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We often feel the need to slow down, but the pressures and responsibilities of life keep us moving fast. The problem is that we aren’t going anywhere new; we are stuck running in place.
Bobbi: Welcome to UnYielded: Thriving No Matter What. I’m your host, Bobbi Kahler. I’ve coached more than 3000 people in my career, and I started this podcast to give you the tools to discover new possibilities, move past limiting beliefs, fears and self doubt, build your confidence, master your mindset, and create the life that you love to live every day.
Over the last several months. Really starting right after my dad died. Actually, as I think about it, it started even before that. So I don’t even know how far this might be. A year or more, but so for a long time now, let’s just put it that way. For a long time now, my dreams have been plagued by different situations. The characters are different, the situations are different, but the message was always the same. You need to slow down. I mean, every night for months and months, if not more than a year, you need to slow down.
I would also do different meditations and I’d be still. I’d focus on my breathing and at the end, the thought would often pop into my head, you need to slow down. Then I took a class and one of the questions that you ask yourself is, after you get still and you’re in that still space, the question is, what do I need now? And the thought instantly appeared in my head. You need to slow down and you need to take care of yourself. And I have to say, it’s not like I don’t take care of myself. I’m very physically fit. I watch what I eat, I get enough sleep, except for being plagued by dreams, drink plenty of water, I take care of myself. But it’s more than that. I think that’s at the soul level, like, you need to slow down. You need to start really caring for yourself.
I had this thought the other day, I don’t even know why, but I was thinking about it. I don’t know, because I get feedback sometimes, oh, you’re so hard on yourself. And I’m like, well, I don’t think I’m that hard on myself. And the thought popped into my head, okay, maybe you’re not that hard on yourself, but that is not the same thing as caring for yourself. It’s not the same thing as loving yourself. And that one kind of stopped him in my tracks. So all of this to say, at a point I realized I’m getting these messages from all over. I cannot keep ignoring this. It is time to listen. And so finally, I did at the time of recording this, it has been two weeks where I’ve since I decided over the course of the summer, I’m going to take mostly a sabbatical. It’s like a 98% sabbatical, 95% sabbatical. I have rescheduled all of the podcasts where I’m guesting on them because I do quite a bit of that. I’ve rescheduled all of those. And the only thing that I’m still continuing is the podcast.
So that’s my mostly sabbatical. I don’t know if I call it 90% sabbatical, don’t know. But here’s what I’ve learned in these two weeks.
Number one, I really like to do lists and this is like it’s almost an addiction. I mean, seriously. And so what I’ve realized is that that’s not a sabbatical. That’s just shifting all of my activity from one thing to another. So the good news is I’ve got a lot of painting done around the house and I’m going to be changing that going forward so that not every day is just another to do list. And we’ll see how that goes because like I say, I may be addicted to them. So that’ll be a good learning experience, good growth opportunity for me.
Second thing I’ve learned is related to the first coming up in a couple of weeks, I have it planned on my schedule where I’m not doing any projects, I’m not doing any interviews. I’ve set those two weeks aside. I might do some reading, might sit on the back deck, do some meditating, being in nature, but no projects. And that thought is it’s very exciting. At first it was like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do with myself? But the more I think about it, I’m really anticipating that. So I’m sure I’ll be talking about that later, hopefully. Who knows what’s going to happen with that? But hey, it’ll be an experiment.
Number three, I’ve already noticed a shift in myself, though, and it’s coming through in a lot of different ways. Like, my creativity is really coming back. I’m enjoying the things that I’m doing more and I’m just enjoying that space more. To be it’s really hard to describe, but I noticed that my enthusiasm, my zest is really returning even after just a couple of weeks. So I’m excited about that.
Number three or number four, I’m sorry, I lost track of myself. My mind is already quieter and that’s nice and oh my goodness. Related to that, my sleep has been amazing ever since then. It is stunning. So I’m not sure what that means, but I’m super excited about it.
Number five, I’m finding that I’m trusting myself more, trusting that my intuition, my gut, that inner knowing, whatever you want to call it, that’s showing up very much for me right now.
Number six, I am finding so many new things that I’m curious about. Like, I’ll see something in the newspaper and think, OOH, that might be fun to check out. And that’s a feeling that has been kind of lost for a while. So that’s cool.
And finally, number seven, and this is a really big one, I’m very tuned into my energy, what things are bringing me joy, what things make me feel content and at peace. And also, what are those things that I don’t want? What are those energy? Vampires. But those things that I don’t want in my space, those things that are negative or they’re nasty or they bring me down, whatever those might be. But there’s no room for that here and kind of making a stand for those things.
So those are the seven things I’ve noticed so far in these two weeks. We’ll see how it shakes out. But I have a question for all of you. Have any of you ever taken a Sabbatical? If you have, I would love to hear from you. What did you do with that time? And here’s another question. What do you wish you would have done with that time? And I’m sharing this experience not because I’m advocating for us all to take Sabbaticals, but maybe there’s some value. And even if we can’t take a Sabbatical, maybe even taking a weekend where we intentionally recharge, we unplug. We we do those things that energize us. So anyway, thanks so much for listening and for tuning in and subscribing. And by the way, if you haven’t hit that subscribe button already, now is a great time to do that. And I hope you all have just a fabulous week and that you continue to rise and thrive.
