Kyle MacDonald: How do I properly recharge after an exhausting year?

Being too inactive can mean we slide into feeling “blah”, low mood, lethargy or worst case depression. Photo / Getty

Q While I’m looking forward to the break over summer, since Covid I’ve found I’m struggling to feel any better after taking time off. Any tips for making the most of annual leave this year, in terms of my mental health?

A It’s a pretty common feeling at this time of year - the grind, feeling like we’re only just dragging ourselves to the finish line of Christmas Day, to fall into exhaustion from Boxing Day on.

Thinking back 12 months to the long Auckland lockdown of 2021, it was hard to feel mentally rested, in part because we were doing - paradoxically - less.

A useful idea to think about as we head into what for many will be the longest time off work they have each year is the difference between rest and rejuvenation.

Rest is easy to define, for some it might be as simple as sleeping more, or later. For others, it might be lying around, being relatively physically inactive - maybe even on a beach. Either way, it’s what we more commonly think of when we think about taking a break - stopping and physically recharging through doing less.

Rejuvenation, on the other hand, is I think what went missing for many of us through the lockdowns, and as a result, might be something you’re struggling to find again. It’s the active version of rest.

To think of it in mechanical terms, rest is running our engine at a low idle, or turning it off altogether - not putting “k’s on the clock”, while rejuvenation is filling the petrol tank (or charging the EV battery!)

For most people, it’s fun - the stuff we want to do when we’re not working. It might be exercise, family activities, road trips, fishing, hiking, time away exploring, or even travel.

But it doesn’t have to involve a lot of money. It’s the things we do to fill our cup (at the risk of mixing metaphors).

It is easy when we feel physically exhausted to allow the active part to fall off the agenda.

We can get stuck in thinking that if we feel tired, jaded or run down, we need more rest. But actually, we need to make sure we have a balance of both active, and inactive rest.

Throughout the various responses to Covid and most starkly in the 2020 “stay home”, we were able to do less. The activities we did to recharge became less available for many of us, and we may have fallen out of the habit of doing those things altogether.

Being too inactive can mean we slide into feeling “blah”: low mood, lethargy or, in the worst case, depression.

Inactivity is the primary behaviour of depression. Getting active is the antidote to blah, and it doesn’t have to mean training for a marathon.

The hard part is only you know what fills your cup, what rejuvenates you.

For me, it’s often quite simple things. Family time, bike rides, going somewhere new for lunch, or just hanging out at home tackling a little DIY.

If you’re struggling to think what that might look like for you, it might help to think back to the before times, to 2019, and reflect on what you did more of then.

Or you might like to try new things. If you have a partner or children, talk to them. Activities seemingly centred around entertaining the kids can be just as rewarding for adults too.

I hope you find some ways to fill your tank; it’s increasingly important for all of us to find ways to prevent exhaustion, burnout and recharge.

They say prevention is better than cure, and taking time to rejuvenate is certainly active prevention for our mental health.