I'm back!
So, some of you will know that this is my first newsletter back after taking a break. After a strange and chaotic year, my body and mind were both crying out for a bit of a rest, and so my husband and I blocked out two weeks in the diary, packed up the car (cat and all), and headed to the seaside for some much needed R&R.
Now, I’ve got a confession to make: for someone who spends a lot of time promoting a better work-life balance and waxing lyrical about the importance of rest, I’m pretty rubbish at taking a break. It’s not that I don’t make time for breaks, or that I don’t plan them into my diary - that bit I’m pretty good at. No, what I struggle with is the actual act of shifting out of work mode and into rest and relaxation.
It seems I go through the same pattern every time I take time off. I do everything within my power to make the transition easy - I tie up loose ends, I put my out of office on, I create the conditions that should make it easier to switch off. And yet, regardless, I always spend the first 2 or 3 days feeling twitchy - checking my emails every few minutes, scrolling social media incessantly, thinking about the to do list I’ll face when I get back.
Those first few days feel almost painful in a way - like I’m caught in some sort of strange limbo period, constantly berating myself for neither resting properly or being “productive”. And yet, I’ve learnt to stick with the discomfort of that period, because by day 4 or 5, something brilliant happens - a sense of calm washes over me. I can almost feel the shift happening in my brain - moving from scattered and jittery, to peaceful and present. And that’s where the magic starts to happen.
Physically, I start to feel more energised - I sleep more deeply and feel more settled in my body. But it’s the mental clarity that always feels most exciting. There’s something about taking a step back from my usual routine and rhythm that allows me to see life more clearly, assessing what is and isn’t working with a sense of ease that I’d usually struggle to feel at home.
I always come home from a break with hundreds of tiny breakthroughs, and this trip was no different. Time away allowed me to remember who I am without my work (something that has felt tricky to grasp this year). It allowed me to reconnect with my creativity more deeply than I have in a while. And it helped me to gain perspective and clarity on what I want the rest of 2020 to hold - it feels good to have a loose plan in place after so many months of just going with the flow.
It was only by taking a step back that I realised just how pressured this year has felt - I thought that I was doing just fine, but giving my brain the space and time to truly switch off showed me just how constant and noisy the background hum has been. It was worth pushing through the discomfort to experience a sense of calm that has felt out of reach for a really long time.
And now I’m back and ready to embrace the rest of 2020 with a renewed sense of gusto. I’ve got lots of plans for workshops and fresh podcast episodes, and I’ll be opening my books for coaching again next month, too. And of course, I’ll be back here, sharing musings on joy and positivity and just about everything else - I can’t wait to connect with you all again.
