This has probably on the whole gone unnoticed, but there has been a lack of any new posts for the last week due to my decision to take a little blogging break. Well, I’m back!

A week may not seem like much of a break for some, but the fact is since October 2015 up until last week, I published at least 5 new blog posts a week. In fact, since October 2015, I have posted 525 blog posts, which averages out to 25 posts a month. Posts have been written come rain or shine, hell I even tend to post daily when I’m on holiday! And while I’m super proud of this achievement, the fact is I’ve never taken a break in all that time.

You may have remembered back at the end of April I ummed and ahhed about taking a break – hell, I even shared my pro/con list! – but even then I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The decision was finally made, however, following a week of pretty poor blog stats, and while I try not to take a bad week to heart too much, it was my worst week for blog views for quite some time, and this time I did take it personally. That, combined with being so busy doing overtime at work to save money, and feeling a little bit down about life in general, I figured now more than ever was the right time to do it.

I’m not gonna lie, I did not find it easy.

To me, it felt like failure. I tried to focus on the benefits of the break, but after two days when I didn’t find things getting any easier, or any more creative juices flowing, I started to worry that it would be more than a week of this torture.

I tried to sit down and write, but I couldn’t find words. I had a few ideas, but while normally I spill the contents of my brain without much thought to the matter, my fingers just weren’t moving over the keys, and I was just staring at a blank screen. Writing and blogging has been such a big part of my life, I was now starting to feel like something was missing. Being a blogger is part of my identity and I was feeling lost without it. I tried to think of ‘easy’ posts; lists, product reviews, the stuff that I can normally bash out fairly quickly, but even then I couldn’t do it. It all felt forced.

Some things, however, did me some good. I spent a day scrolling through my blog to add to my document of scheduled tweets, re-discovering some old favourites in the process. I stopped obsessively checking my blog stats, and that probably did me a world of good. I went to the gym, I ate healthy, and I binge-watched TV.

On Saturday afternoon, I finally managed to put fingers to keys and managed to write two posts. It was time to be back, and if I’m a honest I’m actually a little nervous, but I’m hoping getting back into things will be smooth sailing! There are going to be quite a few changes in my life over the coming weeks and months, but this little corner of the internet of mine will always bring me so much happiness, and I hope you’ll continue to share it with me!

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