Why you should never deny yourself a break

Many of us are often guilty of rushing around at 100mph and not thinking about the consequences it could have on our health and wellbeing. It can be hard to face up to the facts that we need to take a break from the things we love, especially when it can be detrimental in some cases to our careers and the things we enjoy in life.

Over the last few months, my body has been telling me to take a back seat and I wouldn't listen. I thought I could continue living life in the fast lane, but my health began telling me otherwise.  When I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid just over a month ago, I knew something finally had to give. My body was tired and rundown and I needed to re-energise myself before I ran my body too far into the ground. For the first time in years, my mental health also took a huge hit - I was grumpy, emotional and I lost my enthusiasm for life, my body just wanted to sleep and for such a long time, I was depriving it.

Last month I took my first ever month out of the blogging world - I stopped posting on social media, I switched off all my accounts and spent the time I would have been blogging with my husband doing the things we love together. I also developed a passion for cooking and realised how therapeutic it can be and for the first time in years, I didn't spend everyday panicking about my social media stats or whether my blog had any views.

For those of you considering taking a break, here are just a few ways that taking time out can help you in the long run.

You will have a different outlook on life

When you're tired and run down, the whole world seems a gloomy place. It's hard to stay positive and the smallest of things can leave us feeling on edge.  Having a break will give you a chance to reboot your system and when you're feeling more energised, you can look at the tasks ahead with a lot more optimism.

You can spend the time trying new hobbies

Taking a break from one thing doesn't mean switching off completely. In fact, there are many hobbies out there that are known for boosting mental health such as painting and colouring or taking up gentle exercise. When I took time out of the things causing me the most stress, I turned to cooking and developed a passion for it.  It became my new way to unwind and I enjoyed seeing my creations.

You can spend much needed time with loved ones

Life is just too short and we all have friends or family that we would love to spend more time with, but never get the chance. Taking a break from things that are becoming too life-consuming will free up time for you to spend with the people that mean the most to you. For me, it meant being able to relax in front of the television with my husband after work instead of going straight on my laptop or spending a weekend going for days out without having to worry about taking my camera or posting on social media.

It could improve your health

The more mental stress we put our bodies through, the more likely we are to become poorly or out of shape.  Having that extra time from taking a break would allow you to spend more time cooking healthier meals, more time to exercise and do things that put you in a good mood.

It will make you more productive in the long run

Once your rest period is over and your body is feeling back on top form, you can go back to the things you enjoy doing with a new lease of life - things won't feel as stressful and it may ignite more creative ideas that you wouldn't originally have had.

Going on a blog break helped me gain a lot of perspectives and stupidly made me realise what I should have known before, that life doesn't revolve around what you put online. In fact, it has made me look at my blog in a very different light and helped me realise what I want from it in the future - my blog turned into a job when originally it was created to give me an outlet to express my emotions and do what I love doing, writing and that will be my main focus going forward.

Have you taken a break from something recently?