Sleep Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Self-Care Wheel for Kapha Imbalances

Self-care wheel with love, spiritual, sleep, and energy at the helm.

Self-care wheel balance is heck-yeah! needed in the colder months when our unleashed Kaphas are in full-force…

Wheels in motion take you to where you want to go. A wheel can go slowly or fast, but no matter what speed its default is to move forward (unless you purposefully choose to reverse). And, this article is about moving you forward and bettering your life this season. 🎡

If you understand the nature of Ayurveda as our natural healthy design, then you’ll be able to use that insight for better self-care and restore natural seasonal imbalances.

Like on the exterior, if you have super dry skin every winter along with a skinny frame, then you’re likely a natural Vata body (and not a Kapha body). If you tend to hold extra body weight and metabolize slowly, then Kapha is your natural way. Both feel the cold extremities as traits.

And as natural as having a Kapha body, some of us are more Kapha minded. Or we get imbalanced with tired Kapha moods.

That’s sometimes how I feel in the mornings (when Delta sleep is more like it!).

We can have a Vata body and a Kapha mind (and vice versa) as a simple example. And, there are 9 organized combinations if we want to keep it simple. Because you may be one born dominant in two body or mind ways (doshas). And mind and body connect in the daily mind-body connection to how you think, act, and feel.

The good news is you can positively impact and gradually change what you don’t like by your lifestyle choices. It’s nature vs. nurture where nurture is what you’re living today.

…You don’t have to settle for what you’re born with as lesser personality and traits you want to change.

Genetics is a tougher one to influence and turn the rudder on, but not impossible… and lifestyle tweaks and choice prevention can completely change a lesser situation or a higher probability likelihood.

And so, this article is meant to help you connect-the-dots and live your best life you can today with better lifestyle choices!

I’m focusing on Kapha here because all of us have a little of Kapha going on and that can be heavy in this seasonal time of year (where we hear more cough-as life). 😷

But here I share what I learned circa 2008 that has stuck with me, and what’s newer that I applied starting in 2023 to support healthy daily living intentions and prevention.

…And we know a healthy body translates to a better happy day where we get to do more and make more choices on our terms!

Letting in self-care influences give us more daily joy and balance. When you add better sleep, energy, spiritual, and love self-care into the equation, those move the needle forward. 🧭

A self-care wheel just like that can be the practical guide toward priorities tipping away from the heavy Kapha mind that makes it hard-to-get-going in the morning… or that makes you feel more depressed during colder seasons.

…Where growing up, we called this the SAD season (seasonal affective disorder). I went through this every February in my teens and early 20 years (when one that age should have had more energy). Lack of supplemental Vitamin D and sunshine affected the happy hormones we didn’t know much about back then. Winters were colder in the mid-Atlantic region where I grew up.

But, today we have more self-care knowledge and winters are warmer, and sometimes 70 degrees in some regions. So you can use the better products and circadian rhythm advice out there to your self-care wheel advantage.

…Plus, my healthy lessons learned (that btw get better with age 😉). Below is the skinny on what could help you get the self-care wheel balance you’re needing today.

✨ And these are some obvious Kapha Signs to look out for 👀that may be affecting you (and your self-care wheel):

Kapha Sign #1 (Sleep/energy):

Sleep and energy together because they are so closely knit together. 🧶

Do you find yourself needing more sleep in the cold weather seasons? Or maybe you’re consistently tired?

And that’s a bummer because less sleep means less time enjoying the day or being productive. Not enough sleep, you also lose free time and can lack energy as downsides.

Number of sleep hours are important, but better quality sleep is the better biohack way. And I share the best biohack routine I know and practice below. ⬇️

But for most days, when you get enough sleep, your body wakes up feeling energized. (Sleep + energy = 🤸🏻‍♂️)

You get better connected, cohesive thoughts. Because your body was able to fully recharge its batteries the night before.

Your daily energy ⚡️ is directly affected by how well you sleep. We all know that… and that’s why alarm clocks and caffeine are so popular in the morning.

…And getting less blue light in our eyes at night is up there too as newer healthy artificial habits.

We can also affect the energy systems inside us with better lifestyle choices, like: healthy food and drink choices, when we consume, and exercise.

Energy is not just physical and movement. Or calories.

…It’s also energy in the mind. Our minds can be slow and lethargic and that can be part of a Kapha imbalanced mind.

But there are other signs too… like, we’re not connecting energetically with others (who are energy).

We can have an invisible positive magnetic or negative repelling energy. That’s something visible in your life to consider that often gets missed in relationships and the community around us.

✅ Tips for daily sleep/energy ⚡️self-care wheel balance:

Give yourself more energy. You can listen to music that puts you in an energetic mood, get blood pumping through your veins doing your exercises, and doing a new activity that stimulates your mind. And give yourself daily healthy mind-body energy food.

Kapha Sign #2 (Spiritual):

When our Kaphas are off balance, there’s a domino effect, affecting: feelings, thoughts, and how much of our lit spiritual selves we let in. And these impact our daily actions.

The actions (or inactions) that accumulate pounds, things, emotions, and piles of things as examples are obvious exterior signs. They’re processed deeper in mind-thoughts that change our feelings and moods.

To change, it’s easier to look at the exterior signs (as mirrors and clues) to our inner going-ons that creates our world, so we can get more grounded and tap into our inner power.

If you find the clue that you’re accumulating in some way, the deeper source could be because you’re wanting to be alone and building up a wall from others. Or you’re just plain tired from picking up toys and piles, and cleaning up.

…The source isn’t as important as knowing that those are classic Kapha awareness imbalanced signs. And since we don’t want to exude growing unhealthy behavior that accumulates, we can change choices…

So, look around… have you accumulated things or have you stopped putting things away as much? Do you have unintentional messy piles, clothes, or toys left out for another day?

“Disorganized” and “clutter” (descriptions that can harshly rub like an abrasive scrubber as the elephant in the room) — usually go hand-in-hand because it’s the same mind feeding the non-serving abrasive message.

…And this can leave feelings of shame that can gradually turn into self-loathing if allowed. That’s sobering, but helpful because then we can be aware and fix what isn’t healthy.

✅ Tips for daily spiritual 🌟 self-care wheel balance:

Practice letting go. Ignore your heavy Kapha thoughts as this derails you from your this season’s purpose. This can sound challenging if you’ve never exercised this right to ignore any of your thoughts, but it’s so liberating!

Rewrite not-so-great thoughts if you never have (and do it over and over again if you have). Nip it in the bud when the thoughts arrive.

You can save time, money, and effort that your brain would otherwise send you to go spend on… like I’d be happier if I had ___ shopping item, ___ life, or ___ relationship.

Feeling content can do wonders for you if you can do that step.

Many years ago, I discovered that I didn’t have to accept my random thoughts that entered my mind. I could decisively ignore and even peacefully disagree. How was that the first time?… very weird.

…But when I practiced that habit, my life changed and I didn’t let the beaten down tracks play over and over again. The better track connect-the-dots and stops fictitious endings from forming.

With those positive step actions, I could walk away and then my better moods came back.

I could change my moody feelings and re-direct my perspectives. And you can too if that’s what you want…

Where and how are you on your mind and thought journey?

Here are the simple steps 👣

Recognize the thought: negative, unproductive thought (alert!)

The action: walk away

The walk away feeling: freedom vs. ego smothering protection and feeling bad about something, people, or myself

Repeat.

Kapha Sign #3 (Love):

Getting back or having healthy self-love is most important in matters of love and relationships. That’s how we also attract healthy relationships.

But, heavy imbalanced Kapha minds can have extremes: acting prickly toward people or relationships. Or acting needy and dependent to those who don’t reciprocate. These do the opposite of attracting (and sometimes wrongly attract opposites).

Smothering (or semi-mothering) can make others feel like a boundary is crossed, and can easily destroy a relationship.

When we expect others to make us happy, we set ourselves up for disappointment. So focusing on loving ourselves first allows us to energetically have an authentic overflow of love that pours out to others.

In self-care, we used to call this Me-Time that has become Me-Too as a form of love and healing.

✅ Tips for daily love ❤️ self-care wheel balance:

Be kind to yourself and your body, and tell your mind: “I am enough.”

Repeat saying to yourself: “I am loved” as a daily mantra.

******************************************

🧡 And FINALLY, from my newer lessons learned on the self-care wheel:

In 2023, I started intermittent fasting in my life for healthy gut reasons. But I found in my self-experiment (that I journaled about)… it also improved daily sleep, energy, and gave lighter mind-thoughts.

On those IF nights, sleep is better because the body doesn’t need to go to extra work to process food ontop of all its miracle daily resetting functions (…and why we need sleep in the first place!). And the liver doesn’t have to work hard to process beverages other than the mostly water clear kind. I like herbal teas.

So building in a weekly routine practice, I experienced not needing as much sleep and improved sleep quality.

👣 If you want to know how to optimize IF and Kapha metabolism for all the daily healthy benefits (and biohacking your body’s health), you can learn and read more about my journey.

A Needed Fast Sleep Revolution

avocado toast breakfast — A healthy avocado breakfast to break the sleep fast! 🥑

Whether getting more sleep is on your list of resolutions or wellness intentions this year (or not), you’ll get a new side of sleep… not just back, left, or right but a whole NEW angle (in this week’s blog post article)…

Below, I share about Ayurvedic energy patterns that affect your sleep, and why it matters to your daily energy.

…And a NEW change this year I’ve made that’s revolutionized my sleep. 🎉

And sleep is everything to your body… and to you and me!

Even when it was endorsed and en vogue to sleep less to get more done just a decade ago from what I remember, I never bought into that belief.

I always thought sleep was the best thing ever. Better than sliced bread (which I’ve replaced with homemade bread loaves and airy pizza crust with anti-inflam Brussels sprouts 🥬…that’s not a healthy fad.)🥖

…And sleep isn’t a trendy fad.

Amazing sleep is on my daily bucket list. We never know when will be our last day, and sleep is wellness time spent well.

When you look like a Sleeping Beauty sound asleep, you’re at peace.

…Your conscious mind isn’t running where you have to act or make any decisions.

And even if you don’t love sleep… we HAVE to sleep as part of survival, so our bodies can restore and reset. With all the functions our bodies do second by second, it needs a rest.

And after a good night’s sleep, you naturally have more energy to be productive during the day. You run more efficiently as you gain minutes because you get more done in fewer hours.

And that leaves you less stressed. And to your body, less accumulated stress cuts down on oxidative stress (one of the reasons why we work so hard to eat healthy).

We also know we prevent diseases when we prevent chronic inflammation. And long before I became an advocate for anti-inflammation, I was uneasy with the idea of running on lack of sleep.

Sleeping in occasionally was a weekend luxury (that cost nothing!). It’s a happy feeling not having to look at the clock or having a blaring alarm to artificially wake up to. It’s freedom from a duty activity you have to do, like work or school.

But artificial alarm wake-up time is not the time your body wants to get up. If it’s super early or you had a rough night of sleep, that often shows up as bags and lines under the eyes.

And if giving a presentation was part of the new day, adding a few “get the red eyes” drops always came in handy.

We never wanted to show that we weren’t well rested. And I learned this as a child when school started way before it should be legal for a child to have to get up, LOL.

Before the sun rises is way too early, especially for our growing bodies (and adult bodies) that run best along sunshine/sundown circadian rhythms.

Night-time is nature’s way of preparing us for sleep…. and why in my youthful adult years I always felt tired out at social clubs. But the environment and friends kept me buzzing.

And even way back before those times, when waking up, I learned from teen magazines to take an ice cube and soothingly apply under each eye for a few seconds. Instantly that made you look well-rested even though your mind was still half-asleep…

This is how it felt eyes opened until the time my mind and mind-body caught up.

I wasn’t one of those kids whose parents introduced caffeine or coffee to them. My 90-year-old immigrant parents have still never had coffee or a soda EVER as far as I’m aware.

They didn’t grow up with it. And I didn’t either. I only started enjoying daily cuppa joes well into my adult years.

And this is my joyful daily routine over alarms.

…So as a schoolgirl, like many American kids in public schools, I had a bowl of cereal with milk and some juice for breakfast. That was supposed to tie me over until lunch.

By 8 am when I was at school, I plowed through the tiredness. There wasn’t another choice. From what I remember, putting your head down on your desk was only done when we had a classroom survey where we raised our hands anonymously.🙋🏻‍♀️ Or maybe used as a timeout tool that I never experienced. I was an obedient kid. 😁

And then after 11 am, my full day’s energy kicked in. 🤸🏻

But I noticed I was still alert for morning tests as you don’t need high energy to take tests. You need the answers from the mind. And sometimes our teachers gave us a Jolly Rancher candy for our veins so we stayed awake.

Then by the afternoon school lunch, the food that finally entered my stomach sunk like lead and I felt like crashing in the afternoon. (Now as an adult I know it was the heavy, processed carb meals from school lunches that caused the blood sugar rush).

And the change in pace from class and lunch socializing with friends didn’t help either to swing back into learning. Post-lunch, my mind was ready to shut down. (Today, we know it’s part of the gut-mind connection).

…It’s like going to a social event or a game where you’ve eaten party food and then trying to study. That doesn’t work too well if at all.😏

But that was the school’s schedule, and so that was my daily agenda. Priorities misaligned, they put school-age-kid bus schedules in front of the kids they serve.

…And if school started later in the day, school-age kids would have a better chance of getting enough sleep. We need a new sleep revolution in our society starting from a young age.

But that’s a whole ‘nother topic… and this isn’t a rant or discussion about revolutionizing schools.

Outside of school and those years, today we have better food and meal choices. And food is still one of the 4 basic needs along with water, shelter, and clothing.

And sleep should be on that list as a #5.

If you’re a naturally inconsistent sleeper, then likely you’re a natural Vata body where you wake up earlier one day over the next. Each night of sleep is an adventure as it varies.

We can’t change the way we naturally feel. So this stacks against us to be daytime productive unless we learn to use our natural bodies to our advantage.

These are some natural (circadian rhythm) times when we want to lean into each of our Ayurveda dosha “personalities”:

From 6 am – 10 am, if you’re up, that’s Kapha time. And from 10 am to 2 pm is Pitta time. (And as a child, a mind-productive time in the late morning thanks partially to the mind-body connection).

From 2 – 6 pm, Vata time kicks in. Naturally, Kapha-heavy bodies can want to take a nap while the Vata is still alert.

Example: I’m a dominant Vata body, so I enjoy working during those energy-filled afternoon hours (after I’m done with a Kapha coffee morning ☕️). But occasionally if my Kapha is imbalanced and high, then I can feel tired the whole day.

…Not revelationary, but an interesting perspective, huh?

And unless you feel imbalanced, daily tired, or low on energy, then don’t lose sleep over the Ayurveda time concept and idea that’s probably newer to you.

But if you do want to make changes as I do as life-healthy prevention and daily productivity, then you can try something new or a bio-hack that works…

Especially since winter and age are not on our side. We can be more sluggish to make changes. And our bodies want to sleep in but we want consistent sleep year-round to fit our schedules and lives.

…So what I did this month was I started fasting (time-restricted eating) a couple of days of the week on certain weeks of the month.

I sleep peacefully well on fasting nights ( like Sleeping Beauty described earlier). And my body needs less winter sleep (and the same 7, maybe 8 hours amount of sleep I prefer consistent year-round that’s also experienced in fall, spring, and summer).

And the day after fasting I feel naturally more energetic and more alert. Look forward to my fast day tomorrow! …and I’d love to know if that’s something you’ve tried or are doing (…maybe for the same reasons I’m doing or as part of a new year weight loss plan).

I’ll share more of my journey in the weeks to come. Until then, have a peaceful and blessed week! 🙏

Shavasana Corpse Pose + Healthy Fall Chocolate Cake Surprise

chocolate bundt cake suprise — This gooey chocolate bundt cake has a surprise chocolate center that marbles out into the cake. The reason for the seasonal fall pomegranate rubies!

Shavasana is a great way to reset new intentions for the rest of this year, so you can enter your new year with a bang! 🎉 I share my thoughts below…

And today’s fall daylight savings (happy fall back hour!) preps us for additional rest. Now is a good time to rest up, store up the acorns 🐿 and spices for the winter holiday weeks.

Or make warm soup and spice blends if you have oposable thumbs… like I did with this healthy plant-based potato based black bean soup with tofu and 15 spices (that’s good for us and the planet).

15-spices for Thanksgiving rub and soup — 15 spices in soup listed in photo link 🔗

As part of the weekly R&R, I made a mini bite-size chocolate cake. This one has a gooey dark chocolate middle in a chocolate cake made from cocoa, peanut butter (that’s always a good flavor), and seasonal pomegranates.

While making this, I’m reminded how often we stand stationary with some kind of tool in front of us, whether it’s a standing desk computer or a kitchen tool like a mixer.

And to mix it up, it’s a good idea to lay flat back and consciously awake on a mat, that’s different than reclining or napping in a recliner. Remember when you saw those often in older homes?

Take a few extra minutes to not rush around. Those moments are enhanced when there’s no distraction like a computer or a television.

Laying down, you’re looking at the ceiling or sky above you. This is actually a productive yoga pose.

You would’ve done this in a Hatha or more relaxed yoga class. It’s called Shavasana. And maybe even the teacher came around with a lavender spray to get you in the mood of laying still and quieting the mind.

Laying stretched out without moving on a mat anywhere helps melt the stress away into the floor. And gives you a few moments of peace to get your second wind and ground you for the rest of the day.

Your blood pressure and heartbeat slow down. And this healthy mind-body cycle reset can help bring many more healthy new years. 🗓

Keep in mind, you are not your body. And your body is on a different clock than you are… with a different ticker than what’s on your agenda or to-do’s. So it’s good to remind yourself to slow it down.

Besides sleeping at night, daytime Shavasana lets your body rest from overdrive ❤️‍🔥 You give your systems a midday break, so any one of them doesn’t break one day.

There are more heart attacks in the winter than in the happy-go-lucky summer, so now durng this season is a good time to try out the Shavasana pose habit. Try to fit it in, in between your daily activities or from morning to afternoon activities

And with a short rest break, your mind has a chance to reset.

When you’re in an activity for a little while, when that first negative or worry thought enters or you stop thinking productively, that’s when it’s good to take an adult timeout and get into your Shavasana or Corpse pose.

And of course, keep your phone off your mat! 😉

We learned that from the post-dot com eras in the early 2000s when it was common that adult Americans worked over 50 hours per week, rarely took a vacation, and slept less, burning the candle on both ends to get more done. That often led to burnout.

Back then in the corporate world that I was in, that was called Life. And why work and life needed a balance.

And today we know when we get enough sleep, we feel better and are more productive the next day.

Shavasana (aka resting pose) practiced awake didn’t come into daily society until at least a decade later. It’s different than napping where you could be curled up.

I once practiced Shavasana on a mat on a cold catering office floor. And the warmest time was on the beach sand catching some rays before the pose had a name 😉. You too?

…What are your interesting resting pose memories?

These are good reset reminders for our busy lives where we forget to slow down often. It’s not an automatic response.

It’s like when our phone needs to be reset but we don’t automatically choose that option. We’d rather wonder why our phone is slow and we keep trying the same task over and over, instead of rebooting, saving us minutes and frustration.

And while we’re there, maybe we just keep it off for a few minutes and remind ourselves how our society and some of us used to live without our devices that I’d add: today have become more important to us than our keys.

We often use our phones more than our minds. Shavasana can help bring back some of those mindful minutes.

And we can take a few gratitude moments and appreciate what we have and the era we’re in…

These days vs. 2020 and in real life (vs, digital life), we’ve gotten better at doing what matters to us and less with just mindlessly following the pack.

We have more opportunities to change and choose different paths. And in my opinion, our society is less competitive and more collaborative as a whole. We need it for our world!

And these days we’re challenged to adapt quicker. Trends are made in milliseconds and then forgotten the next day whether we like it or not.

Metrics aren’t what they used to be. But despite these changes and life disruptors, one thing hasn’t changed… we still get to make choices.

And slowing down our tempo gives us advantages so we can keep up.

We can make better lifestyle choices to live longer, happy quality lives. That’s a good optimal goal to set out for.

And with that thought, I’ll leave you with two questions to think about:

At this point, what would make your year optimal? Idea: you can make an appointment with yourself in Shavasana to think about this.

And, what would help you to make your next year brighter? Think of what change or improvements in you would make things different and better.

Oh, and finally… if there is a topic you’d like me to cover more of, or a category on the right column of this blog that you would like to see more posts about, send me a message… I’d love to hear your thoughts!

10 Breathing Exercises, Better Sleep, and Healthy Habit Tips

Without needing breathing exercises, we forget how automatic and important breathing is. Sometimes our breathing pattern or air changes wake us up to get back to our healthy breath awareness in this moment. Our breathing can easily remind us of our precious moments and the finite time we have on earth.

And in healthy reminders, I wanted to breathe some good tips your way!

…Breathing is everything life. It’s how the earth began:

“God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

With climate change, wildfires, and spring green pollen allergy dust in the air at high levels (over 10), many of us are affected from the lungs and neck up.

I suspected allergies was affecting my sleep as I was clocking in about the same amount of hours from night to morning and not feeling as rested.

I had been documenting a healthy 8 hours of sleep time on my Apple Watch and tracker.

I noticed my body runs best when I have 5 hours of restful sleep that’s also tracked.) And choosing a life with less stress and more balance, 7 hours is a good enough rhythm.

And something for you to clock in because stress and sleep is related.

Observe Your Sleep

While tracking a few nights for awareness, I observed I was getting less restful sleep and more light sleep. Hmmm… I thought, I wonder why that is?

All things being equal, I wanted to test the hypothesis that I had shallow breathing at night.

It dawned on me that my deep rest (restful sleep) may have been lessened by the shallower breathing or less air going into my lungs, as I breathed through my slightly congested nose.

Btw, breathing in air through your nose is a much better way than through your mouth as it is known to help increase memory. You have a filter in your nose that you don’t in your mouth. You can Google that if you want scientific-backed evidence.

These are 10 breathing exercises and habit tips for healthy living: Continue reading “10 Breathing Exercises, Better Sleep, and Healthy Habit Tips”

From Burnout to Sabbatical: Recharge and Change Your Life

sabbatical rainbow

Retirement financial guru David Bach is known for “The Latte Factor” on how to save money. Maybe you saw him on Oprah as I did back in the day?

Fast forward years later, he went from burnout to sabbatical living. In hindsight, he now calls a sabbatical “the magic pill” to happiness.

He mentioned in interviews that it all began when his wife asked him what he wanted for one of his birthdays, and he expressed a desire for full-time off from work.

And so that’s just what he did, although he still had to convince himself to get off his busy work train.

Taking time off in a restful sabbatical isn’t a common practice for Americans. There aren’t too many role models to follow. Retirement after 60 and beyond is still the American norm.

Like David Bach, more go-getters in the prime of their career are opening up to this approach to a healthier lifestyle to recharge somewhere in the middle, make life impact changes, and gain clarity about their remaining life’s path.

We all want to live our Best Life, but not all of us do what we need to fully live because we’re not given a road map so we end up playing it safe… staying in the same career or corporate work path with golden handcuffs and benefits, despite being miserable.

Future uncertainty can be uncomfortable to those who want their lives fully planned out, but as I (and you too probably at least in this past year) experienced, life throws monkey wrenches in the mix if you’ve been around long enough, and you can question what this life is really all about.

…and maybe you’ve had those types of questions swirling in your mind lately that you’ve been wrestling with?

If so, you should consider taking a sabbatical if you’re in a place where you can or you all of a sudden, find that you deeply need one to restore your mind-body. It’s not a cop-out, it’s a smart move in case you need to wrestle the idea with the logical side of your mind.

The trend is moving this way. Kids who are just becoming adults are acceptably taking gap years from college. And if you worked in corporate in 2008 with the economy dip, you most likely made a work change, maybe entered a different industry as in 2020 and the aftermath, where we all had our work changed and life turned upside down.

Someone wise ahead of me ingrained this idea that never left me: “Your entire life is a transition.”

So then with that lens, I’m happily entering my fourth act. And depending on your age, you’re probably at least entering or considering your second one (along with almost half the women in the workforce according to survey data).

When I was in college, and it took me 5 years to graduate, that was a big deal in my mind. I questioned why I took a year off after a few semesters of working and attending business school full-time.

During my gap year that wasn’t the usual way, I stopped and learned how to create a business (the reason that you would think you go to business school but most like I did, graduated and entered the corporate workforce).

What I wanted most that I didn’t want to admit to anyone including myself was I wanted deep rest. And that semester off test-taking I got off sleeping aid pills. I got off the hamster wheel and avoided burning out.

Back then, I was already creating a different way of life of taking breaks because my body was calling for it. And now in more aware times, my mind was too.

Similarly, a mid-life sabbatical idea is a pretty darn good idea for recuperating. It can be a lifeline even though it still has a bad wrap. If you’re a well-known author and speaker like David Bach, you can do it because you’ve earned it. But if you’re like most of us or the person trying to make ends meet, then you’re still justifying, like I had to.

I had to lean in and switch into abundant thinking and what I would gain over what I would lose.

And when the call inside you grows louder, the idea can grow more intriguing, and that’s when you know you have to seriously investigate!

You may just need some little sign or nudge to get you to take the step. Or you may just need the right timing or feeling to show up again. In my case, I knew I had more to lose if I didn’t.

You are where you are because of your choices made.

And because of my sabbatical choice, I wouldn’t have traveled to so many great places and countries before 2020. And I wouldn’t have discovered my real passions and purposeful direction in this life that isn’t the corporate path I started on.

I’m not suggesting that’s what you have to do or to be irresponsible. I would never say that as I believe in accountability and personal responsibility. I’m super practical. I’m also led by what I feel is happening in my mind-body-spirit. You get to discern and decide if that’s what is right for you.

From my sabbatical journey, I can tell you, if you follow your internal loving (and not fearful) guides, you won’t be led wrong. Any short-term losses you think you may take, you will gain so much more for your life. Because you’ll pivot into something greater that you would not have uncovered without taking the time off. Your perspective will change and you’ll want to re-strategize your life.

Plus you’ll have all the great memories that you can relive for more years than starting in retirement. (I love looking at sabbatical photos and reminiscing about my vacation and time-off).

But besides good memories, you will gain productivity from resting. You won’t know the individual rewards you’ll gain until you take the bold leap.

When should you do it?

I think I described it above, but the short answer I would give is: when you can. You’ll know when you can’t!

Especially if you’re burned out from your job, have life overwhelm, life underwhelm, considering a career switch, or get laid off, now may be a great time (to eliminate life in burnout to sabbatical living that you didn’t choose on purpose… that can leave you de-motivated instead of feeling excited and energized).

Or maybe you have a deepening desire to explore something new in life and that is winning over any fears you have for taking a risky and unknown bold step towards your future, despite questions from loved ones you may receive.

One other word of nudging encouragement to take the proactive bold step… free yourself from feeling like you have to please others (or be a martyr to do it for others). Your life and mental health are at risk, and if you lose yourself in the process, then you have nothing to give.

A mid-life crisis is a real phenomenon that still exists and can come falling like a ton of bricks. It often sadly ends with regrets and not the way it started.

I didn’t experience that (and maybe that’s because I took a sabbatical) but I’ve seen it in others’ lives and maybe you have or will too.

Sometimes it’s just easier when things happen to you that are out of your control, so you can more easily explain your decisions. You lose a job. You get a divorce or another loss happens.

You can find your lost soul, your higher spirit, or a new mission on a sabbatical.

Personally, I love that the sabbatical idea is catching on in our work-addicted society, especially after a shocking 2020 year where we all had to rethink and redo old ways.

Maybe now is a good time for you and you’re looking for encouraging supporters to take a sabbatical. And maybe I’ve piqued your interest, then you’ll want to keep reading as I share more from my memoir and ideas that can help you… Continue reading “From Burnout to Sabbatical: Recharge and Change Your Life”