Slowing down and starting back up

February 4th 2022. A whole month of the new year is already gone! I am learning not to look back or to look too deep into the future. It is something that I keenly observed during the sabbatical I took.

Recap: I took 12 months off to pursue a Masters of Leadership degree and spend some time reflecting on a couple of decades of being psychologist and being in ministry. It was also the last year of my son’s high school life and I wanted to be close to home while supporting him.

News flash: Pandemic and unexpected life stress. Two massive elements that were unpredicted. Some days it felt like there was not point to taking time off. Most days I was thankful I did not have all the other elements in my professional life while juggling all that was happening.

What the year gave me:

* More sleep. Really sound sleep. I realised that when I let go of some of the accumulated stress from holding multiple responsibilities, my body screamed – REST

* More time to slow down. As a family we took on more sustainable living projects, getting rid of more plastic, packaging and convenience living. The upside of this is we had to interact more as a team to do things together to figure out how to do and live this way.

* Discovery of new interests. Turns out I am not quite the anti-craft person I thought I was. Diamond dot craft is the latest!

* Time to reflect, be curious and be challenged

The challenge came from pursuing a somewhat more intense version of study than I have ever taken!

There’s already so much here, I’ll send you some more insight into what I really learned about leadership and the surprises it brought to my life.

It’s great to be back, and to be in touch again
Valerie

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