You’ve made it to the end of the year and the holiday rush is over. As you step out of a season of hustle, it can be a challenge to allow our bodies and minds to truly rest. In this episode, I’m sharing my four key tips that will help you shift from hustle to rest and experience a season of true recovery.
The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
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Review the Show Notes:
Take time to reflect (2:17)
Forced boundaries (3:22)
Make a plan to unwind (7:46)
Continue your healthy habits (10:15)
Mentioned in this Episode:
Review the Transcript:
Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gebhardt. Here I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur. while balancing business motherhood and life myself along with my guests will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories because we’re willing to go there. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in yet willing to talk about the hard stuff to to shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Welcome back to the shoot it straight podcast, you’ve made it to the end of the year. And for most of you, the holiday rush is over. When we get through a season of hustle, it can sometimes be hard to unwind and allow ourselves to rest. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure you’re exhausted. I know I am. What I mean is that seasons of hustle can feel like a constant adrenaline rush. We’re buzzing with energy. Our minds are buzzing with lists. And we’re practically bouncing from one thing to the next just trying to stay afloat. So when we finally have time to stop when the sessions are done, when the orders are complete, when the edits are finished, when the draft is submitted, when the last commission is done, it can take a minute, and some real effort to climb out of that adrenaline rush of hustle and really allow our bodies and minds to unwind and rest. But the effort it takes is 100% worth it. Without true rest, we can easily go into the new year and start hustling all over again. And if you listened to last week’s episode with Kate korsmeyer, you know that too much hustle, and too little rest is a guaranteed recipe for burnout and maybe even depression.
So the problem is how can we shift from hustle to rest? What things can help us make that transition as smooth as possible, I’m going to share four things today that can help prepare you and set you up for the most restful season possible. Number one, take time to reflect before you dive straight into your time off, take a few minutes or hours to reflect. I think this is so important because it helps transition our minds from hustle and overwhelm to peace and quiet. I personally love to do this in the form of journaling. But you could certainly do it on a long walk or over coffee with a friend or simply talk to yourself in the shower. Anything that gets all of the chaos out of your brain will work. So what exactly are you supposed to reflect on? Personally, I like to start with praise. Be proud of yourself and what you endured. Whether or not you hit your financial goals, or held on to your boundaries, none of that matters here. Look at your busy season through the eyes of praise and gratitude. It’s just like training for a marathon, whether or not you struggled through or had your best time ever, it doesn’t matter you finished. And that in and of itself is a huge accomplishment. You deserve to be proud of yourself. So after you’ve done some reflection, the second thing is boundaries. So I know I talk about this a lot. But in this instance, boundaries is a little bit different. I think it’s important to kind of force yourself to have some really firm boundaries. Again, it’s really hard and it can feel almost like a shock to the system to go straight from working 24/7 in to rest mode. Like how on earth are you supposed to go and do that when your laptop is just sitting right in the other room? Right? If you are so exhausted to think straight and maybe ask your family or friends what they think these forced boundaries should look like. But here are a few suggestions. intentionally choose what day you are going to go back to work and then put it on your calendar.
Treat it like you have a boss in corporate America and you have to submit for vacation time. Okay? When you do that you have a firm back to work date, do the same thing. Tell yourself, this is the date I’m going to go back to work, put it on your calendar and you are on vacation until then. Then once you set that date, turn on your email auto responder, okay, yes, you are still going to get emails. However, the stress of not knowing whether or not people are getting a response or worried that they’re going to get upset if they don’t hear from you and turnaround time and all of that. All of that goes away. When you have an auto responder. It will tell your clients and potential clients and inquiries that you’re on a break you’re on vacation and you’re Not taking orders right now whatever it is, it takes the stress and anxiety in your mind out of the equation. So here’s another thing that I think you should do have your spouse or your partner, hide your laptop, and then let it die. I know that sounds crazy and extreme. But if you are one of those people that really, really struggles with the boundary and wanting to just hop on and check your email for a few minutes every day, and then you get sucked into work mode, this is a great tip. It’s literally like punishing yourself like you would a kid. It’s literally like grounding yourself or putting yourself in timeout. Give them your laptop and say, can you just can you take this, give it back to me in a few days. But right now I just need to not know where this is due, you don’t even have to plug it in, just take it away from me. And I know again, that that can sound extreme. But sometimes when we are going from intense hustle and work where our mind won’t stop and our bodies won’t stop and the to do list doesn’t end, it is a shock to the system to go into rest mode. Okay. And this can help save yourself, right? This is going to keep you offline, this is going to keep you from logging in, this is going to keep you from doing any work because you’re not going to have a machine to do it on, right. So similarly, take the most tempting apps off your phone or set some really intense time limits on them. So again, this is like handcuffing yourself and forcing you to go cold turkey, just remove the temptation, it’s not there anymore. Okay, if the if the fun tempting apps are not on your phone, and your laptop is literally hidden and not available, you are going to be forced to pull away from all of those technology distractions, that is going to put you straight into rest mode automatically, because you’re not going to have a way to work, you’re not going to have a way to feel like you have to be present on social media or respond to all of the DMS, right?
Once you go through the first few days and your body has come out of that adrenaline rush, it’s not going to be hard to hold on to those boundaries anymore. Okay. Once you’ve eased into that, and again, the cold turkey shock has kind of worn off, you’re not going to be tempted to check your email as much, it’s not going to cross your mind as much, it’s not going to feel like you have that nervous twitch to know what’s in your inbox at all times. Right, you’re going to love not being glued to your phone, you’re going to have found other ways to fill your time. But allow yourself to get some assistance in those first few days because you deserve to be unplugged and have a clear mind. And if you know that you struggle with boundaries like this, get some help from your spouse from your friends. So the third thing to help you ease into a season of rest is to make a plan to unwind. So this one is super important to me. Because if I don’t know how I’m going to do it, and if I don’t have a plan to unwind, I literally will spend my entire time off cleaning out my closets coming up with home projects, organizing every drawer setting up a garage sale, and I’ll literally I will do anything to keep moving my brain sure it will enjoy the break from work. But it won’t actually rest because it will be going from overwork in business to over work at home. Those things all sound good and positive and helpful. And they are there’s nothing wrong with any of those projects, but they are not rest. So it’s important to think about what really helps me unwind and then plan for it so I can make sure it happens. For me as old lady as this sounds. I love puzzles. And when I pull out a puzzle from our puzzle cabinet and set it out, my body instantly starts to unwind. It’s mindless work, it is still and quiet. It allows me to focus on only one thing at a time and not get distracted.
I always work on puzzles during my seasons of rest. I mean we do we love them in our household. It’s also something I can do with my kids and engage with them over but it really really helps me okay, maybe you have a similar thing that a hobby that you like to do. Maybe you like to do needlework, or maybe you like to paint or whatever it is but if you have a hobby or something that you love that helps you unwind, plan for it, give yourself the time for it.
Other things that I make plans for during my seasons of rest. I make a couple of trips to our local sauna. I booked a couple of in person yoga classes, I make sure to plan some extra date nights and we go to the movies as a family. Those are things that I won’t really make time for when I’m in a hustle season. Okay, we might squeeze in one date night I might get to the sauna once but I’m not doing any of that regularly. So when I do go into rest mode those are like treats for myself. Those all helped my body and my mind to unwind and to settle in and they are removed or to me, but I have to plan for them. I have to put them on the calendar, I have to figure out what movie we’re going to see. I have to, you know, schedule the date night and make the reservation. But those efforts are worth it, because they helped me unwind and stay focused on rest mode. The last thing that I think will really help you ease you from a season of hustle into a season of rest is continuing your healthy habits. I have this lovely habit of taking things to extremes.
Okay. Hi, my name is Sabrina. I like things in extremes. So if I don’t keep up my healthy habits, I start this really nice downward spiral. Let me explain. I feel my best when I’m drinking a ton of water. When I’m exercising in the morning, when I’m having a daily quiet time. And when I get in bed early at night, when I start to let those things slip, I very easily go from one extreme to the next, I will stop moving my body altogether. I will start drinking too many cocktails, I start eating too much sugar. I start binging late night TV and movies. And when those things happen, it’s no surprise here that I feel terrible. And I act terrible. And I’m pretty sure that my family doesn’t like me very much. So just because I’m entering a season of rest and recovery from work and from to do lists, it doesn’t mean that I should give up all of my healthy habits. In fact, when I focus on healthy habits during my season of rest, my rest is actually super effective and recharging. So if you have healthy habits that you do on a daily basis that are part of your routine, keep those leave those intact during your season of rest and just replace all of those work hours and all of that work energy and focus that into new things that will help you rest and unwind. So to recap, in order to make the transition from your season of hustle to a season of rest, I recommend four things number one, reflect number two set firm boundaries to save yourself from your future self and make that transition easier. Number three, make a plan for how you will unwind. And number four continue your healthy habits.
So that is all for today. My friends, I am wishing you a very Merry Christmas if that is something that your family celebrates, and I hope that you are set to have a restful holiday season. I will be back next week with one more episode before we start a new year by now. Thanks so much for listening to the shoot it straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode at Sabrina gebhardt.com backslash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gebhart photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review. Until next time, my friends shoot it straight.
