"Summer Break" is Back
the wild ride of summer 2025
Does anyone else feel like you blinked and somehow it is November with the end of the year rocketing towards us?
I miss summer.
Even though I live on Maui where we are spoiled with gorgeous weather year round, I want to go back to summer. July - September 2025 was very good to me.
The summer of fun started about mid-July, after I had almost recovered from my big & third move in a year (see last post), at a pivotal moment in my divorce when I hung up the phone on my ex. We were having a conversation about divorce logistics and he started with the same rhetoric I had been hearing since I left (how I didn’t deserve money from a settlement, listing all the things he paid for etc.) and my blood began to boil. Then I did something very out of character for me - I said “I am so glad I don’t have to listen to this shit anymore” and I hung up the phone.
Immediately afterwards I freaked out.
I knew he was on the other side of the phone raging. I felt bad. I thought about calling him back and apologizing. Instead I called a friend and confessed my sins. I took a moment to calm myself down and decided that despite the texts that were coming in from the ex, I was going to stay silent. I decided that there was more power in my silence then in reacting or engaging in a tit-for-tat communication. I didn’t write back. I didn’t call. I didn’t speak to him until other logistics warranted the need for communication.
This was one of the best things I did for myself.
I drew a line, a clear boundary and protection for myself that stated - I do not need to be treated that way any longer. I did not need to listen to those words. I did not need to sit through another argument. I did not need to be subject to his reaction. In doing so, I entered a new phase of the ending of this relationship; one where he did not have an emotional hold on me anymore.
Hanging up on him turned a switch inside of me. It severed the guilt I had felt for months upon months about leaving. It released me from worrying about his reactions and moods. It showed me that I had the power to stand up for myself even if that was in my silence.
Then towards the end of July, I got fired from my yoga studio. If we want to be technically accurate, I didn’t get “fired” but I did get my class removed from the yoga schedule. To me, it felt like I got fired and it hurt. I cried hard for three days. This felt like another loss in my life but the difference here was I did not anticipate this loss at all. The other loses (my marriage, my house) had crept towards me slowly over a years time. Getting taken off the yoga schedule knocked me down for a couple days. I loved teaching my class even if the number of attendees was small. I gave a lot of love to my class, the students and the yoga studio. I had been teaching there for 10 years, since I moved to Maui. I slowly recovered from this and realized this now freed up one evening a week for me.
As I had a couple trips planned for August and September, a new open evening per week and I put my therapy sessions on pause, I jokingly said I was on “summer break” which then morphed into me living like I was on summer break.
I danced, I hiked, I surfed, I went camping, I partied, I took trips, I rode bikes, I went on boats, I soaked up the sun and spent as much time outside as possible.
I did not unpack my house. I did not buy plates or silverware or glasses. I hardly cleaned. I didn’t push myself to build my business. I didn’t search for new clients. I didn’t post on social media. I didn’t write my Tuesday Tip emails. For the first time in a long time, I just let myself have fun.
I lived those months up like I was a high schooler on a Cabo Spring break trip and it was freaking fantastic.
When I came back from my trip to Vancouver in September, I knew it was time for summer break to end. I told myself it was time to buckle down and get back to business. Just like when I was a kid in school and that one fall day comes in when it gets cold and you know summer is over, I was depressed. I did not want summer break to end. I did not want to go back to “reality.” I did not want the fun to stop.
So I slowly eased myself back into a routine. I bought a dresser and put away my clothes. I bought dishes and started cooking meals for myself again. I refocused my energy on my business. I slowed down.
Here’s what I learned from summer break:
Having fun was the medicine I needed.
Living wild and free reminded me that I can be both carefree and very driven. It doesn’t need to be one or the other.
Taking a break was exactly what I needed to come back better than ever.
Since then I have been working on some amazing things.
This last huge year of change for me has brought me huge personal transformation. I now know that I needed to go through this process exactly the way that I did, to come back as an incredible coach.
I’m back and it is going to be better than ever before.
