
Relationship Reset: Reignite, Reconnect, Rebuild
Feeling stuck in your relationship after years together? Relationship Reset is your go-to podcast for busy, high-achieving couples ready to break free from autopilot and rebuild a thriving partnership. Join relationship expert Katie Rössler, LPC for practical tools, real-life stories, and actionable advice to reignite passion, rebuild trust, and reconnect on a deeper level. Whether you’re navigating communication breakdowns, struggling with intimacy, or just feel disconnected, this podcast is here to help you transform your relationship—and create the love you’ve always envisioned.
Perfect for couples who want to reignite their spark and reconnect with purpose. It’s never too late to hit reset.
Relationship Reset: Reignite, Reconnect, Rebuild
Why You Need To Take Your Vacation Days with Sandra Ulewicz
In today's "always-on" culture, it's easy to let vacation days slip away unused. But prioritizing rest and rejuvenation is essential for your well-being and the health of your relationships.
In this episode, I'm joined by Sandra Ulewicz, founder of Origin Travels, a company that specializes in creating unique group trips for solo travelers. Sandra shares her insights on the challenges of taking time off in today's busy world and offers practical strategies for making the most of your vacation time.
In this insightful conversation, Sandra highlights the common obstacles that prevent people from taking vacations, including financial constraints, time pressures, and work responsibilities and the importance of starting small and gradually increasing your time off to build confidence and create a sustainable routine.
We delve into practical tools for managing your time and responsibilities to create space for relaxation and rejuvenation and the benefits of prioritizing self-care and nurturing your relationships through quality time and shared experiences.
In this episode:
- How to overcome common obstacles that prevent you from taking vacations.
- Why prioritizing rest and rejuvenation is crucial for your well-being and relationships.
- What are the practical strategies for managing your time and responsibilities to create space for relaxation.
- How to set boundaries and communicate your needs to create a work environment that supports your well-being.
Connect with Sandra:
Website: https://origin-travels.com
Website: https://www.instagram.com/origintravels
Instagram: @origintravels
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Welcome back to the podcast! You know, I remember when my dad retired, he had racked up so many vacation days that his job was like, "You've got to use these! You can't just like pay out." And it made me think about the fact that often, we don't use our vacation time. We're so used to go, go, go.
Welcome to the Balance Code Podcast, a place for high achievers to step outside the hamster wheel of day-to-day life and start learning tools for more balance. I'm your host, Katie Rustler, and I will be guiding you on this journey of discovering your balance code. So, I have Sandra Ulewicz here, and we are going to be talking about why we struggle to take our vacation days, or even time off in general, and how to start to work on that so we have better balance in our lives. So Sandra, thank you so much for being here. I'm excited to have this discussion with you today.
Sandra: Thank you for having me, Katie! I'm super excited to be here.
Katie: Take a moment and share with us a little bit about yourself, where you are in the world, what you do, and who you tend to work with.
Sandra: Yes, so I am based in Toronto, Canada, but travel all the time, so always all over the place, different time zones. Um, I am the owner of a company called Origin Travels, and part of that is running group trips for solo travelers. And my goal with the trips is to help people take their vacation days. The trips are designed—they're shorter, I'd say on the shorter side, under 10 days—so you know, knowing that people don't have a ton of vacation time, we want to make the most of it. And maybe that's your one and only time that you're going to be in Egypt or Morocco, so I want to make sure that it's the trip of a lifetime, and that we see as much as we possibly can in those vacation days and making the most of them. And the other aspect of it is the nature adventure part, and obviously putting our phones on airplane mode and living in the moment.
Katie: I love this business concept, I think it's genius and such a great way for people to see the world on the small amount of time, depending on where you live, of vacation time you have. And that you're able to organize that, that's awesome. What are you finding are reasons why people struggle to take time off, to take the vacation, like to really go and do the trip?
Sandra: Yeah, I think, um, I think there's a lot—there's a lot of uh, obstacles for people. Financial is obviously part of it, as a big topic across the world with inflation and money. And I think that's like a whole different topic that we could get into on a separate podcast episode, Katie, and saving money for travel and prioritizing why that is a good use of your money. Um, but yeah, I think that's a whole different topic. But the other obstacle, the one that I think uh, we will be diving more into, is time and responsibilities at home and pressures from friends, from family, from work, and from our daily obligations. I think a lot of people feel like there's no good time to take vacation because who's going to do my work for me while I'm away for a week? And fear of like—fear that I had when I was working a corporate office job of coming back to an inbox that was just so overwhelming that the thought of that made me want to not even turn it off for a week, cause I'm like, "Well, I'm going to come back to 3,000 emails, and that just doesn't seem like something that I want to do." So, would even—would either not take the trip or go on the trip but still be glancing at that inbox every day before bed. So I think, I think that's one part of it.
Sandra: And there's so much pressure, especially in the corporate world, but also for entrepreneurs, because you're running your business and you feel like you can't step away from it for a day or the entire thing is going to collapse. So I think from both perspectives, whether you're in a corporate setting and feeling that pressure of performing well and hitting your targets and being available for your team and being—being in the good eyes of your boss and fearing like you're—you can't take vacation or like your maybe your office doesn't feel very vacation friendly, where, like I've experienced in previous times, and my manager would say, "Oh, you didn't respond to my email during your vacation days!" And things like that make you feel like you can't take that time because it's just not accepted. And then from the entrepreneurial side, which I am struggling with now, Katie, is taking that time away and just feeling like everything in the business is going to set on fire if I take even one day away from my phone. So I think both sides are, um, dealing with different but similar types of obstacles.
Katie: You bring up a good point about that feeling of pressure, responsibility, and knowing that any break you take means a buildup of work, emails, you know, whatever it might be. So it feels like, "Why even take the break? Cause it's just—it's like punishment, right?" Then it's like, "However I go on vacation, I'm going to be punished with something—email, so much work I still have to catch up on." You're right, it makes it hard to want to take that trip or to take time off.
Katie: I remember the second job I had outside of my counseling training in my master's program. I had a wonderful boss, and she'd be like, "Go home! The work will be there tomorrow. It is okay, like, you will—there will never not be work, so just like just go home, like, rest, enjoy your weekend." And I was like, "Wow, like, thank you for being so chill about it." But she was right. The work will be there either way, whether I keep working, you know, long hours or I take a pause and come back to it. And it is just that mindset of remembering that you're important, and if you're not taking care of you, the work won't get done well anyways. So how do we start to work on ourselves to relax a little more, right? To enjoy the actual vacation than, like you said, like constantly checking the phone and checking the email and feeling like maybe I do need to respond? How do we start to set this up to have success on our vacation rather than that pressure?
Sandra: I think we start small. So, I'll do—sometimes I'll just do a Sunday without a phone, so even going out for—or even in the middle of a workday, take 30 minutes and go for a walk and leave your phone on your desk and close your laptop and just leave. Cause I am so guilty of going for a walk, and then I'm just on my phone anyways, like, "Well, this isn't really helping." So, um, starting small, just take that 30 minutes, take the hour, and then let's move on to a weekend, let's do a Friday to Sunday, and get out into nature, go spend some time with your friends and family, and be fully present in the moment. Because when you're always thinking about what needs to be done and your workload, then you're not being present for yourself, for your friends, for your family. And those are such a huge part of our wellbeing, self-care in our communities are huge for our overall health. And it's so, so important to prioritize that, and to really prioritize it. Not sitting at dinner with your friend and checking your phone because that's not—you're kind of half and half. Then when you're at work, you're feeling guilty that you don't spend enough time with your family or your friends, and then when you're with them, you're feeling guilty that you're not at your laptop doing work. And it's just such a vicious cycle. So I think it's so important to compartmentalize that and focus. When you're with your friends and your family, focus on that. Put your phone away, put it on 'Do Not Disturb' if you—cause I, I hate those flashing notifications, that's so hard to ignore. So put it on airplane mode or 'Do Not Disturb,' flip it upside down, whatever you need to do, but focus on what you're doing in that moment and take—and really take that time for yourself, knowing that, yeah, the work will be there, like you said, Katie, and you'll actually be more productive if you take that time for yourself.
Katie: Definitely, what a practical tool! Start small, pick a day of the weekend, just turn it off. You're right, you know, we always think like it's going to be all or nothing, but I think a baby step is exactly the right tip to go, "Okay," and then the weekend. And then here in Germany, they're notorious for these four-day weekends in May and June, like they have a crazy amount of vacation days that all of a sudden, because of public holidays, and it's like—I just think about those of you who are in Europe who maybe have more of that vacation time, like that, like a three-day weekend, a four-day weekend is the perfect time to practice this versus the actual vacation time. Um, and it does feel unsettling. What are things that you have done to help yourself when it—like you said, you put your phone on airplane mode, but the phone's still around, or if you leave your phone for the walk, but you come back and the phone is there? How do you regulate your nervous system to go, "I don't need to check my phone. I don't need to see what's going on for at work. I need to take care of me and rest"?
Sandra: Yeah, that's—oh, that's so hard, and I'm definitely still working on it. I really need to change my habit of like being on my phone right before bed, cause I feel like it's affecting my sleep, and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that. Or it's literally the first thing I look at when I wake up, which also is probably not the best way to start the day. So I'm definitely still working on it, but my like biggest tool that I found really helpful is calendar blocking and really sticking to it. And when you put it—when I put something on my calendar, whether it's something that like maybe other people are like, "Oh, why would that be in your calendar?" Like dinner with a friend, or a workout, or a simple walk, but when it's in my calendar and that notification pops up and you're like, "Okay, this is what I'm focusing on now." And same with walking—time blocking your days for your work tasks and trying to group them into, like I call it like type of task. So maybe, maybe I don't do calls on Mondays or Fridays, and those are my focus days of just answering emails or just doing whatever needs to be, like some writing, or whatever it is. And maybe you do just do—try and do all of your calls on Tuesday and Wednesday, because when you have different distractions throughout the day like that, I feel like it's very difficult to get back into that groove, and then, then you feel like you're behind, and then you're working late because you're trying to catch up. But if you're time blocking and grouping those similar tasks together, I think our brains focus a lot better when you do it that way. At least for me, that's—I found that super helpful.
Katie: Definitely. I'm finding in this kind of burnout culture that we're in—and I tend to call it a burnout culture because it's becoming like the thing, and it's normal, and you're like, "Well, when I had burnout, everybody has this conversation at parties, right? Like, 'Oh, I went through burnout too,' and you're like, 'Oh, cool, great, this is normal. Gosh, somebody's drinking the Kool-Aid. We're all drinking the Kool-Aid. We're all going through burnout.
Katie: But when we talk about this burnout culture, part of the responsibility to stop going through burnout is to take time off, to take your actual vacation days. You mention the fact that, you know, sometimes with work there's the expectation of like, "Why didn't you check your emails?" and things. It's—it's owning up to the responsibility that you have to take care of you, even though you might be in a work environment that does not take care of you. And that, I think, is really challenging, cause as you mention the economy, it's really hard to think, "Uh, yeah, I'm going to just stand up to my boss and be like, 'No, I'm not going to check my email on this week's vacation,' or even, you know, the three-day vacation, right?" But being able to really say, "Okay, I have to prioritize myself because," exactly what you said, Sandra, "I'm going to be way more productive when I do these things. I'm going to be able to time block. I'm going to be able to, you know, get things done and show them that it's worth me taking vacation," is a really big challenge. And so we're in this conundrum: do you burn out and do what, you know, what's needed for work, even as an entrepreneur, or do you take the time off and deal with the repercussions maybe from your boss or your employees or whomever, you know, is in your work environment? We feel really stuck, but this is really impacting our emotional and mental health. Have you found some—some ways, um, in the people that you—you help, you know, take these vacations and enjoy these trips, um, some support for them in those dynamics? Do they tend to ask you a lot of questions about like, "Well, how do I do this? Or will there be Wi-Fi?"
Katie: I'm sure you get that question: "Is there Wi-Fi there? Am I going to be able to check—bring my laptop?" Like, how do you help them to feel like it's okay to take this time off when other people around them may be going, "Why are you doing this trip? You've got so much on your plate."
Sandra: Yeah. Yeah, it's so hard. And I think that a lot of that does start from—from the top, and how—how do we tell—cause it's really like the corporations and the big, you know, the big companies that are making you feel like you have to be productive all the time, or they can replace you. And that's so scary to—to think, and it does feel super overwhelming and like we're never going to change that culture, but, um, yes, I get people asking me about, um, Wi-Fi all the time. But I think there are parts of the world that are doing it better than others, like Europe versus North America. Europeans are never asking me about the Wi-Fi situation. They—we're a lot better at—when you—at least in some parts of Europe, but they're like, "When I take vacation, that's my time. I'm taking that off, and I don't need to answer to anybody." So, and I think that the pandemic did help shift that a little, but also kind of blurred the lines because now there's people who can take those types of working vacations. And how productive is that in terms of rest if you're still kind of, um, turned in? So yeah, there's—it's a big—that's a big, hard, um, hard thing to tackle. What I do try to implement in the trips is—is kind of, I guess, a culture, or like a camaraderie, and you're in this small group, so you're really super focused on the experiences that you're having. There's often times where we're out of the hotel—I encourage people not to get a SIM card, but I totally understand you want to stay in touch with your family. I personally don't, if I am traveling and that is—and I'm not working, I don't get any kind of like phone service. So then outside of the hotel, where you don't have Wi-Fi, no notifications are coming through. I am so focused on the group and what we're doing and soaking it all in. So leading by example in that way. And then whether people choose to get a phone SIM card, that's up to them, but I—I personally don't when we're on those types of trips. But that's one way. And then, yeah, there's lots of like nature adventures where there's just no service. So that's solving that problem for people too.
Sandra: Sometimes you just have to force yourself to be in a place where it's literally impossible to be connected. So, yeah, maybe that—that's the solution for people who find it really hard, or you—like you take yourself to the middle of—and I'm doing a trip to Glacier this summer, and I'm like, at first was panicking, "I can't be there for seven days! That's no Wi-Fi for seven days! I can't—I can't do it!" And so, I mean, my solution is now doing four days, which I think is still pretty good, but there's literally no service. So maybe you just need to put yourself into a place where that is your only option, and that will show you that when you get back to your computer, what happened? Nothing. Everything is fine. You're fine. You didn't get fired. Your business is still thriving. So sometimes just kind of putting yourself into that situation and seeing that you feel so much more rejuvenated, you feel ready to go back to work—um, that's feedback that I've gotten from doing my like weekend camping trips, is people are like, "Wow, it was amazing to disconnect. It's only two days, and I feel so refreshed. I don't have the Sunday scaries this weekend. I feel ready to go back to work because I was disconnected for two days and was able to take that time to just clear your mind and have good conversations with people and not be on your phone and just be in nature." And there's something so powerful about time in nature, even if it's one hour, three hours a weekend, it's so powerful. And that's something we can all do, whether you're on vacation or not, to take a walk, you know, somewhere in nature on the weekend and, like you said, leave your phone.
Katie: I—I often think about, you know, there's obviously tons of generations that went without phones and cellphones constantly on them, and yet we feel this like, "How did they live? How on earth did we—you know, we survive?" Cause we don't have to be so tapped into each other. We don't have to be this way. And yet we created a world that feels like there's more benefits and consequences to it. And I think some of us are really seeing that the consequences are draining our personal batteries, while our cellphone batteries are draining at the same time. So it ends up, you know, being this thing where we go, "Okay, maybe it is worth going to see the glaciers and not having the cellphone service." I remember working with, um, clients who had, like, in surgeon or surgery, and—and they would say, you know, as a surgeon, like, "You're just constantly wired and on." And they would literally go on these week-long vacations away in the woods, no phone, and they said, "It's the only thing—like once a year that I do for myself, and I just—it's nice. It's quiet. There's usually a group of us, and I get completely," like you said, "I feel completely rejuvenated. I feel my batteries refilled, and I just know that once a year I can go and do that." And we forget the fact that even if it's not that it's your phone or your computer, just your job in general, whatever you're doing, whatever you have responsibility of, even if you're a stay-at-home parent, you have constant responsibility, that it is nice to just take a break from all of that. And I love that you organize these things, so it's like allow Sandra to be the one to organize that trip so that you don't have to be, right? You don't have to be responsible,
Sandra: You don't need to add planning to your task list. It's already too long.
Sandra: Definitely. I'd say people are like, "Okay, I want to—I want to take one of these trips. I want to learn about what you do." Where they find you, how do they learn about the trips you organize, and how do they get in touch with you?
Sandra: So it's Origin Travels—O R I G I N T R A V E L S—on Facebook and Instagram, and our website is origin-travels.com, and everything is there. You can reach out to me over email through the website or on Instagram, Facebook, whatever works.
Katie: Excellent. And what types of trips do you typically plan, so people can get an idea?
Sandra: So they'll typically be an eight- to nine-day core trip, and then we add something on, so you can choose based on your availability. And I work with locals around in that destination, so the trips are a balance of a cultural immersion experience, so you really get to feel the heart and soul of that country and its unique offerings, and a balance with nature and movement, your body in nature, so that you also get that escape and that vacation feeling. Um, so they're all—all a bit of a balance. So this year I have Peru coming up, East Coast Canada, Guatemala, which is a women's only trip, and seeing the Northern Lights in Finland. And then next year we'll have some different ones that are still not launched, so stay tuned.
Katie: That is awesome. Okay, yes, so go check out in the show notes below the information to connect and find her website. And, um, yeah, I just think what you do is amazing, Sandra, and a great—great idea because you're right, you know, it's nice to just let somebody else do all the planning. And the fact that you make sure that that person gets to enjoy the culture as well, not just like go and—like, "You're there, bye," to really be a part of it, I think, is really important. So, um, and the fact that you include the nature part, which is what we talked about earlier, so essential to being able to turn off and to—to rejuvenate.
Sandra: One hundred percent.
Katie: Well, thank you for your time, Sandra, and I hope that the listeners will take a look at your website and see if there's any trips coming up that they're like, "Yep, I got to go on that one," cause it sounds like you've got some incredible ones coming up. And I appreciate you sharing with us some tools of how we can start to slowly get adjusted to really taking our vacation days, last—fully—fully disconnecting, and it'll make you and become more productive. So absolutely, absolutely. And, dear listener, here's to finding our balance code.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Take a moment to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast platform. That helps other listeners just like you to find this podcast too. Want to connect and learn how we can work together? Check out the links in the show notes below. Discovering your balance code doesn't have to be a one-person journey. You can have a team, and I'd love to support you. So here's to finding our balance code.