10 Things to Do When Taking a Break from Your Life Passion and Suddenly Don’t Know How to Live

1. Breathe. It might feel like you’re absolutely crazy from stepping away from what you’ve dedicated your whole life to. You might (will probably) second guess your decision to take a break every minute of every day. That’s okay. You aren’t crazy, you’re doing what is right for you and your body and your mental health. The only way you’ll find other passions is to make space for them. So breathe. You’re okay.

2. Sleep! If you’re anything like me, you over commit and over schedule your life without prioritizing rest and self-care. Take this time off to catch up on that major sleep debt! You’ll be amazed to experience what well-rested feels like.

3. Explore. Before I took time off, I had explored Ann Arbor a little bit, mostly by nature of me moving off campus and living in a different part of town. Taking time off mean that I had time in the day to discover parts of town that I had never been. New restaurants, coffee shops, workout places, clothing stores--finding all these little havens in town transformed Ann Arbor in my mind.

4. Get a job. During school, I didn’t have time to work. This summer, I got a job at a local fitness studio, and it was the best decision I could have possibly made. Not only did I make money, I made some great new friends and discovered that I love cross-training! Working at a fitness studio led me to discover a whole world of physicality beyond dance, and introduced me to an industry that I love.

5.Travel. Even if it’s to the next town over that you’ve never been to before. You don’t have to go somewhere far away to have adventures!

6. Journal. Having the time and space to finally relax was great--but it also meant that I finally had time to address tension-filled feelings that I had buried down inside of me. A break is a great time to work on your mental self, and journaling helped me come to terms with a lot of parts of my life that I was unsatisfied with before.

7. Actually take time off! This was really scary to me. I was convinced that taking anything more than a couple weeks off was going to essentially end my career. But, I really needed to be away from the dance studio for more than a couple weeks to re discover my love of the art. Which leads me to the next point…

8.Cross-train! Taking time away from the studio doesn’t necessarily mean taking time away from exercise completely. While I did end up taking a bit more than a couple weeks completely off, I was away from the studio for around a month and a half. What kept me in shape and ready to go back? Cross-training! I tried everything from new yoga classes to Cross-Fit and in the process discovered that my body is so much stronger and more capable than I previously thought.

9. Relax your rules a little bit. I live a very self-disciplined life. I make specific decisions about what I eat, when I go out, what time I sleep, all in service of my greater dancing goals. See what happens when you eat dessert every night, or go to sleep a little later than usual. I know not everyone is as strict with themselves as I was, but a long break is a good time to take a long look at how you live your life--and question if that’s how you want to keep living it.

10. Tell yourself that you are proud of you--for taking care of yourself, for making the hard choice of taking a break, for trying something that scares you. You got this.