Rest. Recovery. Sustainable Performance.

PERMISSION TO PAUSE

A 3-month experience for women who lead in the boardroom, the business, the home, and want to build a different relationship with rest, work, and themselves.Three gatherings over three months. A decisively different way to live, work and lead.

12 September | 17 October | 14 November 2026
9:30 am – 2:00 pm | JohannesburgR2590 per session | R7500 for all three (Ts & Cs apply)

Dress code: Pyjamas, loungewear, robes, socks. The outfits are playful, but the work is serious.

You're Functioning.

But For How Much Longer?

You've built a career; you lead people and solve problems.
You’re doing it all even when you're exhausted.

You can’t shake off a nagging question: How do I sustain the life and leadership I've worked so hard to build without losing myself?

That Question Requires

More Than Just A Day Off

A beautiful day away can feel wonderful. But what happens when Monday comes?If nothing has changed in how you understand rest, work, and yourself, you simply return to the same patterns that exhausted you in the first place.As an accomplished woman, you need to learn how to build recovery into the way you live and work.

Permission to Pause is about doing exactly that.

Enter

Permission to Pause

A 3-month leadership experience designed to interrupt an unhealthy cycle and to help you build a new culture of rest in the reality of your daily life.

Over three gatherings, we'll move through:
Recognise: What’s going on?
We'll examine how modern work and our beliefs about success have shaped our relationship with rest and recovery.Reclaim: What can I change?
Once we recognise the patterns, we begin to reclaim our agency.
Not everything is within our control, but more is within our control than we've been telling ourselves.Return: How do I live differently?
Most of us aren't quitting our jobs, moving to Umhlabuyalingana, and living off-grid.
We have careers, businesses, families, and ambitions that we don’t want to just drop. The challenge is learning to build rhythms of effort and recovery, so that we can operate inside demanding systems without being consumed

Three Gatherings. One Journey.

Why Permission to Pause?

Permission to Pause intentionally disrupts that mindset and behavior.It is a movement of people reclaiming recovery as a regular, necessary part of a meaningful life.Recovery is what makes your leadership and sustainable performance possible.We're talking about resting today, while pursuing promotions, raising families, and building businesses.

Not one day when you retire.
Or worse, when it's too late for it to matter.

This Is For You If

You're a leader, executive, or founder who’s successful on paper, but wondering what that success is costing youYou want to make meaningful changes without having to disappear from your actual life

This is your invitation and your permission to pause.

12 SEPTEMBER — RECOGNISE

R2,590

Explore the ways modern work, ambition, social conditioning, and our beliefs about success have shaped our relationship with rest and recovery.

17 OCTOBER — RECLAIM

R2,590

Begin reclaiming your agency and explore the practical choices that help you practice, protect, and prioritize rest.

14 NOVEMBER — RETURN

R2,590

Learn how to build a sustainable rhythm of effort and recovery alongside your career, business, family, and ambitions.

ALL 3 GATHERINGS

R7,500

Experience the complete three-month journey from RECOGNISE to RECLAIM to RETURN.
12 September · 17 October · 14 November 2026

Who Is This For?

Permission to Pause is for leaders, executives, and founders who are carrying too much.For women who are successful on paper but are beginning to wonder what that success is costing them.For women who want to make meaningful changes without having to disappear from their actual lives.You don't need to be burned out to belong here.In fact, we'd rather you came before you burned out.

What To Expect

Sleep and recovery sit at the heart of the experience because they shape how we think, feel, perform, and lead.

But over the three months, you’ll also hear from speakers who bring different perspectives to the realities on high performance and modern professional life.

Together, these perspectives create space for a more honest conversation about what it means to sustain ourselves while continuing to lead.

Zamo
Mbele

Psychology: Understanding your mental load and behaviour within the context of the broken corporate system.

Zamo Mbele is the Chief Clinical Officer at Panda Health and a registered clinical psychologist. As a corporate wellness consultant, he has a front-row view of the challenges that senior professionals encounter in the workplace, and through his keynotes, he provides a space for thoughtful reflection and psychological insight.

Lovelyn Nwadeyi

Executive Coaching: Exploring ambition, boundaries, and leadership in demanding environments.

Lovelyn Nwadeyi is the Founder and CEO of Chronicle Group, a leadership consultancy. She has spent over a decade working alongside senior leaders locally and internationally. Her signature coaching framework has transformed many executive teams and creates the conditions for senior leaders to do the inner work that most professional environments don’t make room for.

Lungile Mahluza

C-suite Leadership: An honest perspective from a woman who has experienced the demands of senior leadership.

Lungile Mahluza is Chief People Officer at Deloitte Africa. As a senior professional who’s worked her way up the ranks, she understands

What You'll Leave With

  • Greater awareness of the patterns that are costing you

  • A clearer understanding of your body's need for recovery

  • Practical strategies for protecting your sleep, energy and capacity

  • Greater agency over the choices you make around work and rest

  • A personal commitment to the rhythms you want to build

And most importantly:
A community of women who are also choosing to sustain their success with rest!

It's the beginning of the rest revolution.
Give yourself permission to be part of it.

This Is How Culture Changes

We talk about changing workplace culture.
But culture is also built through what we repeatedly tolerate and model:

  • One woman choosing not to answer emails at night

  • Another no longer glorifying the fact that she only sleeps four hours

  • Another telling her team to go home

This is how small choices become new norms, and the norms become culture.

Give Yourself Permission to Pause

12 September | 17 October | 14 November 2026
9:30 am – 2:00 pm | Johannesburg (venue details to follow)Spaces are limited by design

Hosted by

Lalie — The Professional SleepistGabisile Mashigo — Rest & Recovery Advocate

© Permission To Pause. All rights reserved.