What I Learned During My Year-Long Blogging Break 🗓️

Remember that time I swore off social media last year? Well, I kind of did the same with blogging… I had quit for a year. 😅

One day, after months of dragging myself to publish each post, the pressure just…vanished. Suddenly, I felt no interest in posting, researching topics, creating written drafts, or even designing those fun thumbnails. With that, I hit the brakes on all blogging activities before it affects the quality of my posts.😟Did I try to make a comeback during that year? Absolutely. But I just couldn’t take that first step. I wasn’t ready to dive back in.

So here is what’s happening, at this point in time, I haven’t told my active readers from the old blog that I’ve moved to a new domain and platform. I swear I’ll put up a notice soon🫡. Plus, I’ve no brainstorming ideas for new posts. But hey, I’ve come back with a lighter wallet (thanks to setting up this new website) and a fiery❤️‍🔥 passion to get back to something I missed doing every week. I’m back, fr fr. This time around, it definitely feels different.

Here’s a special post to wrap up the year 🎁 and kick off a new chapter in my blogging journey. This isn’t to discourage any of you from chasing your blogging dreams, but if you’ve ever felt that familiar burnout and guilt feeling about posting, I hope my experience this year puts your mind at ease. Sometimes, you just need that mini-break, and before you know it, you’ll be back in action 🤩.

What I learned while I was away:

Turns out, I can pick up back my old hobbies! Who knew? I’ve been devouring books 📚 this year and keeping track of them all on Storygraph. I left Booktube and BookTok content behind for a while, so I wasn’t sure where to start or what recommended books to read at first. But I decided to be experimental—whatever sounded good and wasn’t on THAT boycott list was fair game 🤷‍♀️. Right now, I’m super into The Bone Season Series, The House of the Dead Duology (planning a re-read soon!), and the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. I’m currently on the second book of The Bone Season series, “The Mime Order.” During my year-long blogging hiatus, I’ve also built quite a TBR pile on my little shelf, so there’s always a book to look forward to.

I’ve been focusing on my mental health. Keeping it on the down-low for now, but maybe someday, I really want to share my story with you. 🩷

Meanwhile, I’ve been building a family… of cats! Those three adorable furballs on my homepage? That’s Nana (I’ve already written two special posts about her) and the two new additions, Ben (pink collar) and Jimin (green collar). We adopted them from Facebook after realising Nana “seemed” lonely, and her owner (me) was feeling the same *cough cough*. Surely, the solution was to adopt new members to cure our loneliness together! 😌We found them through Facebook. Initially, I wanted just one more kitten, but when the foster pawrent brought the sibling along, I couldn’t bear to separate them. So, here we are today—a fam of five: two hoomans and three cats. 👫🐈🐈🐈‍⬛

This was totally unexpected—I didn’t see it coming at all. I’ve grown to love mocha frappes 🥤 so much! I haven’t quite stepped into appreciating coffee itself just yet (or maybe ever), but I’m definitely a fan of that sweet spot between chocolate and coffee. Of course, there’s the downside of the extra weight I’ve been collecting along the way. Sigh. As they say, not all good things should be enjoyed without moderation. I need to start exercising pronto! 🥲

In the end, my blogging hiatus wasn’t about quitting; it was a break that I really needed. I’m still learning and growing as a writer, but I’m grateful for the lessons I learned during my time away. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or uninspired to write, remember that it’s okay to take a break because putting it off for too long might send you spiralling out of blogging the way it did for me.

How have you all been, I need to know! I’ve really missed reading your comments and stories.