Ten Minute Vacation
My calendar is full. When I say full, I mean every moment seems to have been claimed. The kind of full where the beautiful, empowering stickers that adorn my calendar become lost in the vast amount of pencil marks. The kind of full that draws zero pleasure from checking off projects. Even the colorful markers noting appointments can hardly be distinguished from the extensive to-do list. Welcome to life, particularly life in higher education during a pandemic.
Seminary did not prepare me for professional life during a pandemic. Seminary taught me boundaries, and how to navigate systems. Seminary taught me to be an excellent communicator and listener. Seminary taught me about personalities and how to navigate personalities and conflict resolution. Seminary taught me good pastoral care and how to chair committees, develop leaders, lead vision discernment, invest in others, how to go from grief in one hospital room to joy in the next hospital room, and how to know when to invite other professionals into complicated scenarios. Seminary taught me to trust in a higher power for energy, strength, wisdom, empowerment, and care. Pandemics were not mentioned at all.
When it came to work and personal life balance, I was taught to practice sabbath, or rest, in the algorithm of ten minutes an hour, one hour a day, one day a week, one weekend a month, and one week a year. Over the years, the algorithm has worked. There have been days, and weeks, and months, and years when my definition of balance was creative at best, but for the most part I achieved work and personal life balance. My favorite part of the algorithm, the ten minutes every hour for breathing and centering, has been my go-to whether working with congregants, friends, or students. My coaching clients often hear, “What might happen if you inserted ten minutes into your schedule to take time to breathe and center?”
In my conversation last week with a retired pastor, we talked about taking ten minutes a day. He was taught the same algorithm, but he used a term I had not heard before… Ten Minute Vacation. What a great term. A vacation rejuvenates and refreshes… and if done properly, a vacation is extremely transformative. When was the last time you took a Ten Minute Vacation? Ten minutes for you and you alone to breathe, center, meditate, rest, dance…. Whatever a mini vacation looks like to you, when was the last time you took one? And if it has been a while, why has it been so long?
One thing I have done consistently throughout the pandemic, regardless of the fullness of my calendar, is take a Ten Minute Vacation, often multiple times of day. Sometimes the vacation was for crying. Sometimes for screaming. Sometimes for running. Sometimes for laughing. Sometimes the vacation was for dancing and belting out Show and/or Disney tunes. Regardless of how I spent them, the most effective Ten Minute Vacations have been the times I have allowed myself to rejuvenate and transform.
Ten minutes can change everything. Does taking a Ten Minute Vacation make a calendar less full or cancel appointments? Absolutely, not. Does it erase pencil marks and stimulate pleasure by creating the ability to check off projects. Nope. A Ten Minute Vacation simply provides ten minutes to stop and just be. It provides an opportunity for rejuvenation and refreshment, reconnection and transformation. A Ten Minute Vacation makes an extremely full calendar manageable, even in higher education during a pandemic. When was the last time you took a Ten Minute Vacation? What are you waiting for? –Katrina