Sometimes, we all need a break. Life can get overwhelming and we deserve a chance to just catch up. As if we are catching up with a friend that we haven't spoken to in a long time, catching up is essential for our mental and emotional well being

When I look back to the times that I have actually "caught up" with myself, there aren't that many. Yes, I have taken gap years here and there to focus on my mental health. But, I have never really taken the time to focus on where I left off the last moment I wanted to take a break. Once things "seemingly" were back to normal, I just went on from the "new phase" I was about to enter, rather than finishing off on the phase that I left off from.

The problem with letting things hang ambiguously in a phase of our lives is that we don't get to reevaluate what the problem was and how to fix it. We end up making the same mistakes over again. I knew the moment I was about to enter a "new phase" that I would just be putting myself on an unfortunate path. Little did I know that this would do more harm than hurt.

Catching up to life gets even harder with a change in circumstance, such as a pandemic. We have to flip to a different mode of living and seeing. The things we used to do aren't existent anymore as they were, and we have to "adapt" to a newer cycle of life. Adapting isn't the problem anymore. It's more so the change and how to manifest it into our everyday lives.

I used to think change wasn't all that bad. But then life happened and I realized that sometimes, change can be difficult and hard to handle. We oftentimes want the best for ourselves, but don't know what that is or how to achieve it. This is where catching up comes in handy. It reminds us that despite the change that has occurred, we have to catch up on where we last left off, just as if we were talking to a friend that we haven't seen in years.

Don't compare who you are now to who you were then- As easy as it may feel to compare yourself now to when you were a couple years ago, it causes us to feel that we have to match up to those standards/how we were back then. Comparing isn't healthy, especially if it causes us to feel that we "have to" be a certain way, that we aren't at the moment now. Be happy with who you are now, including all the things that have made you a stronger person today.

Create a list of positive adjectives that describe yourself now, but didn't back then-Try to separate who you are now from who you were a while back. Yes, times do change, but all in all, we are the same person. Maybe there are things that describe you today, that didn't describe you back then. Highlight those parts of yourself and use it to convince yourself that you are still you, even if different things have happened and circumstances might have changed.

Be practical about your expectations- It is okay to expect things, but it is important to draw a firm line between knowing what to expect and actually making those expectations.