There is an art to switching off.

It is not about the length of the holiday or the number of days away from your desk. It is not even about the destination, the sun, the sea, or the perfect setting. It is about something far less visible and far more challenging. It is about the courage to withdraw your energy from performance, production, and proving.

To truly switch off is to trust that the world will keep turning without you.

So many of us struggle with this very moment. The suitcase may be packed, the out of office message turned on, the flights booked. Yet the mind stays wired, scrolling through unfinished emails, lingering on decisions, projecting into the future. We leave the desk, but the desk does not leave us.

Why is this so difficult? Because switching off is not about the absence of activity. It is about the presence of permission.

Rest Is Not a Weakness. It Is a Strategy.

In a culture that prizes relentless activity, rest has become one of the most undervalued strategies available to us. Rest is not a collapse. It is not a failure of stamina. Rest is a deliberate recalibration. It is where your nervous system restores balance, where your creativity gathers, where your body reminds you that you are more than your output.

When you give yourself permission to rest fully, you are not stepping away from progress. You are fuelling it.

The best ideas often arrive in the quiet moments: the walk by the sea, the pages of a book, the stillness before sleep. What looks unproductive to the outside world is often the most fertile ground for genuine clarity.

Switching Off Is a Discipline

Many people treat rest as an afterthought, something to be slotted in once the “real work” is done. Yet switching off is not an accident. It is a discipline.

It requires boundaries. The discipline to let unanswered emails wait. The discipline to silence the notifications that compete for attention. The discipline to resist the subtle pull of proving that you are still available, still dependable, still indispensable.

The paradox is that the more available you make yourself, the less present you become. True presence cannot be sustained in constant availability.

Switching off, therefore, is not indulgence. It is integrity. It is the alignment between what you know you need and what you allow yourself to receive.

The Deeper Fear Beneath Not Switching Off

If we are honest, the difficulty in switching off does not come from a lack of opportunity. It comes from a deeper fear.

The fear that if we stop, we will lose relevance. The fear that our absence will reveal that we are not as necessary as we thought. The fear that our worth is still measured only in motion.

These fears are not irrational. They are learned. They are built from years of conditioning in workplaces and cultures that equate busyness with importance. Yet they are also untrue.

Switching off does not erase your significance. It refines it. It shows you the places where you were filling space rather than creating meaning.

The Clarity That Arrives in Stillness

Clarity is often described as a breakthrough. A flash of insight. A sudden shift. But in truth, clarity usually arrives in stillness. It whispers rather than shouts.

When you step away from the noise, you can hear the difference between what is urgent and what is essential. You can see which parts of your life and work are truly energising and which are quietly draining. You can return not with more plans, but with more precision.

This is why switching off is not a pause in your leadership. It is part of it.

Three Simple Practices to Switch Off With Intention

Switching off does not have to mean weeks away. It can be cultivated daily, weekly, and seasonally. These practices will help:

1. Create a ritual of closure. Before you step away, close the loop. Write down any lingering tasks, send the final messages, and set a clear boundary with yourself: “This will wait until I return.” Rituals give the mind a sense of completion, which makes rest easier.

2. Replace scrolling with stillness. Notice the impulse to reach for your phone in every quiet moment. Instead, allow yourself to notice your surroundings, breathe deeply, or write down what surfaces. Often what looks like boredom is actually the beginning of clarity.

3. Redefine productivity. Decide in advance what rest means for you. Perhaps it is reading for pleasure, walking outdoors, cooking slowly, or even doing nothing at all. Productivity in rest is not measured in output, but in presence.

You Do Not Have to Earn Rest

Perhaps the most radical truth is this: rest is not something you earn. It is something you require.

The notion that rest must be deserved, granted only after working hard enough, long enough, visibly enough, is one of the greatest myths of modern work culture. You do not need to finish everything before you switch off. You simply need to choose to.

Rest is not a prize for endurance. It is a practice for sustainability.

Final Note: The Quiet Confidence of Rest

The art of switching off is not about escaping your life. It is about returning to it with greater clarity, deeper energy, and a more congruent presence.

When you allow yourself to step away fully, you are not losing ground. You are strengthening it. You are creating space for your next chapter to emerge, not from pressure, but from presence.

Thank you for reading and for pausing here with me today. If this resonated with you, I would love to hear how you are choosing to switch off this summer, or simply connect.

Warmly, Sharon