This is the first time I am giving myself permission to take a 4-week sabbatical, in Buenos Aires Argentina, a place where I felt a connection with myself and the universe during a Tango dancing trip in March. I wanted to connect with that again. I needed to step away from my normal life because I have a tendency to be too intense doing the work I love that I can drive myself to a burn-out.

But in the classic Yan fashion, driven and ambitious, I established 2 big goals for the trip – to study and practice Tango a lot and to work on a big creative project for my clients (to create a video-based learning program called “Coaching for Impact” to help leaders coach their employees). Even though I don’t have client calls scheduled, I found myself working multiple hours a day, feeling rushed going to a dance lesson, and not really feeling relaxed.

I coach senior leaders on how to integrate work & life and I struggle with it myself. This is real. I am human. We study what we want and need the most.

Yesterday I spent an entire day with a local girlfriend at a beautiful park and rose garden, renting 2 old-fashioned single-speed bicycles. Time stopped. For the first time on this trip, I slowed down. I smelled real roses. She is a yoga guru. She invited me to put my fingertips on my heart to feel her beating until my nervous system resets itself. It did. It was visceral and magical.

I am learning to observe my default pattern, name it, catch it, and find simple but concrete mind-body practices (such as fingertips on the heart) to shift it. I am learning that it is ok to struggle. We don’t need to be good at it all the time, we just need to consciously take action to create the life we want. It is a “practice”. Maybe it’s the fact that we don’t have everything figured out that makes life interesting and worth living.

I committed to myself (with my girlfriend and the roses being my witnesses) that I will do the simple practice of fingertips on my heart every day, whenever I feel stressed or flustered. I may not be consistent, and that is my practice. I know my life will be better and I will be better for my clients and for my family.

I write to you, and now I am accountable to you. I will not let you down. What is your practice and how can I support you?