Week Off, Stress On...

Unpopular opinion coming up. I’ve been running Spinning Plates food six years now, almost seven and I love it. I’m the first to admit that I get so wrapped in things and take on so much that I’m always busy and will quite happily work until 11 o’clock at night. I do it because I need to it but also because I enjoy it.

I’ve not really had a break over those years, I’ve been on holiday but I tend to take my laptop with me, or at least my phone, and do bits and pieces.

I’m aware that’s not healthy but I was a new business, it was only me and I didn’t want to cause disruption to my clients (who are all lovely and wouldn’t have minded by the way)... after awhile it became a habit.

Six months in lockdown, homeschooling and running the business almost did me in so when we took a week away over the summer (isle of wight, nothing to exotic) I did take my laptop but I only opened it twice, for a total of twenty mins... in a week, that’s pretty amazing for me!

It was a lovely week, the kids loved it and the weather was amazing. I came back to normal life, I wrote lists and cleared my inbox and started back into the routine. Then the family asked me to take some more time off.

Interestingly, this was my breaking point. Mega stress, mega overwhelm and a really self indulgent piece of prose on Facebook chronically my internal turmoil 🙄.

I’ve not felt like that since l worked in corporate, that utterly all-consuming stress, the sick to my stomach, can’t cope level of anxiety and it was flipping awful.

I came back (again) worked hard, kept lists and kept rewarding progress and I got through everything... just about. But I learnt something about myself.

I need to prepare myself to take a break, I need to dwell on top of things, I need to feel that I’m not abandoning anyone or anything. I need to feel ready.

Without that I spiral into anxiety and I’m frankly quite horrible to be around! I know myself well enough to know how to prepare though so now I know this I can plan more time in to relax - rather like packing a bag, preparing the business to ‘lose’ a week is something i need to do for myself.

How do you prep for a break? Or don’t you? Am just crazy!!