jump to the clarity of like, this is what I want. But you can't really know what you want without doing the deeper work that you just did with the meaning and curiosity. Once you understand the

Deep-rooted fear and question it, that's where you shake it up a little bit. You wiggle the fear beneath it all so that your clarity actually has room to breathe. And it's not just masking the what's happening right now. It's not masking the problem. It's stemming from a place of, okay, I see it clearly now. I see my pattern. I see why it's happening. And now this is what I actually want.

And so now that you've questioned your stories and the truth, what do you actually want for your mornings? How do you want to feel? How much do you actually want to accomplish at work? How slow do you want your afternoons to be? What comes up for you when you think about a life or even just a day, if that seems too big, that you want to live?

Not worrying about your past self and what that used to look like or outside influences.

Prompt five is our micro action. So think through your day and choose a teeny tiny action step that will get you closer to living that day that you just outlined. And I'm gonna give you an example, my favorite example of a teeny tiny action step, because something that is often on my to do list is rescheduling an appointment, like a dentist appointment.

And I've just been procrastinating on this because I actually don't know how to contact my massage therapist. It's a it's a new one. So, anyways, I it's just feels like this really big task. But honestly, even rescheduling a dentist appointment, I know their phone number, and that takes me months to do until I'm like two weeks out. And so those things that even feel so simple, they take us forever. And that's why we don't do it. So a micro action would look like

First, looking at your calendar and choose the ideal days and times that you're actually free for said appointment. Like that's your action for today. That's it. Tomorrow's micro action might be: okay, look up the phone number for the massage therapist or for the dentist or, you know, whoever it is that whatever it is that you're doing. And then the next day, if you're doing this consecutively, would be to actually call.

Now, what tends to happen is when you look up that phone number, your mind might be like, you know what? I do have the 60 seconds to actually have this conversation. Let me just call right now. And if that happens, great, go for it. But you don't have to hold yourself to that because you have three different action steps and you have told your brain you are doing them three different days. So when you think about your ideal day andor your to do list that you actually have.

What action step can you do? Break them down into smaller steps. And what can you do that feels good? That might remove some of the chaotic energy, the stressful energy that you're feeling? It might be related to delegating, but it's not as big as just stop doing the thing or ask somebody for help. That that's a little bit big. So how can you break it down?

Amazing job. Those are the five prompts. And there's more work beneath this. You might have even felt it, especially when you typed out the clarity from prompt four. If you felt guilt beneath prioritizing rest or fear about accomplishing less, or maybe even paralyzed because you truly don't know.

How to stop your brain from thinking about the next thing when you're already in the middle of a task, right? Your brain is just always multitasking and you hate it, but you truly don't know how to not do it. And there's a little bit of fear not doing it, because then that means you're not going to be doing as much. There's so much nuance here and emotions built up from patterns that you've been doing for as long as you can remember. So if any of those residual emotions came up for you.

That's what my breakthrough intensive would be great for. It's 90 minutes together to break free from those patterns so that you can slow down and accomplish meaningful stuff in your career or business. But in order to not bring that residual, chaotic or stressful energy from September into October, you just journaled through it, or you will, or you'll reflect on it. So congratulations, you did it. And really.

lean into the microactions, number one, just do one a day and revisit your clarity. Not just your vision from the clarity of like, this is what I want. A lot of people tell you to focus on that. But I'm gonna tell you to focus on the reframe, the proof that you now have that your old stories and your old patterns don't hold up. They're not true. You were just repeating them because they

felt true and they felt safe, but now you just did the work on knowing that they're not. And you chose a new story, a new vision for yourself. You've got this. You're doing great. And I would love for you to reach out to me on Instagram and let me know if this resonated. Let me know your vision. Let me know your clarity. Let me know your reframe, whatever it is that resonated most, I would love to hear. Have a wonderful rest of your month and an even better October.

I will see you next week.