6 ways to maximise your recovery time these holidays

ARTICLE

09 November 2023

4 min read

Healthy Mind

The festive season is the perfect time to recharge before the start of a new year, but it can be a challenge to switch off. Here are six ways to ensure your break is refreshing.

At the end of the year, most of us take a step away from work to spend some quality time with our loved ones. The end of year season can also be a challenging time for many.

A period of rest and recovery is essential for maintaining our mental wellbeing and preventing burnout. Even when we understand the importance of downtime, the lifestyle shift around the festive season can be a shock to the system and make it hard to switch off.

We’ve gathered six ways to make the most of your holidays and ensure you’re getting the rest you need to recharge and prepare for the year ahead.

Ease into the season

Consider how everyone in your family unit is feeling as you transition into holiday mode. Parents may have fatigue from arranging holiday plans or working right up until they’re officially ‘out of office’. Kids may be excited, restless, or even a little burnt out at the end of a busy year.

Switching from intense work mode to intense holiday mode could magnify these emotions and even increase your chance of ‘leisure sickness’¹(where people, especially under-pressure workers, fall ill as soon as they take a break).

Instead, slow the pace in the lead up to the holiday period to ensure a smooth transition. Prioritise nutritious food, good quality sleep, exercise, plenty of time outdoors and the opportunity for quiet time or mindfulness. It’s also important to ease into the festive spirit, and not get too carried away on day one of your celebrations (and pay the price for it the next day). These are great ways to practice useful tools like this, to then be able to implement them all year round.

Manage your expectations

Try to be mindful of the expectations you carry into the holiday season.

If you’re planning on having a quiet break but have a lot of social commitments, your reality is going to be at odds with your expectations and what you may need. Consider cutting back on responsibilities or work out how you might manage them without causing yourself frustration.

Similarly, if you’re going away for the break, consider how long your trip needs to be to enable rest and recovery. If the trip is short and requires a long commute, you may struggle to transition into holiday mode before you need to turn around and head home again.

Focus on your needs

Give yourself permission to take control of your holiday schedule and recognise it for the sacred time it is.

Have a chat with your partner, friends or family and sort out a plan for the holidays that factors in plenty of time to decompress. Accept the things you must do – like buying presents, or New Year’s Eve celebrations – then block out time around those commitments for recovery time.

Leaning on your community to share duties around the break can help make life easier for everyone.

Look to the past

Have an honest look at the past few years and figure out what worked well around the break – and what didn’t. If something has previously caused tension, see if you can find ways to make it easier this year. This might look like delegating tasks on your ‘to-do’ list or simply saying ‘no’ more.

Practise saying ‘no’

Speaking of saying ‘no’, it can be a difficult thing to do, especially if you feel obligated to see people or like you need to be available all the time.

There is a lot of value in learning how to politely decline an invitation, and people should be understanding of your limits. Try getting a few statements down, like “I promised my kids this year would be a little more lowkey” or “My partner and I agreed we need more downtime, so we’re going to skip this one”.

Focus on what really matters

We all want to create cherished memories with our families over the holidays. If you’re giving your time and energy away to others or getting stressed by things that don’t matter, you may end up resenting your break or not having the positive experience you deserve after working hard all year.

Set some boundaries, turn off your work emails and even turn off your phone if you need to. Focus on enjoying some restorative, uninterrupted and all-too-rare quality time with the people who matter most to you. At the end of the day, that’s what the season is all about.

Footnotes

^{1 http://1.https//www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190312-the-tiny-breaks-that-ease-your-body-and-reboot-your-brain%202.

2 https://medicine.unimelb.edu.au/archive-news/do-you-really-get-sick-as-soon-as-you-go-on-holiday#:~:text=Leisure%20sickness%20could%20be%20attributed,people%20in%20an%20aeroplane%20cabin.}

Staff Writer

Staff writers come from a range of backgrounds including health, wellbeing, music, tech, culture and the arts. They spend their time researching the latest data and trends in the health market to deliver up-to-date information, helping everyday Australians live healthier lives. This is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances. The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.

Disclaimer:
This is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a financial adviser, or medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.

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