As I pre­pare to turn 56 years in 2025, I reflect on the count­less hol­i­days I’ve tak­en, hop­ing to unwind, only to return home more exhaust­ed than when I left. Instead of find­ing rest, I found myself entan­gled in a dif­fer­ent kind of busy­ness in the name of hol­i­day- plan­ning fun itin­er­aries, rush­ing to new activ­i­ties, and tick­ing off end­less checklists.

As I reflect­ed on this from my not-so-qui­et hol­i­day hide­out the oth­er day, I sent out to my friends what turned out to be very time­ly advise to myself as well – ‘this hol­i­day, release the pres­sure. Do nothing—absolutely nothing—and embrace the noth­ing­ness that comes with it. Feel noth­ing about doing noth­ing, and let noth­ing but peace find you. You’ll thank me later.’

While, it may not quite amount to doing absolute­ly noth­ing as I advised, a hol­i­day should sure­ly mean tak­ing some form of rest. As I have come to dis­cov­er – the hard way — rest shouldn’t be mere­ly a pause from work; it must be ade­lib­er­ate choice to recharge, recal­i­brate, and renew. Yet, many are often caught up in a cycle that under­mines the very pur­pose of a hol­i­day. We pay top dol­lars to trav­el to exot­ic des­ti­na­tions only to return home stressed and phys­i­cal­ly drained. This isn’t just unfor­tu­nate and unwise, it is also very dangerous.

First, let’s remem­ber that chron­ic stress is a silent killer. We live in an era where stress has been nor­malised. Schol­ars, CEOs, par­ents, stu­dents, and even jua kali arti­sans wear busy­ness as a badge of hon­or. Haven’t you met an old school mate on the streets and they were in such a hur­ry that you thought the future of the whole world rest­ed only on their shoul­ders? While med­ical experts acknowl­edge that a cer­tain degree of stress is nor­mal, or even nec­es­sary, pro­longed stress can lead to heart dis­ease, weak­ened immu­ni­ty, diges­tive issues, and men­tal disorders.

Yet even dur­ing hol­i­days, the busy­ness bug nev­er stops. The urge to explore new places, over­plan activ­i­ties, or obsess over the next Tik­tok or Face­book post — keeps the stress going . Hol­i­days meant to heal become an exten­sion of our work-dri­ven, tar­get-ori­ent­ed lives. It is no won­der 31% of adults sur­veyed world­wide iden­ti­fied stress as the most sig­nif­i­cant health prob­lem as of August 2024. Doing noth­ing – as much as you can — is one of the most effec­tive ways to reverse the harm­ful effects of stress.

Sec­ond, cre­ativ­i­ty and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty depend on rest. Busy peo­ple often believe they can’t afford to rest, yet some of the great­est thinkers, lead­ers, and inno­va­tors of our time cred­it their suc­cess to delib­er­ate peri­ods of doing noth­ing. Neu­ro­sci­en­tists have found that rest acti­vates the brain’s default mode network—the part of the brain respon­si­ble for cre­ativ­i­ty, prob­lem-solv­ing, and self-reflec­tion. This means that when you sit qui­et­ly, star­ing at the waves, gaz­ing at a sun­set, or lis­ten­ing to the soft rustling of leaves in the wild — your brain isn’t idle—it’s pro­cess­ing infor­ma­tion, mak­ing con­nec­tions, and gen­er­at­ing insights. With­out rest, we risk stag­na­tion. Con­stant activ­i­ty leaves no room for ideas to flour­ish or solu­tions to emerge.

Third, rest is the foun­da­tion of men­tal well­ness. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, many of us see hol­i­days as a time to “max­i­mize expe­ri­ences.” We try to pack every hour with adven­ture, and ensure our social media feeds reflect the excite­ment. Yet this pur­suit of “hol­i­day per­fec­tion­ism” often leaves us feel­ing inad­e­quate, anx­ious, and depressed. A recent study in the Jour­nal of Hap­pi­ness Stud­ies revealed that per­fec­tion­ists tend­ed to feel more stressed and less con­tent dur­ing the hol­i­days. Rather than find­ing joy in their achieve­ments, they often expe­ri­ence burnout or dis­ap­point­ment when real­i­ty falls short of their high expec­ta­tions. Gen­uine rest allows us to recon­nect with our­selves, find clar­i­ty, and cul­ti­vate gratitude.

This hol­i­day sea­son, I chal­lenge you to defy the norms. Allow your­self to sit still, to breathe deeply, and just do — nothing.

Think green, act green!