Introvert Talks - Holidays That Don’t Feel Like Breaks

"Introvert Talks" is meant to be a new initiative or theme, where I myself as an introvert, just talk about reflections and thoughts about my life, or maybe share more personal stuff. :)

This is my weekly post under this "Introvert Talks" theme and let's see where it takes me and us.

Do people still take breaks to recharge?

2 days of Chinese New Year just flew by, and the slight irony is that, event though it's meant to be "public holidays", it just didn't really feel much like one. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing, but it just that everyone's too busy to really take a break and get some rest.

The festivities start way before the actual days where families and friends start to prepare for the occasion. Be it spring cleaning and tidying up the house, to baking of cookies, to buying of food and making reservations at restaurants, etc. On the actual days, people go around visiting their relatives, seeing people whom they probably just see once a year (during Chinese New Year), to exchange greetings, to get some red packets, and to catch up. And there will always be relatives trying to "humble brag" and show off their current lifestyle, or compare their kids' jobs, exam results, etc. Not sure if it is because our society is always so competitive.

Anyway, for an introvert, it does get to a point where the social battery is depleted and it can get quite mentally exhausting. Especially making small talk to people whom I am not sure if they really want to know what's up with the life the past year, or are just trying to find something to break the (awkward) silence, which actually doesn't feel awkward to me.

After all, it's still an enjoyable "break" from work, and there are always nice things to look forward to for the Chinese New Year holidays, but this year, it made me reflect if everyone's just too busy and somehow people might have forgotten to take it easy and really just take a break and get some rest. But what do I know, perhaps the extroverts are enjoying themselves with all the partying and gatherings with multiple groups of families and friends. To each their own I guess. Haha.

As for me, I still believe in taking breaks once in a while to really recharge. It's not possible to disconnect 100% from the world and social media, but I think if I can partially disconnect, perhaps 80%, to go out and enjoy nature, to travel to another foreign city, and just slow down the pace of life, that's really good enough. And I always find that it declutters the mind as well, and we return with a clearer mind and perspective.

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, here's ending off with a photo of an interesting beverage. The actual name on the menu is "Ong Lai Latte", for those who are familiar with dialect language, it's actually Pineapple Latte. Pineapple is symbol of wealth in the Chinese/Asian culture. Anyway, I would say the pineapple latte was not fantastic but not too bad either, definitely worth a try if you are experimental. Haha.

Alright, it's almost the weekend so time to have a "post holidays" break. This time, one real break. Hehe!