Endings and beginnings

I am starting my year-long sabbatical! And launching a book! And saying goodbye to all my patients... but not necessarily in that order. 

Yes, it’s a big month for me. I am headed off to Japan in just a few weeks, and I am feverishly getting ready. I will be in a Japanese language school in Naha, Okinawa for 3-6 months. This is a big part of my personal Burnout Recovery Plan, and also the fulfillment of a dream that I have harbored for many years. I am so excited!

Japanese is my fourth language. I’m kind of a language buff: hence (half of) the name of my blog. I don’t really count as a polyglot yet, but I intend to by the end of my year sabbatical. I currently speak native English, fluent Spanish, intermediate Portuguese, and Advanced Beginner Japanese. I plan to be intermediate or fluent(ish) in speaking Japanese when I leave the country, and intermediate in reading/writing.

Then I will head off to the Azores, to enjoy time with family for a couple months, and increase my fluency in Portuguese.

After that, I will travel and learn 1-2 more languages. I don’t know where yet; I’ll decide that when the moment arrives. Most people consider you a polyglot when you speak 5-6 languages. If you are interested in learning languages quickly, I strongly recommend you check out Benny the Irish Polyglot’s website at Fluent in 3 Months. He has been inspirational to me, and I have used many of his techniques in learning Japanese.

Apparently moving to another hemisphere wasn’t enough stress for me, so I decided to write and launch a book in my last few months in the US. No wonder I’m burning myself out... I really felt like I had something to give to the world, though, and I felt very driven to do this BEFORE I left on my sabbatical, as I want to use my sabbatical to rest.

The book is designed for other nurse practitioners, and is a twenty-one day program on how to beat burnout, five minutes at a time. The book is written and published, and I am advertising right now for the March 30th release date. The website is at Burnout Recovery Guide.

To write the book, I leveraged my experience as a mindfulness meditator (that’s where the other half of my blog title came from) to remain un-burned-out over the past ten years or so. I’m pretty proud of it, and I hope it will help many other people. Check it out! 

I like rainbows and diversity and travel symbols. Can you tell? Anyway, the hardest part about this sabbatical is saying goodbye to my patients. It’s hard to say goodbye to friends and family too, of course, but I have the potential to remain in contact with them via Skype, email, and this blog. With patients about all I can do is send postcards to the clinic and talk to my coworkers once in a while.

I am well liked as a provider, and most of my patients have a really hard time emotionally with my leaving. I have had relationships with many of them for two to four years. Our record so far is four patients crying about me leaving in one day. The average is one to two. I love my patients, and will miss them terribly, but I can’t cry, as I need to hold the space for them to express their emotions. I go home every day sad, and completely drained emotionally.

The thing about endings, though, is that they are also beginnings. I am incredibly lucky that the nurse practitioner who is taking over my clinic is an absolutely fantastic provider and person, and I tell all my patients that they will be well taken care of. And I mean it. So I get to leave with a clean conscience, and (eventually) a light heart to take care of myself.

Travel is my way of rejuvenating, and when I come back in a year, I will no longer feel so burned out, and will be able to again offer 100% compassion and dedication to my patients, as it should be.

Sam