A Long Hibernation

On Rest, Self-Awareness, and the Necessity of Stepping Back

I’m still here.

I’m alive and kicking.

Thanks to all of you who checked on me during my hiatus.

This is the longest writing break I’ve taken in the last twenty years. It wasn’t planned. I just went into hibernation mode around Christmastime. I went from putting together my annual 1,000-piece puzzle to watching movies. Hamnet, anyone? Wow. More on that in a future post. I read The Ferryman and His Wife. I rewatched Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones and got through Season 1 of The Pitt. I bought a treadmill and started running every morning. I burrowed deep into the 15 inches of Indiana snow amid 23 consecutive days of single-digit weather and hibernated. And I did my very best to mentally check out for the last three months.

I did a StrengthsFinder assessment several years ago that identifies a person’s top strengths from thirty-four different categories. The four central themes are Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. While most people’s strengths cross multiple themes, I was the only person on my team whose strengths landed in singularly in one theme—Strategic Thinking. This means that my overall strength scores are skewed heavily toward thinking. And it’s spot on. All I do is think. Nonstop. About everything. All the time. And if you’ve followed my writing for a while (or seen my staring blankly into nothingness), you know this. It is a great blessing. But if I don’t take a break, it can exhaust and overwhelm me.

Which makes me think of the Greek aphorism: Know thyself.

The beginning of wisdom is the ability to look inward. To self-assess. To self-reflect. To self-examine. To know ourselves- the good, the bad, and the ugly. And to understand what we need to do for our individual well-being. The truth is, we can’t be our best for others if we don’t take the time to make sure we are whole, healed, and properly aligned. We can’t effectively look outside ourselves if we don’t first look within.

To that end, I’m back—and fully rested.

Question

Do I truly know myself well enough to recognize when it’s time to step back? What do I need right now to be whole and well?

Peace,

Brandon

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