Back To Work Blues

It’s that time again when everyone gets back to work and it can quickly feel as though you hadn’t even taken time off. Holidays are an essential part of maintaining resilience, work/life balance, and when your brain is completely at rest it is often the time when the most important realizations about your life can happen.
The first week of work can feel surprisingly difficult as you adapt back to the routine. Time can drag on and you can easily feel unmotivated. Fantasies of retirement can occupy your mind and comparing life at work with how it felt to have a Margarita by the pool whilst reading your favourite novel can feel almost depressing.
One important way to deal with this reality is to recognize that these feelings are very normal and to be expected. Coming back from rest and trying to get your mind moving at the start is also a real effort but this is just how the brain works. If it has been resting for some time, it goes into a bit of a state of inertia. So initially focussing on work can feel exhausting and all too much.

One important thing to keep in mind is that you may start misinterpreting the difficulty in adjusting back to work as a sign that you need to change your work altogether. Remember back to about a month before your holidays and you felt about work then.  If you really did think that you need a change, then this makes sense and perhaps career counseling may be of benefit. However if you were ok with what you are doing, your negative thoughts are not based in evidence and reality.

So the best way to adapt back is to take some deep breaths, remember that negative emotions are normal when returning to work and keep doing what you do best until your mind gets back into the rhythm and your holiday goes back to a place in your mind to where it should be, a memory of a wonderful well deserved break. It’s also a great time to start planning your next trip so you have something to look forward to...
 

Paul Martin
Principle Psychologist - Centre for Human Potential