(AP) — If you daydream about getting a break from work, you might picture two weeks of vacation or a long weekend getaway. But some people dare to imagine something bigger and find ways to get a substantial breather from stress or their day-to-day routines.

Mini-sabbaticals. Adult gap years. Micro-retirement. Extended career breaks go by many names and take many forms, from using the time between jobs to explore or taking an employer-approved leave to becoming a digital nomad or saving up for a monthslong adventure. Creating space for a reset, whether mental, physical or spiritual, is the common thread.

Cost, personal responsibilities and fears of being judged by colleagues, friends and family members are some of the obstacles that prevent people from hitting pause on their work lives and setting out in search of new perspectives, according to sabbatical experts and people who have taken sabbaticals.

No longer just for

academics

American attitudes toward taking time off are different from the ones in much of Europe, where free time and rest are prioritized, said Kira Schrabram, an assistant professor of management at the University of Washington’s business school who studies meaningful and sustainable work. In the European Union, workers are entitled by law to at least 20 days of paid vacation a year.

But more companies are allowing weeks or months of paid or unpaid leave as a way to retain valued employees, according to Schrabram. Seven years ago, she brought her experience researching burnout to the Sabbatical Project, an initiative founded by Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer DJ DiDonna that promotes sabbaticals as “a sacred human ritual” to which more people should have access.

Schrabram, DiDonna and University of Notre Dame Professor Emeritus Matt Bloom interviewed 50 U.S. professionals who took an extended break from non-academic jobs. From the responses, they identified three types of sabbaticals: working holidays that involved pursuing a passion project; “free dives” that combined exciting adventures with periods of rest; and quests undertaken by burned-out people who engaged in life-changing explorations once they had recovered sufficiently.

More than half of the interview subjects self-funded their hiatuses. In an article for the Harvard Business Review, the researchers made a case for sabbaticals as a tool employers could use to recruit, keep and foster talented workers. But since extended paid leaves are not common, “we’re really pushing back on the idea that a sabbatical needs to be sponsored by an employer,” Schrabram said of the Sabbatical Project, which created a network of coaches and mentors to encourage the sabbatical-curious.

Leading by example

Roshida Dowe was 39 years old and working as a corporate lawyer in California when she got laid off in 2018. Instead of seeking a new job right away, she decided to spend a year traveling. Struck by how many how many people asked how she managed it, Dowe decided to decided to try working as an online career-break coach.