Take a hard look at the stories you tell yourself about why you can’t make a significant life change like a sabbatical, as your inner opposition may fall apart under close scrutiny, making such changes more doable than perceived.
Organize your life, day, family, and time to center yourself, breathe, and ground yourself, allowing you to experience a “sabbatical in your mind” without needing to physically escape. This involves finding your “holy ground” in your current environment.
If you desire a sabbatical but can’t take one immediately, create a plan for 1, 3, or 5 years out and save money by making small sacrifices, such as not going to the movies, to fund that amazing experience.
Incorporate practices like meditation, yoga (focused on breath), and art (like painting or drawing) into your daily life as centering activities to discover your “holy ground” and foster a lighter, more measured approach to life.
Engage in artistic exercises, such as drawing by turning the image upside down and focusing on lines and angles, to quiet the left brain and activate the right brain, which can lead to learning new skills and experiencing a “flow” state where mind chatter, time, and space fall away.
When intense emotions like rage arise during meditation or yoga, experience them as fully as possible by taking them in, focusing attention, and breathing through them, understanding that all emotions eventually melt away.
View meditation as a “superpower” or tool that enhances effectiveness, allows for more achievement with a smile, and helps maintain an edge by enabling you to slow things down mentally and respond in a measured way rather than just reacting.
When mentoring younger colleagues, address their baseline anxiety and “deluded” states by asking about “that voice inside your head” and working on ways to quiet it, recognizing it as a universal human experience.
If you find it difficult to switch from breath-focused meditation to other forms like open awareness or sound, don’t get hung up on it; the breath can be a complete and effective focus for your entire meditation practice.
If you have a cold and your nose is stuffy, shift your meditation focus from the breath through the nostrils to the abdomen; alternatively, use this time to explore other forms of meditation like open awareness, sound, or loving kindness.
If you experience involuntary movement during seated meditation, recognize it as normal, but also observe if you are subtly (voluntarily) feeding the movement and try to slow that down, while accepting what truly is involuntary.