I wanted to escape the ordinary! For a long time, I yearned to spend a few minutes in nature, having intentions to roam and absorb good experiences. By “ordinary,” I meant breaking free from the relentless grip of my daily work schedule. But I couldn’t take a break due to self-imposed unrealistic and unreasonable expectations. I wanted to excel in my 9-5 job, manage my blog efficiently, acclimate to a healthy lifestyle, and do other non-trivial things on my dream list. Sooner than I thought, this mirage of achieving everything broke my presumption about the dream lifestyle. In search of my riveting lifestyle, I unwittingly pushed myself in the wrong direction.
Suddenly, everything hit me! Taking a pause felt like another incumbent task. Those long 9-hour days left me with persistent head and neck aches, draining my energy and leaving me on the brink of burnout. (I almost became a zombie!) Running this blog was an additional commitment alongside my job that I forced fit into my daily routine. My good intentions to live a healthy lifestyle remained opposed due to my work life. Everything precipitated into the signs of overwhelming stress. While many popularized morning routines can help reduce stress, they are not enough to achieve peaceful mental health breaks.
The need to break the wheel
My efforts to balance these important things found themselves at odds with keeping to my ultimate goals. I questioned my strategies about trying to juggle them. Neither could I leave my job, nor could I afford a long vacation, especially when I was immersed in urgent projects! I felt a pang of regret for not staying true to my dream of running the blog, but I reassured myself, treating this setback as a minor skirmish. Before these thoughts turned into self-questioning quicksand, I decided to take a break.
Taking a pause in no way discards my love for establishing a space where people like me can find their haven for relaxation. Now that I am back from my sabbatical with renewed focus, this interlude didn’t render my aspirations irrelevant. On the contrary, it proved that, despite everything, this is where I truly belong. So, I take this opportunity to present you with the life-changing steps I took during my sabbatical break.
Let me be honest: the moment I opened my laptop, I jumped into this creative headspace in no seconds. For about an hour, I wrote two back-to-back blog posts as if I were in a trance. You see, after this soulful break, all the doubts about sustaining my blog petered out, replaced by confidence as I brimmed with new ideas. My mindful strolls in nature initiated my healing process. Every step in nature felt like a dose of medicine, reviving me and boosting my mental health break. This natural exposure gave me a taste of peace, which instantly prompted the following chain reaction.
While my job responsibilities remained unperturbed, this is what I did during my sabbatical break that helped me find calm in the midst of chaos.
Take a break with these tips
I wrote confidence-boosting affirmations
I knew the power of negative thoughts. Once entrenched in a mind and advanced into an insidious hold, it becomes difficult to come out of negative cycles. Years may go, and these years become the pursuit of coming out of it, putting our feelings in turmoil. The first thing I did when my sabbatical became imminent was that I self-affirmed with positive thoughts. A positive talk holds so much power that we shouldn’t reduce it to a mere random activity. In fact, I suggest you make this habit an essential step in your “take a break from the hustle” decision.
Some affirmations I chanted religiously:
“I am reconnecting with my inner peace.”
“I am giving myself this pause to slow down and breathe.”
“I am prioritizing my well-being, and that’s okay!”
I spent more time with my partner
There’s something magical about the time we spend with our loved ones. And I couldn’t be more grateful to cherish it! Does magic need to be manifested? I don’t know, but now I believe in the power of manifestation—I see it in my beloved’s eyes! As if the universe knew exactly what I needed and delivered it to me. Every time I spent with my partner, it pulled me back from the gnawing grasps of stress.
My partner’s philosophical views about life intensified my strength. We discussed a lot about the fundamental truths of life; you start accepting situations the way they are once you try to understand their power. I learned a significant lesson: you shouldn’t cloud your mind with self-viewed expectations only to be betrayed by those. You need someone who can be the guiding light in your darkness, especially when your thoughts are misplaced.
Before, I always felt like I was running on fumes. It was my reality. However, taking a pause from this reality became possible thanks to the quality time I spent with my partner. Re-entering the work world felt easier. Our every shared moment was a healing balm against the pervasive stress; this intimate time blocked stress from imprinting on my body.
I rethought my approach towards life
The ebbs and flows of life are familiar to all of us, yet we often fail to remember its true meaning while chasing our pursuits, leaving behind an unconscious void that we fill with petty concerns. Are you angry with your boss? Is your business strategy not giving you expected results? Has your friend not abided by you? Don’t these feel familiar? Life’s undisputed nature is about its challenges remaining perpetual. Face them and progress.
Life is about continuity—the unstoppable flow irrespective of any obstacles; the scales of good and bad (sometimes, imbalance). But we make our lives a constrained definition of our wants, striving to earn everything we ever dream about. And this is what leads us to the crossroads of decisions, obfuscating simple routines into a maze. And soon we start losing our hopes. I went through this exact moment and equated it with pessimism, losing my motivation in the process. This is the result of becoming lost in the maze of urgent obligations.
My sabbatical break repurposed my thinking about life. Earlier, I believed life was merely a childish pursuit of what we desired. While there’s some truth to that, I have come to realize that life is more about being present; it’s about slowing down, which is a natural antidote to stress. To be a part of its perpetuity as it endlessly endures. When you take a break, you trudge along naturally and find solutions to the presented problems one by one.
I tried the dopamine detox
We have endless ways to fill our free time, which often leads us to drown significant moments in unproductive actions like mindless Instagram scrolling. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that greatly influences our thinking and focus, becomes depleted through aimless endeavors, such as mindless scrolling. Constant overindulgence wastes the hormone’s true power: mood regulation, cognitive function, and motivation. Mind you, a dopamine hit isn’t only an Instagram scroll; it could also be triggered by binge-watching videos or even the thrill of online shopping.
The conspicuous social media lives or too good to be true people who have all figured out, in a way, conspire against our growth process. These external inducements only worsen our situation. So, rejecting this dopamine hit was one of my priorities. While we can’t completely “detox” from dopamine, as it is naturally produced in our bodies, we can certainly curb our compulsion to overuse it.
I identified possible triggers that would result in overindulgence and set detox goals I wanted to achieve. I took steps for my dopamine detox: I restricted my phone usage to important calls only, mostly work-related. I deleted shopping and grocery apps from my phone to prevent impulsive spending.
I simplified my priorities
I had to untangle the knots I tied around myself over the past few months; I put myself in the middle of many things, creating these entangled knots around me. That’s what the avalanche of my priorities resulted in. Rather than mulling over which tasks are important and significant, I tried tackling everything at once. Thought I could conquer the act of balancing efficiently, but stress had the last laugh!
Priorities are entirely a different concept. To turn your priorities into effective goals, you need time to think and plan, which I did when I decided to take a break. Not everything needs to be addressed at once. That’s why many personal growth coaches encourage strategizing your goals. How well you can bring strategic dispositions can significantly boost achieving your goals. And the best part is you don’t need to string together a lot of apps or planners, but a clear idea about what is important for a short-term or long-term period.
We all get pulled in different directions, trying to become more productive. Are you in the habit of multi-tasking to avoid the pressure of leaving tasks incomplete? Are you riddled with how you will manage your monthly budget? Or does the sudden dose of low energy obstruct your day-to-day tasks? You must identify these triggers and search for ramifications; categorize them into what is urgent and what isn’t.
Taking a pause became a journey of simplifying priorities. Now, I only focus on one important task daily and two other non-essential tasks. Removing unnecessary commitments and rediscovering priorities that truly need to be addressed in real-time, I turned this shift into a liberating experience—the recalibration I needed!
I said no to sugar (and other toxic foods)
“You only live once!” This was my excuse every time I would visit McDonald’s or behind every savory online order! Saying no to intoxicating foods drastically helped me regain control over my life. These foods cause dreadful energy slumps during productive hours. Hence, my productivity took a hit! Stress is a common visitor, but exposing my health to certain food types was like an invitation to the enemy for total annihilation. Therefore, taking a pause from eating such foods will relieve you from health issues. One advice: gradually decrease their consumption quantity instead of suddenly curbing them.
Earlier, my cravings would dictate my actions, unbeknownst to the unhealthy contribution of sugar and fast food to my body. Sugar caused spikes and crashes in my energy, leaving me feeling jittery and anxious one moment and utterly drained the next. Along with processed foods, it creates a vicious cycle of emotional highs and lows, exacerbating mental perturbation while I am in the middle of any task.
During my sabbatical break, I forced myself to let go of this unhealthy consumption; the changes were definitely visible. My face became clear, reduced my mood swings, and increased energy levels. The result: this decision primed my mental health for better living.
So it’s time to take a break
In all the overwhelming situations, there are always the simplest solutions. But we don’t see them due to temporary, daunting feelings. I want to say that showing strength during difficult times is probably the greatest virtue, but it’s okay to let go of some of it and embrace some time off. I hope what I did during my sabbatical break will help you as well. The allowed sabbatical anchored me—my life, my thoughts, and even my relationships. It felt like hitting a reset button rather than getting lost in the daily grind. And for the greater good. Hence, don’t forget to take a break and breathe mindfully!