Permission to Rest – Jessica Cabeen

What If the Pace You’re Proud Of Is the Very Thing Undermining Your Leadership?

by Jessica Cabeen | Feb 20, 2026 | Permission to Rest, Principal in Balance, Slow Leadership

Is Your Leadership Sustainable — or Just Impressive? The Hidden Cost of Hustle Culture You’re getting it done. The meetings are covered.The emails are answered.The fires are handled.The outcomes look solid. From the outside, it’s impressive. But here’s the question...

Before You Go: How to Wrap Up 2025 with Purpose, Presence, and Closure

by Jessica Cabeen | Dec 13, 2025 | Permission to Rest, Principal in Balance, Unconventional Leadership

Before you go…I know—you saw this title and panicked. What did I forget? What still needs to be done? This isn’t about adding one more thing to your plate. It’s about resisting the urge to mentally sprint into 2026 before 2025 is actually finished. December tempts...

But I Turned It Off… and the World Kept Spinning (Part 2)

by Jessica Cabeen | Nov 22, 2025 | Permission to Rest, Principal in Balance, Slow Leadership

Last month, I shared the truth I didn’t want to admit: that the hardest part of a long-awaited, bucket-list trip wasn’t the planning, the packing, or the travel. It was the idea of turning off my email. Well, I did it. And here’s what happened when I finally...

Reprieve Isn’t Weakness—It’s Wisdom

by Jessica Cabeen | Jul 19, 2025 | Permission to Rest, Principal in Balance

How Educators Can Release the Guilt and Reclaim Their Summer How are you doing?No, really. How are you really doing? Not the version of the answer you’d give a colleague in the grocery store aisle. The real one. The one you whisper to yourself when no one’s around....

May Fog is Real—Almost There, But Exhausted

by Jessica Cabeen | May 17, 2025 | Permission to Rest, Principal in Balance

May Fog.It’s not a formal diagnosis, but every educator I know knows it when it hits. It’s that moment in the school year—usually around the second or third week of May—when everything feels heavier. Emails blur together. The to-do list is longer than the school...

Wrestling with Rest While Wrapping Up the School Year

by Jessica Cabeen | Apr 30, 2025 | Permission to Rest, Principal in Balance

Each year around this time, I find myself standing at the same familiar crossroads. The calendar says “almost there.”My mind says “hold on tight.”And my body says… “are you sure we’re going to make it?” May has a way of sneaking up on school leaders.It’s...