July 22, 2025 • 33 mins
Traveling solo can feel like a wild ride on a rollercoaster, and today's guest, Amanda, is here to share her epic adventure on the Camino. She took a leap from her engineering life into the unknown, embarking on a month-long trek that turned out to be way tougher than she ever imagined. But fear not, because in the midst of blisters and unexpected challenges, she found not just the beauty of the trail but also the kindness of strangers and a deeper connection with herself. We dive into her journey of self-discovery, the importance of taking a breather from the daily grind, and how a little bit of faith can go a long way when you're feeling lost—both on the trail and in life. So, grab your headphones and let’s wander together into the Random and Wonderful world of travel, transformation, and maybe even a few toe tales!
Takeaways:
- Travel often leads to personal transformation, as shared through Amanda's inspiring journey on the Camino.
- Finding the courage to step away from burnout can open doors to new adventures and self-discovery.
- The Camino teaches that nature can be both beautiful and brutal, reminding us of life's unpredictability.
- Engaging with locals and experiencing their kindness can deeply enhance your travel experience, creating unforgettable memories.
Amanda Malm Bio:
Amanda Malm is a former systems engineer and program manager who spent 21 years at Lockheed Martin before making a bold pivot into wellness coaching. After experiencing deep burnout from nonstop work and travel, Amanda took a year-long sabbatical that completely reshaped her life. She now supports other professionals through burnout recovery and sabbatical planning, helping them heal and reset—whether they can step away from work or must recover while staying in it. Based in Oklahoma, Amanda is a proud pet mom, water aerobics enthusiast, and passionate advocate for intentional rest.
Connect with Amanda:
LinkedIn and IG: @sabbaticalshaman
Traveler's Mindset Course: https://www.amethystpalaverhut.com/podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, travelers. My name isGrace Simmons and this is the Random
and Wonderful podcast. Settlein and listen to stories of wanderlust
and transformation as you gaintips to inspire your next travel
experience. The Random andWonderful is brought to you by the
Amethyst Palaver Hut, LLC.
(00:25):
Amanda, welcome to the Randomand Wonderful. Thank you so much
for being my guest today.How's it going? Good.
Thank you so much for havingme. I'm excited to be here.
You are so welcome. Thanks foraccepting my. My random call out.
So I was telling Amandaearlier that I had heard from Edwin,
who was my first introductionto this Camino or like this pilgrimage
(00:50):
as a traveler. And I wasalways curious about, well, how do
you even find it? What doesthat even mean? So we'll get into
all that, but I'm. I'm excitedthat I'm meeting other people who
have had either the same orsimilar journey. So each person's
experience has been somethingdifferent and unique and I'm excited
to just to learn a little bitmore about it. So before we get into
(01:12):
that fun story, Amanda, pleasetell us a little bit about yourself
and what you do and how itrelates to travel.
Sure. So my name's Amanda. Ilive in Oklahoma. I was a professional
engineer for 21 years and Iwas towards the end of my career
in 2018 when I actually tookthis month long sabbatical to go
(01:33):
hike the Camino, which we'llget into more later. And that was
the longest I'd ever taken offfrom work was that month at a time.
And it made me go, man, I wantmore of this. Well then, you know,
fast forward a couple years.We had Covid world just kind of imploded
and I found myself very burntout. So I actually left engineering
completely. Left, stepped awaycompletely from my career. Took a
(01:56):
year off to focus on myself, afull sabb to heal from burnout. And
now I coach others throughburnout. Either people who are able
to take some time off andfocus on themselves or they have
to do it while still working.So, yeah, that's just a little bit
about my journey.
Nice.
So that was. Oh, go ahead. Iwas gonna say I'm not really in the
(02:19):
travel world. I just, I amvery passionate about travel. So
I've always done like lots ofweekend trips, lots of exploration.
I've done some bigger trips,but I just believe that there's so
much in this world to go doand. And it just brings so much joy
to me. I get like a kid whenit comes to planning a trip, even
if it's a weekend likeyesterday we went to see Big Boy,
(02:41):
the steam powered locomotive.And it was a half day trip and I
was so gosh darn excited tosee a train just because I could.
I love that though. That waskind of a fun surprise for me anyway,
where, yes, I'm interested tohear about your, your trip on the
Camino. But then I also gotreally giddy because I was like,
(03:01):
oh my goodness, she's also acoach. Now I go to get into how like
that works with developmentand all that good stuff. So, yeah,
we'll talk about that. Okay,about that a little bit more later.
How did you even. So goingback to talking about burnout, what
was that step of you realizingone, that you were burned out and
then there was something thatcould be done about it?
(03:24):
Yes, that's. That's a goodquestion. That's a big question.
So I worked in the defenseindustry, which is really tough.
And it's, it's a lot of highpressure, a lot of stress. And even
through Covid, I was stillgoing into the office every day.
And I was also traveling forwork all the time, 10 plus hour days.
And I am very much an empathicperson and so stress and empath don't
(03:49):
really mix. And then I alsodealt Covid stuff. I dealt in the
middle of the COVID stuff witha. I became a program program manager.
My boss died unexpectedly andI took over his role. And then my
new boss made a sexuallyinappropriate comment and I had to
deal with that andretribution. And it was a very long
(04:09):
and involved and very, verystressful situation. And I actually
still trudged it out for likeanother year and a half beyond that
until I finally hit this oneweek where it was just a bad week
at work. You know, we've allhad those. And I kind of looked around
and was like, eff it, I'mdone. I've hit my moment. And so
(04:31):
I walked away after that. Andhonestly, that year break was really,
really good for me. I was ableto move in with my boyfriend so we
had. We could stop doing thelong distance. I was able to play
around with different types ofexercise and figure out I love water
aerobics. I never would haveguessed that. I now do it like five
times a week. And then I wasable to read and just really focus
(04:53):
in on me and. And I watchedthings like my sleep improve. I stopped
sn boring. My resting heartrate went down several beats per
minute. You know, like allthose good health indicators. And
it also made me realize howstressed out and burnt out. I had
been, you know, I wasn'twaking up in the middle of the night
anymore in that cold sweatgoing, oh, God, I forgot to email
(05:13):
this person. You know, thosethings were gone and I was able to
truly just relax. It wasawesome. I very much needed it.
I am like that. Just youtalking through the release of all
these different things andsome of those indicators, I think,
unfortunately, when you'reoperating day to day within that
(05:35):
mindset of, I must do this, Ihave to do that, you don't take the
time to actually check in withyourself until either you've removed
yourself from that situationor it gets really severe. Right.
And you have to have a hardstop and consider what some of those
signs were that you maybemissed. So I'm grateful that you
have had that chance to beable to take a step away. And unfortunately,
(05:59):
they had to deal with all thethings that came up to.
Yeah, yeah, that step away wasreally good. And I'm very grateful
that I had that privilege andthat ability to step away for a year
to just focus on me and that Ihad a support system around me. And,
you know, I have a bunch offur children who just loved on me
and loved having me around.And my boyfriend was very, very supportive
of, hey, what do you need? Youknow, like, our communication skills
(06:23):
truly improved and becamereally wonderful during that time
frame because it was a lot ofchecking in of, hey, where are you
today? What's going on? Like,you know, just, what do you need
from me? What can I provide toyou? And realizing, you know what?
This is that time in therelationship where I'm taking more
than I'm giving, and he's okaywith that. And so it was truly a
(06:45):
beautiful year. It was. It wasgood. There were some hard moments,
but I came out well on theother side.
Wow. Well, let's get into yourjourney with the Camino. How did
you find it? How did you evenstart? Like, where do we even begin
with this? How did you findthe Camino?
I am a terrible movie watcher.And the reason I say that is I'll
(07:07):
be watching a movie andthere's like, a reference to, like,
a random place or they'refilming in some place that I'm like,
oh, my God, that's amazing.And Pretty soon the TVs turned off
and I am just, like, headsdown, like, looking at photos and
researching the location. AndI saw a reference to this Camino
called the Way of St. Benedictin a movie. And I couldn't even tell
(07:28):
you what movie it was. I don'tthink I ever even finished it because
I next. I then spent threehours researching the Camino and
just became enthralled withthis idea of walking through Italy
like that. And, you know, I'dseen the way where it's all about
the Camino de Santiago, and.And I was like, man, that sounds
amazing, but it's like 500miles. That's a long ways. And so
(07:50):
I kind of, you know, Iresearched the way of Saint Benedict
in Italy and went, wow, that'sbeautiful. And then I kind of backburnered
it. A few months later, I'mout at a happy hour with some friends,
and one of them turned to me.He was like, you're turning 40 this
year. What are you doing tocelebrate? And before I even realized
consciously what I was saying,I heard the words coming out of my
mouth, going. Going to hikethis Camino. And he was like, okay.
(08:14):
And he gave me a look, andthen he's like, you know what? If
there's anyone who will dosomething random like that, it is
you. And the guy I was datingat the time was supposed to go with
me, and then he backed out. Weended up breaking up. And I was like,
you know what? I'm going on myown. Screw it. And for the people
who can't see me, I'm a verycurvy girl. The biggest hike I'd
(08:37):
ever done was, like, threemiles. And, you know, and it was
fairly flat, so I truly wasn'treally sure what I was walking into.
And the people at REI werephenomenal because I went to the
classes that they offeredwhere they were like, hey, pack this.
Don't worry about packingthis. I spent a lot of time working
with the people in rei. Like,you know, I think I spent a whole
(08:59):
day on, like, getting my pack,you know, and, like, the right size
and having it fitted. And theywalked me through how every single
strap works. What's the properway to pack it? Like, I can't sing
the praises of REI enough.They did amazing with helping me.
And, you know, then I spentprobably about six months, like,
figuring out, like, okay, howdoes this work? What does it look
(09:21):
like? You know, where do Istay each night? How do I get there?
Like, the logistics portion?And then wearing this new pack that
I had and walking aroundTexas, you know, on the weekends
for, like, six to 10 miles ata time, and getting a feel for. How
does this feel on my back?Like, how does this feel in my body?
And am I really doing thisright? You know, because there is
(09:43):
a healthy amount of, what am Idoing? You know, because it's one
thing to do a hike like this,but then to do it as a curvy female
alone in a foreign country,like, there's just. There's a lot
of layers there. So, yeah, Itook off the whole month of May of
2018 and flew over to Rome,caught a train to where the first
(10:05):
stop was in the hike. And it'sa tiny little speck of a town called
Norcia. Fortunately, by then,somebody had developed a guidebook
in English. And I came tolearn that they left a lot of details
out. Like, yeah, so it wasreally great for describing the trail
and describing, like, hey,here's the places to stay each night,
because you're in all thesetiny, tiny little towns. So you start
(10:28):
in a mountain town and thenyou hike down the mountain, across
a valley, up another mountainto another town, and there's really
nothing in between. And soyou've got to make each town, if
you're lucky, there might belike an agriturismo somewhere along
the way that you could stop atif you needed to, but there really
weren't a lot of those. Andthis, this particular Camino is not
(10:49):
super well known outside ofItaly, which means there's not a
lot of, like, hotels. It's notbuilt up the way the Camino in Spain
is built up. So you got tomake your towns each day. And it
also means logistic wise, yougotta, like, plan quite a bit in
advance. It also means there'snot a lot of people on the trail,
which is good and bad, becauseyou really get that chance to, like,
(11:12):
turn inward and dive intoyourself and, you know, have time
with your thoughts, which wedon't always get in our busy lives.
But it also means you're onyour own on the trail if anything
happens. So it was good andbad in both experiences.
Yeah. How did you encourageyourself? How long did you take first
(11:34):
off on this trip?
Yeah. So the trail itself isabout 170 miles, and it's broken
up into a whole bunch ofstages, broken up into 16 stages.
So it starts in Norcia, wherehe is, where St. Benedict was born,
and then it ends in MonteCassino where he is. I think that's
where he's buried. And it'sthis trail that he walked several
(11:56):
times in his life. And so thestops along the trail, you know,
some of them have to do withthe villages just because it's the
only village in the area.Others are important stops to the
way in the life of St.Benedict himself. Like one of the
big stops that I'd recommendeveryone just. Even if you don't
do the hike that you go see isthis area called secrid speco. Sorry,
(12:16):
sacred speco, Just outside ofthe town called subiaco. And it's
where he meditated in a cavefor three years. And so it's this
beautiful monastery that'sbeen built up on the side of this
mountain. It's. I can'tdescribe it. My words will not do
it justice. But you can walkup this mountain and you can walk
(12:37):
in, and then you walk downinto the bowels of the mountain and
around all these curves, theyhave different rooms with altars
and paintings, and it's just.It's very, very gorgeous. So, yeah,
best stop of the trail. I'mnot gonna lie. That that stop was.
It still gives me chills whenI think about it. I just. I love
that stop. So I will admit,like, this hike was much harder on
(13:02):
my body than I thought itwould be. So I only made it to subiaco.
It was about. About 2/3 of theway through the hike, About a hundred
ish miles. And then afterthat, I ended my hike early because
I ended up, like, having threetoenails come off because the shoes
that I had. Texas is prettyflat, and I'd done all my hiking
and preparation on flat turf.I should have thrown in a stairmaster,
(13:26):
which is my bad. That is. Thatis a lesson learned on me. But there
was a lot of, as I said, upand down on the trails. And one of
the first days on the trail,it was just downpouring. And so you're
walking through this rain, andit's. There's nowhere you can go
hide or nowhere you can, like,seek shelter for a little bit. So
it's like, well, I'm justgoing to keep walking. And ended
(13:47):
up on part of the trail. Andit was a legitimate portion of the
trail, but it was downhillrocky. And so here I am with my poles,
and I ended up in the lbetween your forefinger and your
thumb, that area of your hand.I had bruises and then blisters on
top of the bruises. And thenmy toes were hitting the front of
(14:08):
my shoes. And so that sectionreally just kind of destroyed me
physically. And so, which iswhy I ended after subiaco because
one of the other people on thetrail was actually a trauma nurse
from germany who looked at myfeet, and she was like, you're done.
She's like, here's what youneed to do to heal them. But you
can't keep hiking. And I wasvery grateful that I ran into her
(14:33):
mentally to keep myself goingbecause I was out on the trail quite
a bit by myself. I wouldactually talk aloud to God.
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(14:53):
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And one of the things that Ihad mentioned to you before this
(15:15):
and put in the, the questionsthat you asked me beforehand was
there was one day I was like,man, what am I doing here? Like,
why did I think this was agreat idea? And I was like filled
with all those doubts like,what the heck have I done? You know?
And I'm like on the verge oflike full on panic attack. And I
just start talking out loud toGod like, hey, I need some help,
(15:36):
please help me. And all of asudden a dog appeared. And that dog,
he could tell every time likemy energy was failing and he would
just circle around me and kindof do like these little yippee barks
and just kept walking with me.And then every few miles like another
dog would appear and it waslike there, there was a handoff between
these dogs and. And theyliterally walked me all the way to
(15:58):
the edge of town. And it wasone of these where, you know, I get
to the edge of the town andthen you look and the mountain is
like up. It's like straightup. And I'm like, oh man. Okay, I
got this. And where the dogwalked away from me, I looked up
and here's a car mechanic shopand the owner's looking at me and
he was like ma'. Am. And hesaid something to me in Italian and
(16:20):
I was like. And I must havelooked roughly because next thing
I know one of his employeescomes out who can speak English,
translates. And the owner waslike, my people will take you up
the mountain. And I was like,oh thank God. And that was actually
the last day that I hiked onthe trail itself because the next
day was supposed to be my20ish mile hike to Subiaco and where
(16:46):
I'd spent the night. They werelike, hey, you know you can take
a bus halfway. And it's like,oh great, perfect. And I Go to get
on the bus. And the busdriver's like, you can only buy a
ticket for the full distance.And I was like, it's a sign. It's
a sign. Yeah. Yeah. All right.And, I mean, I still ended up walking,
like, eight or nine miles thatday by the time I went up to see
(17:07):
Sacred Speco and then backdown. And, you know, there's a lot
of stuff there I wanted to gosee. So it wasn't like I just was
sitting around in a park,which would have been glorious, but,
you know, I was still walkingquite a bit. I just wasn't actually
on the trail itself. Andanother thing about the. The Camino
is because there's so fewpeople. You're seeing maybe 10 people
(17:28):
total each day. And I'll neverforget, and this is something I talk
quite a bit about with myfriends and family that first day
that, like, I came into Romeafter being on this trail for a couple
weeks. Get to Rome, and it'slike, oh, my God, there's smells
and people and soundseverywhere. It was almost like a
sensory overload, because you.You've been able to just completely
(17:49):
commune with nature. You'redeep in your own thoughts. You know,
you don't have a lot of, like,just humanity around you. And all
the people that I had beenexposed to on the Camino were so
lovely and so friendly and sohelpful and really just restored
my sense of, you know, justhow wonderful people can be. The
(18:09):
kindness of strangers. It'sprobably a better phrase. So then
when I got to Rome, I waslike, oh, my gosh. Feeling a little
overwhelmed now by being backin society. Yeah. Yeah. And when
I talk about the kindness ofstrangers, like, there were so many
moments, like that gentlemanwho had one of his employees take
me straight up the mountain,because it was about a mile straight
up. There was another day,like, I'd been hiking, and it rained
(18:31):
a lot. Apparently May is therainy season, and did not know that
in advance.
Good note. Good note, right?
Yeah. And, I mean, I had allof my rain gear, but, like, I had
left this one town calledRiti, and I was hiking, and, you
know, you're along a river,and. And it's just. It's really beautiful,
and it's flat and it'sfarmland, and I've gone about eight
(18:52):
miles, and it never stoppedraining. It's like that gentle downpour,
you know, where it just. Itjust never breaks. And then I find
myself, and it's the onlystretch of the trail that was on
a highway. And I'm on thehighway, and all of a sudden this
car comes, this voice boomsout going, you must be one of my
pilgrims. And he's like, Idon't have room for you in my car,
(19:12):
but I'll be back in 20minutes. Yeah. And so each of these
towns were really small, sothere was only one or two places
to stay in each town. And theyall knew who was on the trail each
day. And so all these people,they. They talked to each other between
the towns. They had what theycalled trail angels who monitored
each section of the trail andwho was on it each day, because you
(19:33):
had to register that you weregoing to be on the trail. So they
really kept track of who wasthere. They didn't want to lose a
pilgrim that would kind oflook bad for tourism. And so this
guy, he had looked out hiswindow mid afternoon. He looked out
his window mid afternoon andwas like, oh, my gosh, it is. It's
not stopped raining, my poorpilgrims. And he just came and collected
all of us, and he had coffeewaiting, and he was like, it doesn't
(19:56):
matter if you're staying atthe other place. I'm just picking
you all up. Yeah, it was sosweet. And then he. As I said, he
gave us all coffee andcroissants, and then he gave us a
little walking tour of histown because he was like, I want.
I want you to see my town. Andjust that level of kindness, I experienced
every single stage of theCamino. It truly was wonderful just
(20:17):
how open and caring and kindstrangers were to each other.
I've muted slightly becausepeople have decided to cut grass
right in front of my house,but I'm like, as you were talking,
especially about the story ofthe little dogs coming to, you know,
(20:37):
encourage you and take youinto town, like, my eyes are filling
with tears because I'mremembering some of those moments
where, especially when you'retraveling by yourself, and that's
one of those things that youlearn is while you are on your own,
right? You have that peace andsolitude. You're also on your own.
And so to be able to kind ofhave like, an answered prayer instantly
of that encouragement andcomfort and safety, I. Oh, my goodness.
(21:02):
It's incredible, and it's soheartwarming, obviously, that you've
had that experience and justwas motivated to just keep going.
Yeah, it really helped myfaith to my. My belief in God and
that. You know, I'd grown upCatholic and went to church, read
the Bible, but it's completelydifferent to, you know, you start
talking out loud and prayingto God, and you get that immediate
(21:25):
sign and realize that he'sthere and he's sending help. He is
sending, you know, somethingto help you, something to encourage
you. And it's like, I'd neverreally truly experienced that. I'd
heard others talk about it,but it is very different to experience
it yourself, where you're justlike, oh, oh, this is what that means.
(21:45):
And it just. It deepened myfaith so much. So I think back on
that often.
I'm glad you. You alluded tothat, because I'm actually going
to. I was curious, what aresome other things that you've learned
about yourself through this experience?
So one of the things thatCamina taught me is I can just really
do anything I set my mind to,and, you know, no matter how much,
(22:08):
like, I prepare, things arenever gonna go how you plan ever.
You know, Like, I couldn'thave anticipated that the toe box
on my shoe was just a littlebit wrong. And, you know, I was gonna
end up, like, losing threetoenails and not be able to wear
shoes for a couple monthsafter I just wore sandals. Like,
I couldn't have anticip.Anticipated that. I couldn't have
(22:30):
anticipated just the. Thefeelings of being alone in the trail.
You've gone several miles, andyou're like, what the heck have I
done? You know, like, thatpart didn't even cross my mind because
I'm a pretty independentperson. And then, you know, you get
on the trail and, like, it'svery humbling to have mother nature
kind of kick your butt. And sohiking the Camino, I. I really learned,
(22:55):
hey, you know what? There's asolution for everything. It's probably
not what I anticipated, butI'm also going to make it through
no matter what and be thebetter for the experience. So I can
tell you, after that, like, Ireturned back to the States, returned
back to my engineering career,and, you know, I really had a much
(23:15):
greater appreciation for whatI was doing. Unfortunately, like
I will admit, I got burnt outafter that, so I kind of had to relearn
some of those lessons. But thetrail itself taught me a lot. A lot
about myself. Of, you knowwhat, When I need to just get back
into nature, you know, and askfor help.
(23:36):
Yeah. Do you have. And I knowyou're helping other people with
their sabbaticals, but do youalso take time off for your. For
yourself?
Yeah. So since I startedsabbatical coaching, I do not do
it full time. Okay. That isone of the hard limits. I've set
for myself of I'm probablynever going to do like a 9 to 5 type
of job again. And I do thisfor only a couple hours a day. The
(24:00):
rest of the time I still focuson me. You know, like, working out
is a priority. Eating healthyis a priority. So, like, we've pulled
all the processed foods out ofour diets and I've become one of
these bread making people. Inever thought that would happen.
But what's your favorite kindof bread to make?
Honestly, just basic bread. Itturns out I've got a lot of food
allergens and so by doingthings like making bread, I can keep
(24:23):
all the food allergens out ofour diets. Yeah, it's been very interesting
learning that. And that wasanother thing on the trail that I
noticed, like, the food overthere just truly was so much better.
And it never, oh my goodness,it never bothered me. Like, here
I eat something that I'm like,man, that should be fine. And like
an hour later I'm like, Idon't feel so great. And over there,
(24:47):
like, I never once hadproblems, never had to reach for
tums, never had to be like, ohman, don't know what hit, but I need
some time.
Yep.
And also too, like in allthose little towns, like, you get
done hiking at the end of theday and you know, there's a handful
of restaurants in each town ifyou're lucky. But it was some of
the best food I've ever had inmy life because all the food would
(25:09):
come from within a few miles.And I joke, like, there's this tiny
little town called Trevi VanNase. I'm going to go back just for
the pasta that I had therebecause she'd made it fresh that
morning with olive oil fromlike, she pointed to the hill it
came from. I mean, it was incredible.
Yes. There's something aboutfood. I've always thought. I think
(25:31):
one of the misunderstandings Ihad is like, oh, yeah, I feel great
when I'm out of the countrybecause, you know, maybe I'm walking
around a little bit more orwhatnot, are more active. But there's
a complete difference betweenthe way their food is local and it's
cared for and what's in it.And so you feel even better whether
(25:52):
or not you're, you know,walking around or not.
There's. I completely agreewith that.
Oh, my goodness. Now I'mthinking about food. Okay, what's
one piece of advice that youwould give someone who is curious
about taking a sabbatical?
(26:14):
Probably really dig into whatdo you want to get out of the sabbatical?
You know, is it, do you wantto go do something like hiking a
Camino? Do you want to reallytake the time to focus on yourself?
You know, do you want to deepdive into something random? You know,
like you want to go learn thetango, or, you know, like you want
to immerse yourself in someexperience, like taking a class or
(26:38):
learning a language, like,what are you hoping to get out of
the sabbatical? Then you canplan around that. But if you just
want to take a sabbatical,take a sabbatical. It's like, I can
appreciate that, but kind of,what's the goal here? You know, let's
talk about the goal, the why,and then we can figure out the rest.
On that same note, are theresome mistakes that people make, maybe
(27:01):
jumping headfirst into asabbatical without having that intention
or planning?
Probably the biggest mistakeis how to approach the conversation
with the employer about takingthat time off. You know, because
people get excited about asabbatical and, you know, it could
be that they're planning totake it off in six months and so
they go talk to theiremployer. Now, most employers are
(27:22):
thinking one to three monthtime frame. So six months from now,
they're like, what, come backlater? Or they're like, oh, this
is a phase, it's going to go,go, going to go away. Or, or conversely,
there's also people who arelike, hey, in like a week from now,
I'm taking off like a couplemonths, and it's like, wait, what?
You know, there, there areways to approach that conversation.
(27:46):
And that's where I see mostmistakes happen.
You asked if I was compilingthe stories that I kind of collect
on this podcast into a book.So someone else has asked me about
that and I'm. I'm not activelyworking towards a book, but I am
very casually collectingstories. I think there are so many
different lessons that couldbe learned. And from my own personal
(28:09):
experience, I use travel aslike a way to build my confidence
and strengthen my own personaland professional development. And
so the more I talk to people,I find it interesting how their experiences
have also impacted them. Maybenot in the same way that it has impacted
me or I feel like made mebetter, but I think it's always interesting
(28:32):
just to see the decisions thatpeople have taken because of an experience
that they've had. And I thinkthere's so many lessons that could
be learned that I enjoysharing and I enjoy having, like,
conversations like this soeven if I've met someone else who
has experienced the sameCamino that you did, I'm sure that
your experience is completelydifferent from theirs and there's
(28:53):
still so much to learn withinit. So, yeah, that's something that
I'll, I'll always consider asfar as writing a book. But I don't
know, like, this is my way ofsharing these, these stories with
other people.
I like it. Yeah. And, and Ilove hearing about people's travels.
I joke. I am the biggest hypeperson when it comes to travel because
(29:15):
I'm like, when someone's like,oh, I'm thinking about going somewhere,
I'm like, tell me more. Why doyou want to go there? Like, what
are you gonna see? What areyou gonna do? Where are you gonna
eat? Like, tell me everything.And it's like, I'm not trying to
be super intense. I just, Ilove to talk about travel because
it's, it's one of these, youknow, adventures that we get to have
in this world. You know, weget the privilege of having. And
(29:35):
there's so many places, Ican't go to them all. You can't go
to the mall, but when otherpeople go places, it's like, oh,
I'll probably never go there.Or, oh, I've never even thought about
that place. I'm like, tell me,tell me why you want to go there.
How did it come to yourattention? You know, like, what is
the draw for you? I just wantto hear it all.
Yeah, give me the details andsend me pictures, please.
(29:59):
Like, exactly, Exactly.
Do you have a trip planned?Actually, speaking of, do you have
anything coming up?
So no big trips, but. So myboyfriend and I's birthdays are a
month apart and ouranniversary is in the middle, so
we are actually planning afour day weekend to Memphis to celebrate.
So we don't do gifts. Instead,what we do every year is we plan
(30:22):
a weekend away. So last yearwe went to Dodge City, Kansas and
explored, you know, kind ofthe beginnings of the Wild West.
Now we're going to Memphis tosee Graceland, and we've just, we've
got a bunch of stuff like thatplanned, and we're talking about
getting an RV and reallyexploring more of the United States
because there's so much here.
(30:42):
Oh yeah, absolutely. Thatsounds so fun though. I like that.
While I do encourageinternational travel, there are so
many little hidden pocketsaround the United States that people
can enjoy. Especially forthose who are uncomfortable with
traveling or, you know, a longflight or something like that. You
could rent an rv, get a car,go explore some of your local areas
(31:06):
and just see what's herebecause there's so much.
Completely agree with that.
Wow. Okay, before I go, mypersonal favorite question, I always
love to ask, what is a selfcare practice that maybe you incorporate
into your travel or that youuse for yourself?
(31:28):
I do a lot of breath work, soI studied yoga for a long, long time.
Or I should say I practicedyoga for a long, long time. And the
breath work portions werealways really good. So like I found
that they helped me focus andreally come back to myself. Because
when you travel overseasespecially and you know, you, you
don't speak the language andyou might get a little lost trying
(31:50):
to read the maps, you know,there's always going to be that moment
of what have I done? And I'vealways found if I can take a second
and chill out and just focuson my breath, it all calms out and
works out. So breath work. Okay.
So are you still takingclients for your sabbatical coaching?
What kind of clients are youlooking for and how do people connect
(32:12):
with you?
Yeah, so I am still very muchtaking clients. People can connect
with me through LinkedIn orInstagram, either one. And I think
you'll probably hopefully linkthem in the show notes. And I work
with people mostly one on onebecause everyone's sabbatical is
different. Everyone's need forsabbatical is different and I don't
know how that could be done ina container format. So I prefer one
(32:35):
on one. Excellent.
Amanda, thank you so much forbeing my guest today. I really appreciate
it and thank you for sharingyour travel experience on the Camino.
Yeah, thank you so much forhaving me. This has been fun.
Hey there, Grace.
Here.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode and gained some useful takeaways.
Thank you so much forlistening and staying until the end.
(32:58):
Don't forget to rate the showor share it with some friends. Have
a wonderful week. Take careand remember, be bold, be curious.
Be ready to tell your story.You never know who needs it.
Bye.
Bye.
Hello, travelers. My name isGrace Simmons and this is the Random
and Wonderful podcast. Settlein and listen to stories of wanderlust
and transformation as you gaintips to inspire your next travel
experience. The Random andWonderful is brought to you by the
Amethyst Palaver Hut, LLC.
(00:25):
Amanda, welcome to the Randomand Wonderful. Thank you so much
for being my guest today.How's it going? Good.
Thank you so much for havingme. I'm excited to be here.
You are so welcome. Thanks foraccepting my. My random call out.
So I was telling Amandaearlier that I had heard from Edwin,
who was my first introductionto this Camino or like this pilgrimage
(00:50):
as a traveler. And I wasalways curious about, well, how do
you even find it? What doesthat even mean? So we'll get into
all that, but I'm. I'm excitedthat I'm meeting other people who
have had either the same orsimilar journey. So each person's
experience has been somethingdifferent and unique and I'm excited
to just to learn a little bitmore about it. So before we get into
(01:12):
that fun story, Amanda, pleasetell us a little bit about yourself
and what you do and how itrelates to travel.
Sure. So my name's Amanda. Ilive in Oklahoma. I was a professional
engineer for 21 years and Iwas towards the end of my career
in 2018 when I actually tookthis month long sabbatical to go
(01:33):
hike the Camino, which we'llget into more later. And that was
the longest I'd ever taken offfrom work was that month at a time.
And it made me go, man, I wantmore of this. Well then, you know,
fast forward a couple years.We had Covid world just kind of imploded
and I found myself very burntout. So I actually left engineering
completely. Left, stepped awaycompletely from my career. Took a
(01:56):
year off to focus on myself, afull sabb to heal from burnout. And
now I coach others throughburnout. Either people who are able
to take some time off andfocus on themselves or they have
to do it while still working.So, yeah, that's just a little bit
about my journey.
Nice.
So that was. Oh, go ahead. Iwas gonna say I'm not really in the
(02:19):
travel world. I just, I amvery passionate about travel. So
I've always done like lots ofweekend trips, lots of exploration.
I've done some bigger trips,but I just believe that there's so
much in this world to go doand. And it just brings so much joy
to me. I get like a kid whenit comes to planning a trip, even
if it's a weekend likeyesterday we went to see Big Boy,
(02:41):
the steam powered locomotive.And it was a half day trip and I
was so gosh darn excited tosee a train just because I could.
I love that though. That waskind of a fun surprise for me anyway,
where, yes, I'm interested tohear about your, your trip on the
Camino. But then I also gotreally giddy because I was like,
(03:01):
oh my goodness, she's also acoach. Now I go to get into how like
that works with developmentand all that good stuff. So, yeah,
we'll talk about that. Okay,about that a little bit more later.
How did you even. So goingback to talking about burnout, what
was that step of you realizingone, that you were burned out and
then there was something thatcould be done about it?
(03:24):
Yes, that's. That's a goodquestion. That's a big question.
So I worked in the defenseindustry, which is really tough.
And it's, it's a lot of highpressure, a lot of stress. And even
through Covid, I was stillgoing into the office every day.
And I was also traveling forwork all the time, 10 plus hour days.
And I am very much an empathicperson and so stress and empath don't
(03:49):
really mix. And then I alsodealt Covid stuff. I dealt in the
middle of the COVID stuff witha. I became a program program manager.
My boss died unexpectedly andI took over his role. And then my
new boss made a sexuallyinappropriate comment and I had to
deal with that andretribution. And it was a very long
(04:09):
and involved and very, verystressful situation. And I actually
still trudged it out for likeanother year and a half beyond that
until I finally hit this oneweek where it was just a bad week
at work. You know, we've allhad those. And I kind of looked around
and was like, eff it, I'mdone. I've hit my moment. And so
(04:31):
I walked away after that. Andhonestly, that year break was really,
really good for me. I was ableto move in with my boyfriend so we
had. We could stop doing thelong distance. I was able to play
around with different types ofexercise and figure out I love water
aerobics. I never would haveguessed that. I now do it like five
times a week. And then I wasable to read and just really focus
(04:53):
in on me and. And I watchedthings like my sleep improve. I stopped
sn boring. My resting heartrate went down several beats per
minute. You know, like allthose good health indicators. And
it also made me realize howstressed out and burnt out. I had
been, you know, I wasn'twaking up in the middle of the night
anymore in that cold sweatgoing, oh, God, I forgot to email
(05:13):
this person. You know, thosethings were gone and I was able to
truly just relax. It wasawesome. I very much needed it.
I am like that. Just youtalking through the release of all
these different things andsome of those indicators, I think,
unfortunately, when you'reoperating day to day within that
(05:35):
mindset of, I must do this, Ihave to do that, you don't take the
time to actually check in withyourself until either you've removed
yourself from that situationor it gets really severe. Right.
And you have to have a hardstop and consider what some of those
signs were that you maybemissed. So I'm grateful that you
have had that chance to beable to take a step away. And unfortunately,
(05:59):
they had to deal with all thethings that came up to.
Yeah, yeah, that step away wasreally good. And I'm very grateful
that I had that privilege andthat ability to step away for a year
to just focus on me and that Ihad a support system around me. And,
you know, I have a bunch offur children who just loved on me
and loved having me around.And my boyfriend was very, very supportive
of, hey, what do you need? Youknow, like, our communication skills
(06:23):
truly improved and becamereally wonderful during that time
frame because it was a lot ofchecking in of, hey, where are you
today? What's going on? Like,you know, just, what do you need
from me? What can I provide toyou? And realizing, you know what?
This is that time in therelationship where I'm taking more
than I'm giving, and he's okaywith that. And so it was truly a
(06:45):
beautiful year. It was. It wasgood. There were some hard moments,
but I came out well on theother side.
Wow. Well, let's get into yourjourney with the Camino. How did
you find it? How did you evenstart? Like, where do we even begin
with this? How did you findthe Camino?
I am a terrible movie watcher.And the reason I say that is I'll
(07:07):
be watching a movie andthere's like, a reference to, like,
a random place or they'refilming in some place that I'm like,
oh, my God, that's amazing.And Pretty soon the TVs turned off
and I am just, like, headsdown, like, looking at photos and
researching the location. AndI saw a reference to this Camino
called the Way of St. Benedictin a movie. And I couldn't even tell
(07:28):
you what movie it was. I don'tthink I ever even finished it because
I next. I then spent threehours researching the Camino and
just became enthralled withthis idea of walking through Italy
like that. And, you know, I'dseen the way where it's all about
the Camino de Santiago, and.And I was like, man, that sounds
amazing, but it's like 500miles. That's a long ways. And so
(07:50):
I kind of, you know, Iresearched the way of Saint Benedict
in Italy and went, wow, that'sbeautiful. And then I kind of backburnered
it. A few months later, I'mout at a happy hour with some friends,
and one of them turned to me.He was like, you're turning 40 this
year. What are you doing tocelebrate? And before I even realized
consciously what I was saying,I heard the words coming out of my
mouth, going. Going to hikethis Camino. And he was like, okay.
(08:14):
And he gave me a look, andthen he's like, you know what? If
there's anyone who will dosomething random like that, it is
you. And the guy I was datingat the time was supposed to go with
me, and then he backed out. Weended up breaking up. And I was like,
you know what? I'm going on myown. Screw it. And for the people
who can't see me, I'm a verycurvy girl. The biggest hike I'd
(08:37):
ever done was, like, threemiles. And, you know, and it was
fairly flat, so I truly wasn'treally sure what I was walking into.
And the people at REI werephenomenal because I went to the
classes that they offeredwhere they were like, hey, pack this.
Don't worry about packingthis. I spent a lot of time working
with the people in rei. Like,you know, I think I spent a whole
(08:59):
day on, like, getting my pack,you know, and, like, the right size
and having it fitted. And theywalked me through how every single
strap works. What's the properway to pack it? Like, I can't sing
the praises of REI enough.They did amazing with helping me.
And, you know, then I spentprobably about six months, like,
figuring out, like, okay, howdoes this work? What does it look
(09:21):
like? You know, where do Istay each night? How do I get there?
Like, the logistics portion?And then wearing this new pack that
I had and walking aroundTexas, you know, on the weekends
for, like, six to 10 miles ata time, and getting a feel for. How
does this feel on my back?Like, how does this feel in my body?
And am I really doing thisright? You know, because there is
(09:43):
a healthy amount of, what am Idoing? You know, because it's one
thing to do a hike like this,but then to do it as a curvy female
alone in a foreign country,like, there's just. There's a lot
of layers there. So, yeah, Itook off the whole month of May of
2018 and flew over to Rome,caught a train to where the first
(10:05):
stop was in the hike. And it'sa tiny little speck of a town called
Norcia. Fortunately, by then,somebody had developed a guidebook
in English. And I came tolearn that they left a lot of details
out. Like, yeah, so it wasreally great for describing the trail
and describing, like, hey,here's the places to stay each night,
because you're in all thesetiny, tiny little towns. So you start
(10:28):
in a mountain town and thenyou hike down the mountain, across
a valley, up another mountainto another town, and there's really
nothing in between. And soyou've got to make each town, if
you're lucky, there might belike an agriturismo somewhere along
the way that you could stop atif you needed to, but there really
weren't a lot of those. Andthis, this particular Camino is not
(10:49):
super well known outside ofItaly, which means there's not a
lot of, like, hotels. It's notbuilt up the way the Camino in Spain
is built up. So you got tomake your towns each day. And it
also means logistic wise, yougotta, like, plan quite a bit in
advance. It also means there'snot a lot of people on the trail,
which is good and bad, becauseyou really get that chance to, like,
(11:12):
turn inward and dive intoyourself and, you know, have time
with your thoughts, which wedon't always get in our busy lives.
But it also means you're onyour own on the trail if anything
happens. So it was good andbad in both experiences.
Yeah. How did you encourageyourself? How long did you take first
(11:34):
off on this trip?
Yeah. So the trail itself isabout 170 miles, and it's broken
up into a whole bunch ofstages, broken up into 16 stages.
So it starts in Norcia, wherehe is, where St. Benedict was born,
and then it ends in MonteCassino where he is. I think that's
where he's buried. And it'sthis trail that he walked several
(11:56):
times in his life. And so thestops along the trail, you know,
some of them have to do withthe villages just because it's the
only village in the area.Others are important stops to the
way in the life of St.Benedict himself. Like one of the
big stops that I'd recommendeveryone just. Even if you don't
do the hike that you go see isthis area called secrid speco. Sorry,
(12:16):
sacred speco, Just outside ofthe town called subiaco. And it's
where he meditated in a cavefor three years. And so it's this
beautiful monastery that'sbeen built up on the side of this
mountain. It's. I can'tdescribe it. My words will not do
it justice. But you can walkup this mountain and you can walk
(12:37):
in, and then you walk downinto the bowels of the mountain and
around all these curves, theyhave different rooms with altars
and paintings, and it's just.It's very, very gorgeous. So, yeah,
best stop of the trail. I'mnot gonna lie. That that stop was.
It still gives me chills whenI think about it. I just. I love
that stop. So I will admit,like, this hike was much harder on
(13:02):
my body than I thought itwould be. So I only made it to subiaco.
It was about. About 2/3 of theway through the hike, About a hundred
ish miles. And then afterthat, I ended my hike early because
I ended up, like, having threetoenails come off because the shoes
that I had. Texas is prettyflat, and I'd done all my hiking
and preparation on flat turf.I should have thrown in a stairmaster,
(13:26):
which is my bad. That is. Thatis a lesson learned on me. But there
was a lot of, as I said, upand down on the trails. And one of
the first days on the trail,it was just downpouring. And so you're
walking through this rain, andit's. There's nowhere you can go
hide or nowhere you can, like,seek shelter for a little bit. So
it's like, well, I'm justgoing to keep walking. And ended
(13:47):
up on part of the trail. Andit was a legitimate portion of the
trail, but it was downhillrocky. And so here I am with my poles,
and I ended up in the lbetween your forefinger and your
thumb, that area of your hand.I had bruises and then blisters on
top of the bruises. And thenmy toes were hitting the front of
(14:08):
my shoes. And so that sectionreally just kind of destroyed me
physically. And so, which iswhy I ended after subiaco because
one of the other people on thetrail was actually a trauma nurse
from germany who looked at myfeet, and she was like, you're done.
She's like, here's what youneed to do to heal them. But you
can't keep hiking. And I wasvery grateful that I ran into her
(14:33):
mentally to keep myself goingbecause I was out on the trail quite
a bit by myself. I wouldactually talk aloud to God.
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And one of the things that Ihad mentioned to you before this
(15:15):
and put in the, the questionsthat you asked me beforehand was
there was one day I was like,man, what am I doing here? Like,
why did I think this was agreat idea? And I was like filled
with all those doubts like,what the heck have I done? You know?
And I'm like on the verge oflike full on panic attack. And I
just start talking out loud toGod like, hey, I need some help,
(15:36):
please help me. And all of asudden a dog appeared. And that dog,
he could tell every time likemy energy was failing and he would
just circle around me and kindof do like these little yippee barks
and just kept walking with me.And then every few miles like another
dog would appear and it waslike there, there was a handoff between
these dogs and. And theyliterally walked me all the way to
(15:58):
the edge of town. And it wasone of these where, you know, I get
to the edge of the town andthen you look and the mountain is
like up. It's like straightup. And I'm like, oh man. Okay, I
got this. And where the dogwalked away from me, I looked up
and here's a car mechanic shopand the owner's looking at me and
he was like ma'. Am. And hesaid something to me in Italian and
(16:20):
I was like. And I must havelooked roughly because next thing
I know one of his employeescomes out who can speak English,
translates. And the owner waslike, my people will take you up
the mountain. And I was like,oh thank God. And that was actually
the last day that I hiked onthe trail itself because the next
day was supposed to be my20ish mile hike to Subiaco and where
(16:46):
I'd spent the night. They werelike, hey, you know you can take
a bus halfway. And it's like,oh great, perfect. And I Go to get
on the bus. And the busdriver's like, you can only buy a
ticket for the full distance.And I was like, it's a sign. It's
a sign. Yeah. Yeah. All right.And, I mean, I still ended up walking,
like, eight or nine miles thatday by the time I went up to see
(17:07):
Sacred Speco and then backdown. And, you know, there's a lot
of stuff there I wanted to gosee. So it wasn't like I just was
sitting around in a park,which would have been glorious, but,
you know, I was still walkingquite a bit. I just wasn't actually
on the trail itself. Andanother thing about the. The Camino
is because there's so fewpeople. You're seeing maybe 10 people
(17:28):
total each day. And I'll neverforget, and this is something I talk
quite a bit about with myfriends and family that first day
that, like, I came into Romeafter being on this trail for a couple
weeks. Get to Rome, and it'slike, oh, my God, there's smells
and people and soundseverywhere. It was almost like a
sensory overload, because you.You've been able to just completely
(17:49):
commune with nature. You'redeep in your own thoughts. You know,
you don't have a lot of, like,just humanity around you. And all
the people that I had beenexposed to on the Camino were so
lovely and so friendly and sohelpful and really just restored
my sense of, you know, justhow wonderful people can be. The
(18:09):
kindness of strangers. It'sprobably a better phrase. So then
when I got to Rome, I waslike, oh, my gosh. Feeling a little
overwhelmed now by being backin society. Yeah. Yeah. And when
I talk about the kindness ofstrangers, like, there were so many
moments, like that gentlemanwho had one of his employees take
me straight up the mountain,because it was about a mile straight
up. There was another day,like, I'd been hiking, and it rained
(18:31):
a lot. Apparently May is therainy season, and did not know that
in advance.
Good note. Good note, right?
Yeah. And, I mean, I had allof my rain gear, but, like, I had
left this one town calledRiti, and I was hiking, and, you
know, you're along a river,and. And it's just. It's really beautiful,
and it's flat and it'sfarmland, and I've gone about eight
(18:52):
miles, and it never stoppedraining. It's like that gentle downpour,
you know, where it just. Itjust never breaks. And then I find
myself, and it's the onlystretch of the trail that was on
a highway. And I'm on thehighway, and all of a sudden this
car comes, this voice boomsout going, you must be one of my
pilgrims. And he's like, Idon't have room for you in my car,
(19:12):
but I'll be back in 20minutes. Yeah. And so each of these
towns were really small, sothere was only one or two places
to stay in each town. And theyall knew who was on the trail each
day. And so all these people,they. They talked to each other between
the towns. They had what theycalled trail angels who monitored
each section of the trail andwho was on it each day, because you
(19:33):
had to register that you weregoing to be on the trail. So they
really kept track of who wasthere. They didn't want to lose a
pilgrim that would kind oflook bad for tourism. And so this
guy, he had looked out hiswindow mid afternoon. He looked out
his window mid afternoon andwas like, oh, my gosh, it is. It's
not stopped raining, my poorpilgrims. And he just came and collected
all of us, and he had coffeewaiting, and he was like, it doesn't
(19:56):
matter if you're staying atthe other place. I'm just picking
you all up. Yeah, it was sosweet. And then he. As I said, he
gave us all coffee andcroissants, and then he gave us a
little walking tour of histown because he was like, I want.
I want you to see my town. Andjust that level of kindness, I experienced
every single stage of theCamino. It truly was wonderful just
(20:17):
how open and caring and kindstrangers were to each other.
I've muted slightly becausepeople have decided to cut grass
right in front of my house,but I'm like, as you were talking,
especially about the story ofthe little dogs coming to, you know,
(20:37):
encourage you and take youinto town, like, my eyes are filling
with tears because I'mremembering some of those moments
where, especially when you'retraveling by yourself, and that's
one of those things that youlearn is while you are on your own,
right? You have that peace andsolitude. You're also on your own.
And so to be able to kind ofhave like, an answered prayer instantly
of that encouragement andcomfort and safety, I. Oh, my goodness.
(21:02):
It's incredible, and it's soheartwarming, obviously, that you've
had that experience and justwas motivated to just keep going.
Yeah, it really helped myfaith to my. My belief in God and
that. You know, I'd grown upCatholic and went to church, read
the Bible, but it's completelydifferent to, you know, you start
talking out loud and prayingto God, and you get that immediate
(21:25):
sign and realize that he'sthere and he's sending help. He is
sending, you know, somethingto help you, something to encourage
you. And it's like, I'd neverreally truly experienced that. I'd
heard others talk about it,but it is very different to experience
it yourself, where you're justlike, oh, oh, this is what that means.
(21:45):
And it just. It deepened myfaith so much. So I think back on
that often.
I'm glad you. You alluded tothat, because I'm actually going
to. I was curious, what aresome other things that you've learned
about yourself through this experience?
So one of the things thatCamina taught me is I can just really
do anything I set my mind to,and, you know, no matter how much,
(22:08):
like, I prepare, things arenever gonna go how you plan ever.
You know, Like, I couldn'thave anticipated that the toe box
on my shoe was just a littlebit wrong. And, you know, I was gonna
end up, like, losing threetoenails and not be able to wear
shoes for a couple monthsafter I just wore sandals. Like,
I couldn't have anticip.Anticipated that. I couldn't have
(22:30):
anticipated just the. Thefeelings of being alone in the trail.
You've gone several miles, andyou're like, what the heck have I
done? You know, like, thatpart didn't even cross my mind because
I'm a pretty independentperson. And then, you know, you get
on the trail and, like, it'svery humbling to have mother nature
kind of kick your butt. And sohiking the Camino, I. I really learned,
(22:55):
hey, you know what? There's asolution for everything. It's probably
not what I anticipated, butI'm also going to make it through
no matter what and be thebetter for the experience. So I can
tell you, after that, like, Ireturned back to the States, returned
back to my engineering career,and, you know, I really had a much
(23:15):
greater appreciation for whatI was doing. Unfortunately, like
I will admit, I got burnt outafter that, so I kind of had to relearn
some of those lessons. But thetrail itself taught me a lot. A lot
about myself. Of, you knowwhat, When I need to just get back
into nature, you know, and askfor help.
(23:36):
Yeah. Do you have. And I knowyou're helping other people with
their sabbaticals, but do youalso take time off for your. For
yourself?
Yeah. So since I startedsabbatical coaching, I do not do
it full time. Okay. That isone of the hard limits. I've set
for myself of I'm probablynever going to do like a 9 to 5 type
of job again. And I do thisfor only a couple hours a day. The
(24:00):
rest of the time I still focuson me. You know, like, working out
is a priority. Eating healthyis a priority. So, like, we've pulled
all the processed foods out ofour diets and I've become one of
these bread making people. Inever thought that would happen.
But what's your favorite kindof bread to make?
Honestly, just basic bread. Itturns out I've got a lot of food
allergens and so by doingthings like making bread, I can keep
(24:23):
all the food allergens out ofour diets. Yeah, it's been very interesting
learning that. And that wasanother thing on the trail that I
noticed, like, the food overthere just truly was so much better.
And it never, oh my goodness,it never bothered me. Like, here
I eat something that I'm like,man, that should be fine. And like
an hour later I'm like, Idon't feel so great. And over there,
(24:47):
like, I never once hadproblems, never had to reach for
tums, never had to be like, ohman, don't know what hit, but I need
some time.
Yep.
And also too, like in allthose little towns, like, you get
done hiking at the end of theday and you know, there's a handful
of restaurants in each town ifyou're lucky. But it was some of
the best food I've ever had inmy life because all the food would
(25:09):
come from within a few miles.And I joke, like, there's this tiny
little town called Trevi VanNase. I'm going to go back just for
the pasta that I had therebecause she'd made it fresh that
morning with olive oil fromlike, she pointed to the hill it
came from. I mean, it was incredible.
Yes. There's something aboutfood. I've always thought. I think
(25:31):
one of the misunderstandings Ihad is like, oh, yeah, I feel great
when I'm out of the countrybecause, you know, maybe I'm walking
around a little bit more orwhatnot, are more active. But there's
a complete difference betweenthe way their food is local and it's
cared for and what's in it.And so you feel even better whether
(25:52):
or not you're, you know,walking around or not.
There's. I completely agreewith that.
Oh, my goodness. Now I'mthinking about food. Okay, what's
one piece of advice that youwould give someone who is curious
about taking a sabbatical?
(26:14):
Probably really dig into whatdo you want to get out of the sabbatical?
You know, is it, do you wantto go do something like hiking a
Camino? Do you want to reallytake the time to focus on yourself?
You know, do you want to deepdive into something random? You know,
like you want to go learn thetango, or, you know, like you want
to immerse yourself in someexperience, like taking a class or
(26:38):
learning a language, like,what are you hoping to get out of
the sabbatical? Then you canplan around that. But if you just
want to take a sabbatical,take a sabbatical. It's like, I can
appreciate that, but kind of,what's the goal here? You know, let's
talk about the goal, the why,and then we can figure out the rest.
On that same note, are theresome mistakes that people make, maybe
(27:01):
jumping headfirst into asabbatical without having that intention
or planning?
Probably the biggest mistakeis how to approach the conversation
with the employer about takingthat time off. You know, because
people get excited about asabbatical and, you know, it could
be that they're planning totake it off in six months and so
they go talk to theiremployer. Now, most employers are
(27:22):
thinking one to three monthtime frame. So six months from now,
they're like, what, come backlater? Or they're like, oh, this
is a phase, it's going to go,go, going to go away. Or, or conversely,
there's also people who arelike, hey, in like a week from now,
I'm taking off like a couplemonths, and it's like, wait, what?
You know, there, there areways to approach that conversation.
(27:46):
And that's where I see mostmistakes happen.
You asked if I was compilingthe stories that I kind of collect
on this podcast into a book.So someone else has asked me about
that and I'm. I'm not activelyworking towards a book, but I am
very casually collectingstories. I think there are so many
different lessons that couldbe learned. And from my own personal
(28:09):
experience, I use travel aslike a way to build my confidence
and strengthen my own personaland professional development. And
so the more I talk to people,I find it interesting how their experiences
have also impacted them. Maybenot in the same way that it has impacted
me or I feel like made mebetter, but I think it's always interesting
(28:32):
just to see the decisions thatpeople have taken because of an experience
that they've had. And I thinkthere's so many lessons that could
be learned that I enjoysharing and I enjoy having, like,
conversations like this soeven if I've met someone else who
has experienced the sameCamino that you did, I'm sure that
your experience is completelydifferent from theirs and there's
(28:53):
still so much to learn withinit. So, yeah, that's something that
I'll, I'll always consider asfar as writing a book. But I don't
know, like, this is my way ofsharing these, these stories with
other people.
I like it. Yeah. And, and Ilove hearing about people's travels.
I joke. I am the biggest hypeperson when it comes to travel because
(29:15):
I'm like, when someone's like,oh, I'm thinking about going somewhere,
I'm like, tell me more. Why doyou want to go there? Like, what
are you gonna see? What areyou gonna do? Where are you gonna
eat? Like, tell me everything.And it's like, I'm not trying to
be super intense. I just, Ilove to talk about travel because
it's, it's one of these, youknow, adventures that we get to have
in this world. You know, weget the privilege of having. And
(29:35):
there's so many places, Ican't go to them all. You can't go
to the mall, but when otherpeople go places, it's like, oh,
I'll probably never go there.Or, oh, I've never even thought about
that place. I'm like, tell me,tell me why you want to go there.
How did it come to yourattention? You know, like, what is
the draw for you? I just wantto hear it all.
Yeah, give me the details andsend me pictures, please.
(29:59):
Like, exactly, Exactly.
Do you have a trip planned?Actually, speaking of, do you have
anything coming up?
So no big trips, but. So myboyfriend and I's birthdays are a
month apart and ouranniversary is in the middle, so
we are actually planning afour day weekend to Memphis to celebrate.
So we don't do gifts. Instead,what we do every year is we plan
(30:22):
a weekend away. So last yearwe went to Dodge City, Kansas and
explored, you know, kind ofthe beginnings of the Wild West.
Now we're going to Memphis tosee Graceland, and we've just, we've
got a bunch of stuff like thatplanned, and we're talking about
getting an RV and reallyexploring more of the United States
because there's so much here.
(30:42):
Oh yeah, absolutely. Thatsounds so fun though. I like that.
While I do encourageinternational travel, there are so
many little hidden pocketsaround the United States that people
can enjoy. Especially forthose who are uncomfortable with
traveling or, you know, a longflight or something like that. You
could rent an rv, get a car,go explore some of your local areas
(31:06):
and just see what's herebecause there's so much.
Completely agree with that.
Wow. Okay, before I go, mypersonal favorite question, I always
love to ask, what is a selfcare practice that maybe you incorporate
into your travel or that youuse for yourself?
(31:28):
I do a lot of breath work, soI studied yoga for a long, long time.
Or I should say I practicedyoga for a long, long time. And the
breath work portions werealways really good. So like I found
that they helped me focus andreally come back to myself. Because
when you travel overseasespecially and you know, you, you
don't speak the language andyou might get a little lost trying
(31:50):
to read the maps, you know,there's always going to be that moment
of what have I done? And I'vealways found if I can take a second
and chill out and just focuson my breath, it all calms out and
works out. So breath work. Okay.
So are you still takingclients for your sabbatical coaching?
What kind of clients are youlooking for and how do people connect
(32:12):
with you?
Yeah, so I am still very muchtaking clients. People can connect
with me through LinkedIn orInstagram, either one. And I think
you'll probably hopefully linkthem in the show notes. And I work
with people mostly one on onebecause everyone's sabbatical is
different. Everyone's need forsabbatical is different and I don't
know how that could be done ina container format. So I prefer one
(32:35):
on one. Excellent.
Amanda, thank you so much forbeing my guest today. I really appreciate
it and thank you for sharingyour travel experience on the Camino.
Yeah, thank you so much forhaving me. This has been fun.
Hey there, Grace.
Here.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode and gained some useful takeaways.
Thank you so much forlistening and staying until the end.
(32:58):
Don't forget to rate the showor share it with some friends. Have
a wonderful week. Take careand remember, be bold, be curious.
Be ready to tell your story.You never know who needs it.
Bye.
Bye.
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