Press Pause: Why Taking a Break Now Can Set You Up for Success in 2025

It’s December, and things may be coming to a head. The festive mood muzak is becoming a background blare to spike your cortisol levels, and the work situation is reaching a frenzied crescendo: you’re racing to close the year, make the number, fill the pipeline, nail a pitch, rescue a project…

 

By the time the festivities roll around, celebration can sometimes look and feel uncannily like collapse.

 

Whether you’ve stumbled over the finish line or floated across like a Zen master, the same rule applies – you need a rest, because in a week or two we go again.

 

Rest is vital, for two big reasons:

 

It helps us physically – allowing the body to regenerate, grow cells and repair tissue; boosting the immune system; rejuvenating energy levels; regulating hormones, which can play a huge role in everything from appetite and metabolism to state of mind.

 

It helps us mentally – improving cognitive functions such as memory, concentration, and decision-making; helping emotional regulation; giving the brain time to process information, leading to enhanced creativity and problem-solving capabilities; restoring sleep patterns.

 

In short, rest is essential – and it’ll really set you up for whatever 2025 throws at you.

 

And yes, it’s easier said that done. So here, in the timeless spirit of Christmas, we present to you our four top tips for getting into the New Year feeling re-charged and re-focused.

 

1: Celebrate.

Whatever 2024 brought, December is the perfect time to reflect on it and process it. It wasn’t all great, and some of it might have been awful, but other bits were definitely worth it – and it’s a nailed-on certainty that some good can come from all of it. We recommend taking the time to journal it – try to recall everything, write it down, describe how it made you feel – include all the good things that people said to you this year, the things that reminded you that you’re great (because you are). Ask Santa for a really nice notebook and then write it all down.

 

2: Switch it off.

You really don’t need your work email, and your work email doesn’t need you. Set yourself some boundaries and keep to them – when you’re going to power down, when you’re going to turn it on again, how long you’re going to allow yourself to engage. The longer you can forget about all of this stuff, the more your mental health will improve. It might not be a bad idea to extend ‘switch it off’ to social media too – we’ll be taking a break from it, and we hope you can too.

 

3: Go for a walk.

This is one we discovered a few years ago – the Christmas Day walk. After dinner, everyone starts to flag, things can get snoozy or tetchy, someone is already a bit too drunk, there’s a TV debate simmering between the Chariots of Fire faction and the Shrek team. It’s probably still light outside – pro tip: go out and check…and keep walking. Even just thirty minutes right at this moment can transform your day. Maybe someone would like to come along too, or maybe it’s just you. Either way, make this a part of your annual festive ritual and we guarantee better times ahead.

 

4: Understand the difference between a self-care strategy and a coping mechanism.

There can be a wafer-thin line between doing the things that make us feel better and doing too much of them. During the festive season, that line can vanish. Generally, a little bit of what you fancy probably isn’t going to harm you, but try to stay alert to how much you’re eating, drinking, sleeping etc, and notice when it’s starting to make you feel a bit off, because it will in the end. When you notice it, take a break from it. Do something else (see above) – go for a walk, watch Shrek, read a book, write a letter, phone a friend…

 

Doing even one of these things – or finding an equivalent that’s right for you – will help make the leap from December into January sprightlier and happier. So at least consider it, and if you have your own tips for relaxing and recharging at the end of a busy year, please share them in the comments – we’d love to hear them!

 

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