Will You Stop Long Enough to Listen: Sabbatical Phase I - Realize

A Pause long enough to listen to my body, my mind and my heart

30 minutes into a straight uphill climb, I stop dead in my tracks. I look back, then up… I’m pretty sure I’m about to throw up. I’ve been carrying a 30-pound pack for two days, one small step at a time. From my current vantage point, it appears I’ve only gone half way to the top of what appears a very steep, no-end-in-sight climb. I stop to catch my breath, consider what I need to do to not throw up, or throw in the towel completely. I use the excuse of a bathroom break. Climbing 2000 feet of elevation in the backcountry with no pre-marked trails and a full pack, I figure others in the group would understand and extend grace.  

This hike was not unlike other hard hikes I had done. Typically at the half way point, I find myself welcoming a pause. A moment to look around and gain perspective, collect myself and ask, “Why the heck do I keep doing excruciatingly painful things?” Truly, I wonder at these moments: Why do I put myself through this? Do I even like it?

“Why don’t you just stop?”

My children asked this question in all seriousness on a phone call during a long Camino de Santiago trek after they heard of my countless blisters. Their rational response many years prior, still rings loud in my ears during times like this. “Why don’t I just stop?” The pause, despite illuminating any concrete answers, gives me a moment to catch my breath, consider my route, and make any necessary changes in my pack to sustain myself for the duration of the route.

I consider for a brief moment, is stopping really an option? When you’re on the extreme side of a mountain hike, there is seldom an opportunity to turn back. However, I never stop long enough to dialogue with myself and hear the answer to whether I like it, or truly should give up. I’m afraid of the answer I might hear and the quick slip into discouragement. I need the resilient mentality to keep me going. I usually just put my head down and keep taking one step in front of the other enduring the pain that comes.

The middle of a long hike, not that unlike the middle of life, requires me to PAUSE AND LOOK BACK honoring the path my life has taken. A quick pause in life similar to a hike doesn’t afford much reflection. Rather it’s a chance to come up for a breath of air and continue on until the breath no longer sustains. The pause in lengthier duration, however, allows us to enter deeply into our own stories and ask the hard questions. It is here that we have an opportunity to actually ask the hard questions and listen to the answers seldom heard amidst the hustle and noise of continuing on the same path.

While pain is a common side-effect of physically-demanding exercise, it’s also a call to listen to our bodies. The call to attend to pain, is the sacred invitation to honor my body’s limitations and honor the pain as a part of the journey that I am on.

When you stop long enough you may hear the sound of your body breaking down due to overwork or listen to the painful sounds of a relationship desperately overdue for repair due to neglect; An inner quest for purpose that has been pushed aside; A longing for something more than what you are currently experiencing in life.

Whatever the catalyst for this pause, whatever the season of life one finds herself in, the benefits of a sacred pause, far outweigh the costs.

If you find yourself here, considering a break in the form of a sabbatical, congratulate yourself. Taking a much-needed pause in the form of sabbatical is rare! By asking these questions you are already embarking on PHASE 1—Realizing the need.

Sabbaticals are considered a space and time away from full time work to reflect, study, create or experience holistic refreshment (Hoke, 259). It is in this inactivity that deep transformation and creativity come to life. Over the course of more than a decade of working with individuals, studying sabbaticals and experiencing them ourselves, we’ve come to determine there are a few wise practices.

The six phases of sabbatical best practices include: Realize, Release, Rest, Reflect (and Play), Realign, Re-enter. These six phases and the ability to allow oneself to enter into each of them, have been found repeatedly to best maximize the sacred pause.*

For Reflection: What keeps you from taking this sacred pause?

*These six phases have been adapted from Navigators Sabbatical Policy. The expanded definitions will be discussed in a different article.