Make your career break ‘work’ for you.

I had a major life event this year because of which I relocated to a new country on the other side of the globe. It’s been quite an exciting change that has also resulted in a career break. I was mentally prepared for this before it happened but still I find myself working on it everyday to make this time a memorable one.

If you are going through a situation where you have hit the pause button in your career, here are some ideas that you may find helpful.

Pick up a hobby that got lost in the race of life

Did you read? paint?play the guitar? dance? play a sport? Start doing the activity that gave you a lot of happiness and mental peace when you did it.

I have started reading once again. Always been a bookworm, I find pleasure in exploring bookshops wherever I see them — an airport, or a street or a shopping mall. With the new found time, I have picked up my kindle once again and am trying out different genres. Re-visiting some old favorites such as the Harry Potter series for light reading to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast & Slow for work related reading. I am loving Satya Nadella’s book,Hit Refresh, these days, an excellent book on how to manage change and re-motivate your employees.

Find out what de-stresses you and practice it everyday

This time between jobs can be hard and stressful. But, don’t let it bring you down. Keep your spirits high by doing something that takes that stress out of you and helps your positive energy expand.

I have started doing yoga practice every single day. I follow the youtube channel, Yoga with Adriene, and spend at least 20–30 mins stretching my body, being mindful and breathing some self-love. Getting fit in the process is the cherry on the cake. I often wonder why didn’t I do this before..haha!

I have also re-discovered my love for baking. When I was about 12 years old, my parents bought our first convection oven. It was swanky and shiny and apparently, one could bake a cake in it. I have lost count of the numerous cakes that I baked, lots of failures (uncooked from the middle, burnt on top, the cake didn’t rise etc.) and some successes. Baking has become something of a meditation for me — laying out the ingredients on the kitchen top, precisely measuring them, mixing it all together, the aroma of the cake filling the whole house and lovingly cleaning all the baking utensils for use the next time. My new thing is ‘vegan cakes’. (Here’s a recipe for banana bread that never fails. Never.)Everyone loves them and everyone eats them. Win!

Keep your toolbox clean and sharp

Now is a good time to up-skill and learn something new in your field of work or a related field. With numerous options available online, hop on to one of the many tutorials on Coursera, eDX, Udemy and others and see what you would like to learn about. And while you are learning, focus on becoming really good at it. With time and practice, you would become an expert at your new skill.

For me, it is learning a new tool to facilitate easier decision-making. Everyone wants to make data-driven decisions and everyone has tons of data but many of us do not go beyond the standard excel graphs and charts. I am learning data visualization so that data becomes easy to understand, interesting to look at and can help us take meaningful, actionable decisions. It is super fun!

Set a challenge for yourself and win at it

Keep that sense of accomplishment and achievement going by solving a challenge — it can be anything that you think that you cannot do.

I have decided to overcome my fear of water by learning how to swim. The challenge that I have set for myself is that I would swim to the deep end and swim back instead of just splashing about in 4 feet deep water (I am 5'4 :) ). I can’t wait for the day when I would jump in without worrying about drowning myself. A big celebration is on the cars that day.

Embrace this new-found time

This time will not return and therefore, it is upon you to make it a good one. Laziness, frustration and sleep will creep in. But, don’t let them rule the day. If you are having a bad day, let it pass. Sleep in, binge watch your favorite show on tv, eat the junk food that you want to, then…bounce back. Try to uplift your mood by watching a good movie, going out for a walk, exercising or talking to a friend. Pick yourself up and fill your time with small, productive activities.

And while you are doing all this, don’t forget to send in your job applications and work on your network.