Taking a Break to Reset
In December, I decided that I needed a break. I was in the middle of goal setting, holiday prep both at home and at work, and I was getting excited for the calendar to turn to 2025 so that I could start some of the projects I was starting to day dream about. I also knew that I was feeling tired. I can have a hard time taking a break. Even when we go on vacation, I am trying to make the most of any new place that we are visiting, and some of my best painting ideas come when we are hiking and traveling. Despite the excitement and the energy I was getting from planning, I also knew that I wanted to start the year rested. I tend to be go go go all the time. And honestly I like it. I like having a lot of things going on, I like working on projects and moving towards goals, and I like checking things off my to do list. But my mini-burnout over the summer was also lingering. Despite a couple enjoyable trips, and work being slower though not slow, I was still feeling busy all the time, like my mind could not shut off. There was always something that I should be doing. So I wanted to try and take a dedicated break at the end of the year when I would also have a few days off around the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. I wanted to mostly disconnect, but didn’t want to fall into the trap of where my brain made a to-do list of all the ways that I should “relax” during my time off.
I scheduled my final blog posts, newsletter, and all of my Instagram posts through January 6 so that I could still fulfill my timeline for finishing out 2024 strong, but I decided that from December 20, 2024 (the end of my last full week in the office before the holidays) through December 31, 2025 that I wasn’t going to to any artwork until the calendar turned to January 1. This meant no annual planning, no blog writing, no newsletter writing, no creating art while also thinking about creating content for the blog or Instagram. I even put away my watercolor supplies and mostly cleaned off my art desk.
My holiday brain dump helped me capture ideas while still forcing myself to rest.
And the first days were HARD. I feel like as soon as I set aside dedicated time to “relax” my brain is suddenly flooded with new ideas and thoughts on how I should spend my relaxation time in the most productive way possible. Anybody else? I think it took me a solid four days for my body to physically and mentally slow down. As new ideas came to me during those first few days, I would write them down in my work notebook, just to get them out of my head, but that’s where I left them. I decided that if they were actually good ideas and not distractions, they would still be exciting when I got back down to work. After those initial days, things got a little easier. I started sleeping more, I felt less of that frenetic energy to be making the most of my hours, and I did a lot of things I don’t usually do. Things like:
Sleeping in as long as I wanted and then taking a nap in the middle of the day.
Taking the time to exercise outside on my bike or on a run rather than having to schedule it at the ungodly hour of 6am.
I journaled a lot. Blogging has become such a big part of my routine that I forgot how nice it is just to write for me. It was a good way to work through ideas and feelings about the new year.
Reading on my couch for as long as I wanted and cranking through a stack of books to add to my Goodreads list.
Stocking my freezer with homemade pasta.
Painting my nails.
Watching movies.
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Three weeks of cross stitch progress. Can you tell what it is? 😂
I found that I did not really want to create any art during most of my break. I had zero urge, which I think was the biggest sign that I needed to disconnect and reset in some way. What I did want to work on was my new cross stitch. I have always loved to cross stitch, but have not had one for a while. I have been noticing that I have gotten really bad at being on my phone in the evening when relaxing in front of the TV with Vasya. And I was finding that I was reaching for my phone literally with the only intention of wasting time. So as a gift for myself, I got myself a giant cross stitched and I probably worked on it for a couple hours almost every day during my break. It was delightful. I love cross stitch because it keeps my hands and my brain busy without being draining. And after hours, months (years?) you have something pretty to show for it. It was the perfect creative-ish task to work on.
Towards the end of my break, I broke my painting streak with a new medium. Way back, I bought myself an acrylic starter box from Let’s Make Art. As many of you know, I love Let’s Make Art and it is how I got started on my whole art journey back in 2020. I bought this box in October 2022 and it has been sitting on my shelf for that long. Sad really, but I kept thinking during my break that maybe I would finally pull that box out and play with the supplies and projects inside. Day after day of my vacation passed and the box still sat on the shelf. I was sitting on the couch on December 29 and I literally had the epiphany of “you did this same exact thing in December 2019 when you got your first watercolor box and it took you months before you opened that box and tried that first project.” Well that was enough to get me off of my butt. So unpacked the box and watched the beginner tutorials on youtube. And when I found myself saying “I already know about the color wheel. That would be a waste of time to make yet another color wheel,” I reminded myself that the whole point of this break is to enjoy myself without any prescribed outcome and without any need to be productive. So I got out my sketchbook (which admittedly I have discovered I do not like for watercolor) and did the beginner exercises in the video. I played with brushes and brush strokes, practiced color mixing and created a color wheel, and basically made a beautiful mess in my sketchbook.
Acrylic color chart & play.
Wetland Sunrise Let’s Make Art Tutorial
And it was amazing. Amazing to be playing with something brand new. Amazing to just follow a tutorial and have a pretty picture at the end. Amazing to create and not have to worry about filming it or photographing it or writing the content for it. (Though yes, I recognize I am writing about it now, but I am who I am.). If anything, finally pulling out those supplies reminded me that starting is the hardest part. It also reminded me that creating, whether it is painting, drawing, or playing in my sketchbooks with a new medium has to be at the center of everything else that I am doing. If I am not making art then nothing else is going to go well. Admittedly, I am not sold on acrylics. I found myself getting impatient with the drying times and how much paint I needed to use, but I also really enjoyed the texture of it and the joy of having big globs of paint. I still have a handful of tutorials to work through including one using the very intimidating palette knife. I think spending time in my sketchbook without needing to document it will be a bigger part of my process in 2025. After playing with acrylics, I am even more excited to get back to my watercolors and am considering what mixed media projects could be like.
It’s that time of year for goal setting. Check out My Yearly Plan, my free planning guide I use to set myself up for success. Inside you’ll find prompts to help you reflect, celebrate accomplishments, dream your big dreams, and of course make a plan to accomplish them. Remember, dreams do not come true by themselves.
My 2025 goals broken down into my January task list ready to go.
Once January 1 rolled around and I was theoretically free to jump back into things, I found myself wanting to ease into it. Through the end of the first week of January, I really only started to get back into things with the basic steps of making sure my space felt ready to get started and to take another hard look at my goals and see if they really resonated. Luckily they still do, and I only needed to look through my goals and plans to get excited and ready to start. These goals feel big and bold, but I know that the hardest part is just getting started and trying to show up as much as I can each day. I’m in the middle of a marathon, not a sprint.
Did you take a break over the holidays?
Are you setting goals for 2025?