It’s okay to take a break

Camille Mercado is a final-year PharmD candidate at the Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy and a member of the 2023–2024 APhA–ASP Communications Standing Committee.

Everything is fast-paced nowadays. You’re going full speed ahead toward your goals without taking a second for granted. You ignore the warning signs your body gives you and push it to the limit. You burn out your body, mind, and spirit to the point where you are just going through the motions instead of experiencing them. You’ve been conditioned to think that you must use every minute available to do something productive, and convince yourself that you don’t have time and that you’re somehow being lazy or unproductive if you take a break, when in reality your body needs breaks to recover. It’s not just about sleeping a proper number of hours and eating healthy food, but actually taking care of your state of mind and mental health.

Burnout is a very real thing, and if you don’t take breaks for yourself, your body will take them for you.

Focus on yourself

Taking a break lets your mind and body breathe. It lets you take a step back from your worries and see them from a different perspective, helping you determine what’s actually important and what is not.

You may tend to give more importance to matters that are out of your control and less to the ones about which you can actually do something. But doing this is not as easy as saying it; you have to make a conscious decision to put everything on hold to focus on yourself.

So you need to get away from everything—from all the noise from social media, all the worry from school, and all the responsibilities from work or leadership. I’m no expert, but these are the things that have helped me worry less and take more breaks.

1. Delegate tasks

When you take on a leadership role, whether that be in an organization or a group project, it’s easy for the leader to take on a lot of responsibility. At times that leader can end up taking most, if not all, of the responsibility. But the reality is that to be a great leader, you can’t do everything yourself.

Delegating is a hard but very important skill for a leader. By delegating tasks to others, you can take a break and share the responsibilities with a team. This way it becomes less likely that things fall between the cracks.

2. Prioritize

Knowing what to prioritize is a complicated thing, and it takes a lot of understating and planning. It’s hard to know what to focus on and what is just out of your control. What are things that need to be done right away, and what are things that can be done after a break? By prioritizing, you’re able to empty your plate and clear your mind, thus allowing you to schedule some time to decompress.

3. Get off social media

Social media can put an immense amount of pressure on anyone. At times it can perpetuate a fake reality where you just see everyone’s best sides but forget that what you see is just a second in their life. Getting off social media can help you focus on yourself and not on these fake expectations of real life. Taking a break from social media can help clear the mind and let it breathe.

4. Celebrate the big and small wins

When you have so much on your plate, you get used to the constant movement. You can’t stay on one thing for too long because you have a hundred more things to do. But it is extremely important that you take time out to celebrate your wins, no matter if they’re big or small. A win is a win, and it should be given its rightful space. Being busy, people tend to forget to celebrate wins and pass them off as if they were nothing. Take the time and celebrate, acknowledge that you did something right, and that other people see it, too.

5. Reconnect with loved ones

Taking a break from your busy schedule can always open space for loved ones, whether those are family, friends, or beloved pets. Sometimes, all you need to reconnect with yourself and charge up your batteries is just seeing the ones who you love. Taking a break doesn’t have to mean being alone; rather, it’s a time to let ourselves breathe and get away from what is hindering us.

There are many ways you can take a break … but just make sure to take one!