When We All Just Need A Little Break

It has become a tradition for me these past three years to take a month-long break in January from making videos and streaming. I always need a break at least twice a year but at the end of the year, I tend to take a longer break.

Maybe that’s because at the end of the year I’m just spent. Emotionally, financially, and these days, even physically, haha. The older we get right. It’s not depression as many people do suffer from that, including myself, and especially during the holidays.

No, I haven’t actually had a major depressive episode (which can last from a couple of days to a couple of weeks) in quite some time. Not even in 2020 when, in my view, was definitely a depressing year, to put it mildly.

I credit that to all the work I put into learning - and mastering new coping skills. Not that I don’t still get some form of depression every now and then. It just looks different now. For example, as the depression starts to decrease for me, my anxiety has increased in recent years. I’ll go into more detail about that in another post.

You see, I am a bit of an introvert. I used to consider myself both introverted and extroverted because I can socialize pretty damn well. In recent years though I find myself needing more alone time than I did twenty years ago. But then, 20 years ago I wasn't nearly as self-aware as I am today.

There are several reasons for that, one is not wanting to be anywhere near people during this pandemic but that just happened within the last two years. Aside from that though, I can only socialize for so long before I feel the need to take a hot bath, make some hot tea, and sink into my own little bubble for a while.

So that is why I take this month-long break in January. January is the perfect time for me to do the three R’s: Relax, Recover, Recharge.

I still do work, like here on the blog and I will be recording some more videos starting next week but I am taking this break from my social media like Twitch and YouTube.

So, for at least two weeks (and the last week of December) I take time to step away from social media and social interaction, in general, to read a book I haven’t gotten to during the year, play video games, listen to music (I do this all year but only when I’m driving, so now I take a day to listen to old music and maybe find something new), and even catch up on some TV - which reminds me, I still need to catch up on The Expanse.

So what have I been doing? Well, mostly playing one particular video game that has sucked me in lately called Elder Scrolls Online. I’ll talk more about that in another post as well though. I also caught up with The Wheel of Time, The Witcher, and The Rookie (Nathan Fillion is my celebrity crush,😝😝😝 ).

And that is about it. Nothing spectacular here guys. Just another yearly tradition of taking a much-needed mental health break.

Oh, before I go, just a little self-promotion here but before my break, I made one last video of my Twitch highlights over on YouTube. I tried to get some of the best and funniest moments of 2021, haha. Maybe it will make you smile.

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you all had a great New Year!!