If there’s one thing that pretty much all of us can agree on, it’s the fact that life can be pretty hard sometimes.

The stress of everything from work to family to maintaining some kind of social life can be enough to make anyone want to hide their head in the sand and wait for it all to go away. Of course, most of the time that’s just going to make life worse but one of the biggest myths that the modern world has sold to many of us is that we’re not allowed to take a break for a while. With that in mind, here are some things that you can do to take a break and take some of the pressure of, even if it’s just for a while.

TAKE A VACATION

Let’s start with the most obvious way to give yourself a break. Take a vacation! Get away from it all and do something that you enjoy. What kind of vacation doesn’t matter, the key is to find something that you find relaxing and engaging. If you’re the kind of person who really just needs to spend some time hanging out and doing nothing guilt-free, then get yourself down by the pool or on the beach and start soaking up that sun.

TAKE TIME TO RELAX

Of course, a break doesn’t mean getting away. Sometimes it can be something as simple as hanging out on the sofa playing driving simulator games or binging a show on Netflix. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with deciding to take some time to just focus on yourself for a while.

LEARN TO SAY NO

This is one of the hardest things in the world for a lot of people, despite how simple it might seem on the surface. Most of us are hardcoded to say yet to just about everything. However, trying to please everyone is just going to make you miserable and is going to lead to you resenting a lot of the people in your life. Instead, think about your priorities. Be willing to say no to certain things. If you’ve got plans with your family then tell your boss that you’re just not going to be able to work late this time. If you’re exhausted and you need a rest, tell your friend that their request might just have to wait. Most of the time people will be a lot more understanding than you might expect.

Now, this isn’t the same as walking away from all of your responsibilities, far from it. The truth is that if you don’t have a decent level of balance in your life then it’s just going to get harder and harder. If you spend all of your time avoiding things then they’re going to just pile up but if you try to do everything all of the time then you’re going to exhaust yourself. Whatever you do, make sure that you’re finding a way to balance those two sides of your life. Taking a break and looking after yourself is always going to make anything you actually do a whole lot easier.