Taking a Mental Health Break
You may have noticed we have been a little MIA with the site. As we were slowly losing more and more motivation we decided it was time to take a mental health break.
Even if you were paying close attention, the past year...okay maybe two years, we had slowly written fewer posts, shared less on social media, and overall became more reclusive.
It didn't start as a cognizant effort but was from a serious lack of motivation. All of our energy was being consumed by work and dealing with what we are now deeming "the 2-year Covid Hiatus".
Some of our job assignments were more stressful, and we weren't traveling which is one of our go-to stress outlets. So at some point, something had to give which is why the site slowly faded into the background.
After an almost forced break, we came to see that maybe it was for the best. We were heading down a path that wasn't sustainable and eventually something was going to snap.
So even if it wasn't our initial choice, taking a break for our mental health turned out to be just what we needed. And now we're back...but slowly, as we finally learned our lesson that balance is a necessity.
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Contents
Finite Resources
The main reason we took a break was we saw that time and energy are finite resources. When something had to give, we didn't want it to be the parts of life that really make living what it is.
We wanted time to just be us enjoying life. Making time for slow days of lounging and reading (or sports, sports, and more sports in Phil's case).
Our adventures together continued but we stopped worrying about how each moment would contribute to our site. They also involved a lot of hiking and being outdoors with the whole pandemic fiasco.
· Peruse: 2020 the Year of Hiking ·
Instead of focusing on a plan we just went with the flow. We stopped worrying about how a moment we were enjoying could be shared with others.
Of course, since finances are always at play, we also made sure to have energy for our jobs as travel PTs. Healthcare and Covid was an event in and of itself and took up a lot of our mental and physical energy.
So after tapping out from work we used whatever motivation was left to simply enjoy our time. Our society puts so much on the rise and grind but at some point, it's about just surviving each day and that's okay.
Social Media Break
Oh, social media. Taking a break from social media is probably one of the more popular self-care activities of our time. Why? Simply because it's so CONSUMING.
Maybe, just maybe we weren't meant to have access to everything all of the time. Maybe we aren't supposed to see what everyone is always up to.
Not only were we getting stressed out trying to keep up with posting but then there were all the interactions. Having to message back and keep up with so many people.
It almost got to the point where we were always in planning mode on what to post instead of just living in the moment. We love having photos and videos as a little adventure diary but not at the cost of our own time.
Taking a break for mental health from social media had the biggest impact on our overall mental health. Even now that we're getting back into it, we will be limiting our time and definitely avoiding any endless scrolling.
Taking a break from social media had the biggest impact on our overall mental health.
Resting Instead of Forcing
Life is filled with moments that you have to do. It'd be great if we could just live like our cats and only do what we want when we want to but that's not the case.
No matter what, there are chores that need to be done, a job that needs to be worked, and other random parts of adulting that are non-negotiable. So we decided that as we were reaching a major burnout we needed to rest instead of forcing what little energy we had remaining on more tasks.
This meant the site would be taking a little hiatus and that's okay. From the beginning, we started this whole shebang as a hobby and creative outlet.
· Peruse: Story of MLMR Travel ·
It was nice once we started making money from it but that also made it seem more like a job. The moment we were feeling miserable with the sense that we had to work on the site, we knew it was time for a break.
We listened to our bodies that were clearly begging for a break instead of going further down the path of doing too much all of the time. The feeling of forcing it was our hint that it was time for rest.
This Won't be Our Last Mental Health Break
In a perfect world, you learn from your mistakes but let's be real...we will probably over-exert ourselves in the future. Luckily, it seems if we aren't taking a mental break ourselves our bodies and minds will make us.
We will be on high alert for signs that maybe we're starting to run on empty before the check engine light comes on. This way we can take necessary breaks along the way and keep a healthy balance.
