Time off doesn’t work the way we wish it would

The vacation-after-a-vacation trick that works every time (sample size of 1)

I took 10 days off between jobs and thought I’d come back feeling like a new person.

(Narrator: She didn’t.)

My body was technically “off,” but my mind was still in go-mode—bracing, scanning, clenching. It wasn’t restful. It was just empty space, and I didn’t know how to exist in it yet.

Fast forward a few weeks. I just came back from a two-week vacation in France—this time, after settling into my new job. (Two weeks of onboarding → two weeks of vacation. I wish this were always how it went!) That’s when things shifted. I felt relaxed. Present. Unbothered in the way I imagined I’d feel during my original break.

It was the rest I thought I’d get earlier.

But it came later—after I’d actually begun to decompress, process, and feel safe again.

We act like a long weekend or a random Friday off is a reset button.

It’s not.

You don’t walk out of months (or years) of tension, overwork, or chronic stress and slide into stillness overnight. Your nervous system needs time to believe the threat has passed.

Rest doesn’t follow a schedule. It shows up when your body trusts that it’s finally allowed to.

So if you’re burned out and frustrated that your time off “didn’t work,” I want to offer you this: You’re not doing it wrong. You might just need more time than the system usually gives you.

Rest doesn’t always happen during the break.

Sometimes, it finds you after.