Taking a Mental Health Break

Back in the ear­ly 1900s, the term ​‘ner­vous break­down’ described the con­di­tion when some­one was pre­vent­ed from car­ry­ing on with the demands of dai­ly life. The ner­vous break­down was con­sid­ered a tem­po­rary, soci­o­log­i­cal con­di­tion. It was­n’t a char­ac­ter flaw or a men­tal issue — and the cure was a restora­tive pow­er break. Declar­ing you were hav­ing a ner­vous break­down gave you a social­ly accept­able license to step off the tread­mill to recov­er and rejuvenate.

This great arti­cle in the Atlantic talks about how many suc­cess­ful peo­ple — includ­ing JD Rock­e­feller who went to the south of France for six months — took sab­bat­i­cal breaks.

The French describe it as reculer pour mieux sauter — to with­draw in order to make a bet­ter jump.

While this does tie into the impor­tance of hav­ing resilience rit­u­als (Chap­ter 3, Your Oxy­gen Mask First, Dou­ble Your Resilience), there’s a point when you just can’t get stronger and need to not just rest but reju­ve­nate.

A few CEOs we know have tak­en months-long sab­bat­i­cals away from their busi­ness­es to recov­er and reset.

One CEO sold his busi­ness and took three years to sail around the world. Anoth­er rode her motor­cy­cle around Amer­i­ca, and yet anoth­er took his fam­i­ly on an expe­di­tion around the world.

Give Your­self Per­mis­sion For a Men­tal Health Break

The point is to give your­self per­mis­sion to have a recov­ery peri­od when you know you need it. And while not every­one has the lux­u­ry of tak­ing six months out, every­one can do some­thing towards sus­tain­able resilience. Take a cou­ple of extra days, every month, for long week­end recov­er­ies; or reduce your per­son­al or vol­un­teer com­mit­ments or com­mit to tak­ing a full hour for lunch every day.

When I get frayed and burnt out, I delib­er­ate­ly make space in my sched­ule for recov­ery. Thank­ful­ly, I’ve learned to catch it ear­li­er in the process so that I don’t need an extreme rem­e­dy. This year, I’m focused on get­ting back to a rhythm of one week a month with no meet­ings. My goal is to cre­ate time for per­son­al pur­suits or writ­ing or strate­gic things for my business.

The Chal­lenge

• What’s your plan for a men­tal health break or recov­ery peri­od so that you can get back to — and sus­tain — the best ver­sion of yourself?

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all — a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.