I’m here with some breaking news – and I’m not talking about some major event that happened. I mean news about taking a literal break – which is what Steve and I did earlier this week. Thanks to our stellar team holding down the fort, we were able to slip away to a cozy cabin in the woods for a few days.

We had initially labelled this stint a “vacation”, but upon further reflection, we realized that it was the same length as a long weekend, which happens all the time for many people, but for Steve and I it’s an experience that is few and far between. We’ve definitely got to fix that.

I’ve written before about the importance of taking time out (duh, I live and breathe the world of self care!) but this time felt a little bit different. When taking a time out from work, I’ve committed to doing nothing before, but with the chilly/rainy weather keeping us indoors for a few days, we were able to practice expert-level nothingness.

If this sounds appealing to you—you probably need a break. And, by the way, taking a break is not just about turning off the notifications or binging Netflix; it’s about stepping away from the noise in your own head and giving yourself permission to just be. And like I learned this week, sometimes the break you need isn’t just from work, not just from responsibilities, but from… yourself.

stop doing the work

As you well know, I normally am a big proponent for personal development, but this time away really solidified for me how important it is to give that $#!% a rest once in a while. I am constantly doing my best, and when I’m not, I beat myself up about it. I’m always wanting to feel productive and sometimes I carry a lot of guilt if I allow myself too much downtime. This is ridiculous.

While at the cottage, even though I was consciously taking a break from “work work”, it was crazy how my expectation was to jump right into “the work” – the thinking and feeling and journalling and personal growth books and meditation and tuning in with myself etc., etc.

Reflecting on it now, I realized just how important it is to actually get outside yourself for a minute. I had to admit to myself “listen… I love you, but you’re f!@#ing exhausting.” Because it’s true! We get exhausted because we’re exhausting. I needed a break from me.

I needed to not be productive. I needed to not think about work or about my life’s trajectory, or my spiritual growth, or healing my wounds, or levelling up different parts of me for 15 damn minutes… or in this case, few days. I let myself be lazy and still and grumpy and tired… I let myself simply be.

I get it, we should live every day as if it’s our last and blah blah blah… But also, sometimes we need to completely shut ‘er down for a bit. This time I just laid around, read a comedy book for hours, watched a few movies, took out a puzzle and didn’t even touch one piece.

So whether you’re flying solo, got four kids, or four goats – Find your version of break-taking. Especially if you need a break from yourself. Whatever your version of a time-out is.

Because, here’s the deal: having a reprieve from making decisions, having to figure it all out, just literally taking a break from the game of life for two seconds – it can make all the difference in the world. And in the grand scheme of your whole life, a lil’ break is just a lil’ blip.

All you need is to get firm with yourself and give yourself a time out.

go sit in the corner

It’s funny that as kids, getting forced into a “time out” is a punishment, and as an adult it’s a damn luxury. I love the concept of a “time out”. Probably because I’m in the business of “time outs” for adults. It’s a simple and effective strategy… and it’s much too underrated and underused.

The hilarious thing is that we know time-outs work, but we rarely use them on ourselves! We make children to do it, because we know that if you take time out from the lil’ toddler-temper-tantrum-energy you’re brewing and stewing in, eventually you realize “everything’s fine, and I should probably just take a break and calm down a little bit.”

It’s a reframe, a refocus, a recharge. It can be a long weekend or it can be 5 minutes in the corner away from the other kids. But if any tired, cranky, or less-than-stellar vibes have infiltrated your life, remove yourself from the situation until you know you’re ready to be the real you again.

take charge of your power

It’s humbling (and only slightly annoying) that even a Self Care Professional™️ like myself still struggles with the obvious signs and signals of a low battery. I try to walk the walk as much as possible but I still have a bit of a blindspot when it comes to pushing past my capacity.

When we do all the right things to take care of ourselves – food, water, fitness, self care, healthy habits – you get real good at recovering… and even better at depleting that battery faster.

Here’s the thing: it’s not just about recharging quickly so you can jump back into the grind. You don’t need to kill your battery faster just because it charges faster.

I’m learning how important – and how tricky it is – to find that edge of where you can charge your battery, and then not drain it immediately. It’s not even about balance, it’s about being constantly conscious of your true energy level versus your expected or projected energy level. Think about it: how often do you grab your phone off the charger when it’s full, then unconsciously use it too long, and the next thing you know your low-power warnings pop up.

My wellness journey has shown me that if I have energy, I’ll likely spend it somehow just to go and conquer more tasks (I’m working on it!). As it turns out you also need to strengthen and enhance the size of your battery so you’ve got more capacity when life kicks back into gear.

Remember: just because your battery charges from 0-100 pretty quickly doesn’t mean you have to go from 100-0 right away; sometimes you’ve gotta turn $#!% right off and save your battery.

next-level break-taking

Let me just hop on on my wellness soap box for one more minute: stop over complicating break-taking. It’s not that hard. It doesn’t need to take a lot of time, money or effort. It’s an important life skill to recognize when you need to recalibrate and/or power down. This is your permission slip – nay, your mission – take a f!@#in’ break!  

After two-and-a-half years of facilitating self care for the masses, I’ve learned that the lack of break-taking is an absolute epidemic in humanity. That’s why we do what we do at Vortex. We’ve made it super easy to power down and power up. We give you eight different ways to feel amazing.

I’m so blessed to constantly have people tell me how great they feel because of ___(insert session here)___ but what’s become super obvious is the most important thing is showing up for yourself. YES, our sessions scientifically and experientially make you feel great, blah blah blah, but I’ve seen enough evidence now to know that the simple act of taking a break is what’s really all about.

So whether you needed to hear it or not…

I’m giving you a time out!