We talk a lot about progress… about momentum and motion and the power of the next step. But what I’ve learned is that not everything evolves through movement. Some of the most profound changes in my life have happened in the pause…. in the space between what was and what’s becoming.

When I first began practicing what I now call Sabbatical Living, it wasn’t intentional. It started with exhaustion, the kind that comes when your outer life outpaces your inner one. I didn’t have language for it yet, but I could feel the gap between who I was being and who I was meant to become. So I stopped.

Not for long… just long enough to hear myself again.

At first, the pause felt uncomfortable. The silence was loud. My worth had been tied to doing for so long that stopping felt like failure. But slowly, something began to shift. Clarity that had been buried under busyness started to rise to the surface. I began to see that pausing isn’t the opposite of progress - it’s what gives progress its direction.

In stillness, I could hear what my soul had been trying to tell me all along: that evolution doesn’t happen just because we push harder. It happens because we create enough space for truth to breathe.

I used to think the pause was an interruption. Now I see it as integration…. the sacred space where growth takes root.

When you pause, perspective changes. You start to notice the patterns that keep repeating… the parts of yourself you’ve been outgrowing… the dreams that still whisper when everything else quiets. That is where evolution begins to take form…. not in the noise, but in the noticing.

This is what The Overflow Journals are really about. Not more information… more integration. A practice that invites you back to your own wisdom again and again until what once felt like striving begins to feel like truth.

Reflection for You

Take a few minutes this weekend to pause — really pause.

No planning. No reaching for your phone. No filling the silence.

Ask yourself:

What in me is ready to evolve if I simply stop forcing it?

And what truth is waiting to meet me in the quiet?

You might be surprised by how much becomes clear once you stop running toward what’s next and allow yourself to arrive where you already are.

May your strength always be infused with serenity and remember….

Your Soul Belongs In Everything

Deborah

About Deborah G. Walker

Deborah G. Walker is the founder of Deborah G. Walker Coaching & Consulting. As an Intuitive Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant, she empowers leaders and teams to improve communication, enhance collaboration, and lead with authenticity and confidence.