Real Talk: Taking Time to Step Back and Start Fresh

Hello again – It’s good to be back,

There something I want to talk about if you’re game for it? You know that feeling when you’ve been pushing and pushing, trying to make everything work, and suddenly you realize you’re running on fumes? Yeah, I’ve been there. More times than I’d like to admit. Most recently these last few weeks.

It got me thinking a lot about the power of stepping back. And I don’t mean giving up – there’s a huge difference – but actually taking the time to pause, breathe, and look at where we are with completely fresh eyes.

You know what I used to think? That taking a break meant I wasn’t committed enough. That if I stopped pushing, I’d lose all my momentum and somehow fall behind everyone else who was grinding 24/7. But here’s what I’ve learned: sometimes the most productive thing we can do is actually… nothing.

Our brains get so caught up in the daily grind that we lose sight of the bigger picture. We keep doing the same things over and over, expecting different results, when what we really need is a complete reset. It’s like when you’re trying to solve a puzzle and you’ve been staring at the same pieces for hours – sometimes you have to walk away and come back with fresh eyes to see what was right in front of you the whole time.

I recently hit one of these periods in my business where I felt like I was hitting my head against a wall. Same strategies, same approaches, same frustrations. I was so tired but convinced that if I just worked harder, pushed longer, stayed up later, somehow everything would click into place.

Finally, my body basically forced me to take a break. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and honestly a little burned out. So I stepped away from everything for a few weeks. Didn’t do my blogs, didn’t work on marketing, didn’t do more than the required basis around photography if I could help it. I did just enough to keep the business running.

And you know what happened? When I came back, solutions that seemed impossible before suddenly became obvious. Ideas started connecting in ways they couldn’t when I was forcing them. It was like my brain had been running in circles, and the break gave it permission to actually process everything properly.

Here’s the thing about giving your brain space – it doesn’t actually stop working. It just shifts into a different mode. While you’re taking that walk, having that conversation with a friend, or just sitting quietly with your coffee, your subconscious is processing everything in the background.

I think we’re afraid that if we stop pushing, we’ll lose momentum. But what I’ve found is the opposite. When I come back from a real break – not scrolling social media for three hours, but genuinely disconnecting – I have more energy, clearer vision, and better ideas than when I was grinding through exhaustion.

Sometimes starting again doesn’t mean throwing everything away. It means looking at what you have with new eyes and asking better questions. What’s actually working? What isn’t serving me anymore? What would I do differently if I were starting today? What assumptions have I been making that might not be true?

The key is being intentional about it. This isn’t about avoiding work or procrastinating. This is about genuinely giving yourself permission to rest, to think, to just be for a minute without the pressure to produce something.

So if you’re feeling stuck right now, if you’re overwhelmed or like you’re just going through the motions, maybe it’s time to step back. Give your brain the gift of space. Trust that taking time to refresh isn’t time wasted – it’s time invested in coming back stronger, clearer, and more creative than before.

Your future self will thank you for it. I promise.

Talk soon, Alisha