I’m Taking a Break…

I’m taking a break from my podcast and here’s why. Today I want to talk about my reasoning behind this decision making process because it could be something that is potentially helpful for you. Hey and welcome to the Calmly Coping podcast. If you’re new here then I share episodes about mental health and personal development, work life balance tips related to supporting high achieving professionals, and more.

If you’re coming back, then thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you being here. Now, here’s the thing. I am pretty consistent and have been since I started this podcast in May of 2020 with releasing weekly episodes. There have been times where maybe I missed an episode here and there, but it’s something that That is very important to me to be consistent and to be reliable.

And so because of that, I have stuck to this weekly schedule. But of course, there have been many times where I’m like, I don’t feel like doing this and it’s not because I don’t love doing this, but it’s just because I’m human and we all have our limits, right? And we all need to take breaks and recharge.

And this is something that I talk about often on the podcast. And that’s why I felt like it was so important for me to share this with you because If I wasn’t doing this and I just continued to push myself to produce weekly episodes incessantly Then I would not be practicing what I preach And so what I noticed was that I was reaching this point where?

I kept procrastinating it and I’ve gone through periods and phases of this before and this time around I was then looking at, okay, and identifying what’s going on here. Why am I feeling like I want to take a break? And also on the other side, why am I feeling this resistance and this fear to taking a break or to not being consistent?

So what was important for me was to identify those fears. Okay. What was getting in the way? And there was a fear of letting my listeners down and not being consistent and not sticking to that schedule. And although that’s something that’s important to me to be somebody who’s showing up for you at the end of the day.

That was an expectation I set for myself. You didn’t tell me, all right, you need to release weekly episodes. I started doing that. And then as a result, you may have come to expect that from me or not, but either way, I was setting this expectation for myself. And so this is something that I can change. And.

Maybe this is something that you have experienced in a job, in a relationship. We can set expectations ourselves and then other people can come to expect that from us, but it can feel like this trap that we’ve created for ourselves that, okay, maybe this other person wasn’t initially expecting this from me, but now I have set this expectation.

So now I feel trapped that I need to continue doing this. And this is. false. You know, we don’t need to continue doing the things that we have been doing just because we set that expectation up front. So that’s what I’m doing here. Realizing that that fear is valid. However, it is not necessarily something that is going to be catastrophic.

You know, there’s not going to be people, you know, Hopefully, that are like, you’re a terrible person for taking a break. I can’t believe you didn’t stick to your weekly schedule. Most people are understanding and that’s what I went back to when, when just looking at things from a realistic perspective. So once I was able to identify and work through that fear.

Then I decided, okay, what are my options? I could do what I did last week and go back and find one of the 215 episodes I’ve already recorded and play a popular episode. I could record short episodes or do something else or push myself to just knock the episodes out and get them out on my regular schedule.

But each time I was thinking through each of these options, I could feel it in my gut, my body, my whatever intuition was telling me, no. Like, yeah, I could do those things, but there was a bigger part of, like, this visceral reaction that was just, like, No, and I know what that feels like for me because I’ve honed that muscle of building that and I have an entire episode on discerning that difference between anxiety and intuition that I’ll link in the description.

So for me, the combination of Looking at what was the fear getting in the way, you know, anything else that was keeping me stuck along with tapping into my gut feeling and what it is that I really desired helped me to realize that, all right, I could do these things, but part of me is saying that I need to take a step back and, um, And I’m also understanding and recognizing that actually, especially when it comes to creative work, but any type of work, any type of work where you’re doing strategizing or you need to maybe get some perspective or distance, those things are going to help you to actually do better work rather than staying in the weeds constantly and just, you know, pushing things out just to be productive, just to get the things out there, oftentimes, if you’ve ever taken a step away from work, or maybe it’s gone on vacation or not thought about it, those are the times when, like, ideas can come to us, or we can get new perspectives and new ways of thinking about things.

And so having that, you know, is important for me and something that I’m feeling as though I’m needing right now in order to create better content for you in order to provide better quality and put more thought into things. Because that’s something that’s very important to me is creating content that is well thought out, potentially researched if applicable, and things that are going to be really impactful and helpful for you.

In taking this break, that’s really my intention to not spend the whole time like researching and planning, but actually to create some distance. I already have scheduled out of office time, uh, actually when this episode’s gonna be out, and so taking that time to relax, enjoy myself, and then having the perspective.

and self care that’s necessary to then when I’m ready to return and go back into brainstorming and planning phase, go straight into that so that I can help you in the way that you need help, but it’s also coming from a place of me. being recharged and practicing what I preach because that’s something that’s always been very important to me.

And maybe I’m repeating myself. I’m not sure if I already said this, but it would ultimately be a disservice to you. If I were just continuing to push myself through and not respect those needs that I have and that I’m aware of that, all right, I need to take a step back or I need to reassess. And And that would actually be hypocritical if I were doing that, right?

And so that’s something that’s extremely important for me to do. And what this is going to look like is I don’t want to set an end time for this. However, it’s not going to be a super long break, you know, max. two months if that. Ideally I would be posting my next episode the end of November, beginning of December, and so that I am thinking will give me time to have that perspective and distance.

And I’m excited with what I’m going to be coming back with. There’s a lot of interesting topics that I have on the back burner. I have like, I’m constantly adding ideas to my episodes list, and then I also get. Suggestions from you listeners, which I really appreciate anytime you reach out to me or send me a suggestion.

And just to give you an idea of some of the things that are coming up, let me check out my list here. So some of the ideas that I will be sharing in the coming months are how to cope with the Sunday scary. So this is that feeling like when you dread Mondays and The upcoming week, what to do and how to handle that, why you need to do nothing signs that your work is negatively impacting your mental health.

I’m considering talking about depression, high functioning depression, because that’s something that I know I tend to focus on anxiety, but those two things. can often go hand in hand. And a lot of individuals who struggle with anxiety also struggle with depression. And so talking more about that and how to cope with that when the pursuit of success is taking you away from what truly matters to you in life and how to identify that and what to do about it, how to find fulfillment in life outside of work, how to team your mind and So many more topics.

If you have any suggestions for me, then feel free to send them my way. You can go to my contact form on my website at be calm with Tati. com slash contact. You can also send me a message if you want to send me a voice message with your suggestion, and you can also comment if you’re watching on YouTube or if you are listening on Spotify or reach out to me on Instagram.

So there’s tons of ways to reach out to me and I would love to hear from you and hear your suggestions. As much as I love talking about this topic, I’m looking forward to this break to help me to come back next week. better and to create more quality content that is applicable and helpful for you. And I can’t wait to see what that looks like.

Thank you so much for sticking around to the end of this episode. Thank you so much for being here with me. I am truly grateful for each and every one of you who tunes in, whether it is now the first time, whether it is once in a while or whether you are a consistent listener, that is something that is really important to me.

And I really appreciate you being here. If you are interested in checking out more episodes, like I mentioned, I have a backlog of more than 200 episodes, so be sure to subscribe wherever you listen or watch. on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts, anywhere you can follow. And if you are loving the podcast, then please give me a review that really helps me out and helps me to reach other people.

And also don’t hesitate to share with me. Other people, whether it’s colleagues, family members, friends that you think might benefit from these episodes. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I look forward to seeing you in the near future and until next time, be calm. Thanks so much for listening. If you like what you heard, please share this episode with a friend and please subscribe and leave me a review on iTunes.

Also, remember to check me out online at CalmlyCoping.com and connect with me on Instagram at TatianaGLPC. All content here is for informational purposes only. This content does not replace the professional judgment of your own mental health provider. Please consult a licensed mental health professional for all individual questions and issues.

Till next time, I’m Tati, and this has been Calmly Coping.