What You Actually Need Over Winter Break: Rest, Restoration & Right-Sizing

By: Salina Mae

Winter Break has a way of sneaking up on us as educators. One minute we’re sprinting toward the finish line of December—running on caffeine, compassion, community, and pure grit—and the next minute someone cheerfully tells us, “Enjoy your Break!” Meanwhile, we’re still grading essays, answering emails, running morning meetings, holding a crying student, and trying to locate our lost water bottle from third period. The calendar swears it’s break time, but our bodies are like, is it? Because I’m still sprinting.

Then there’s that moment when your nervous system finally whispers, wait… we get to stop?
But Winter Break often shows up like an overly enthusiastic houseguest: arms full of potluck dishes, family expectations, group chats buzzing with plans, travel logistics, cultural traditions, and the emotional labor we carry as educators, caregivers, and community builders. It’s a season that can be sweet, chaotic, meaningful, and absolutely full. 

If we don’t go into a break with intention, we might blink and find ourselves wondering where all the rest and relaxation went. Burnout doesn’t come from workload alone–it emerges at the intersection of our professional lives, our family roles, our cultural identities, and the invisible labor we manage daily.

At The Teaching Well, we know that meaningful recovery begins with how intentionally we design the down time we have. Winter Break is one of the richest opportunities for both micro-doses of care and macro-doses of nourishment—if we honor what our body, heart, and nervous system actually need.

Applying the 3Rs

As a queer, Chicana, eldest daughter in a large blended family, Winter Break for me is full of tradition, laughter, and joyful chaos. I treasure it, but I also know how it feels to arrive at these gatherings completely depleted because I spent the Fall pushing through exhaustion without a plan for real rest. Through painful learning, I’ve come to see that my family deserves the version of me who is resourced and present—and I deserve that version of me too. 

Below I’ll show you how I apply the 3Rs of Recovery: Rest, Restoration, and Right-Sizing the Mental Load to my own Winter Break. The 3Rs remind me that caring for myself is not selfish; it’s strategic. It helps me show up with the energy, love, and presence my communities deserve.

1. Rest: Let Your System Downshift

Rest is an intentional pause—a period of inaction where the nervous system finally exhales. Some of my favorite forms of rest include:

• Doing Nothing — the luxurious kind of nothing where I stay in my pajamas all day and putz around the house with zero items on a to-do list. It’s like a permission slip to turn off.

• Drink a cup of tea and read a good novel, preferably while sitting under my cedar trees.

• Restorative yoga that reminds my body it has other speeds besides go.

Rest is where my system resets. Rest brings me back to myself. It is often the hardest thing for educators to give ourselves—and the most essential.

2. Restoration: Activities That Refuel You

If rest quiets the system, restoration recharges it. These activities require energy, which is why they usually come after rest.

My restoration practices include:

• Hikes with friends or my favorite spin class

• Slow cooking Winter meals (give me a broth-based soup!)

• Creative rituals like vision boarding, watercolor, or writing poetry.

Restoration helps me feel alive again.

3. Right-Sizing the Mental Load: Clear What’s Weighing on You

This is the sneaky R—the one we don’t realize we need until our brain slows down enough to notice. For me, right-sizing the mental load looks like:

• Booking the oil change I’ve postponed for… longer than I care to admit. 

• Tackling that messy drawer — the one that steals 2% of my vitality every time I open it.

• Scheduling the dentist appointment I heroically avoid every Fall.

• Doing a bit of second-semester planning only if it feels relieving.

Right-sizing isn’t about getting everything done; it’s about freeing up mental space for your future self to thrive.

Your Turn

Give your Winter Break a sprinkle of that legendary educator planning magic. The same magic you use to design unit plans, scaffold learning, and differentiate for every student — use just a dash of that to care for your professional, provider, and personal self.

A little strategy goes a long way. When we treat recovery as something worth preparing for, we give ourselves the chance to return more rested, more present, and more ourselves.

Here are a few questions to help you get you started with that plan. 

• When you think about rest, what are some of your favorite ways to truly unwind? What would rest actually look like for you this season?

• Which restorative activities refuel you and help you return to yourself?

• What is one right-sizing task your January self will absolutely thank you for?

At The Teaching Well, we are wishing that you get exactly what you need this Winter Break!