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Key Takeaways While some feel motivated and energized by the new year, many experience stress, dread or mental health challenges as the post-holiday reality sets in.
Resolutions, routine restarts, seasonal factors and financial pressure can make the start of the year particularly difficult.
Focusing on your mental health, breaking the year into manageable segments, prioritizing physical activity and being kind to yourself can help you navigate these challenges.
You’re back at work in the new year, and LinkedIn is doing what LinkedIn does best. Your feed is awash in exclamation points and recycled optimism: “LFG!” “New year, let’s go!” “Best year yet.”
And look — optimism matters. Excitement can be fuel. Momentum is real. For many people, a new year genuinely feels like a clean slate full of opportunity.
But there’s another side to this moment that rarely makes it into the feed. For every person who feels energized by the calendar flipping, there’s someone else who feels a knot in their stomach. For them, January doesn’t signal renewal — it signals the clock restarting. And that can be heavy.
Related: Happy New Year’s Eve? Many Business Owners Think It’s The Worst Night of The Year. Here’s Why — And What I Told My Clients to Change Their Minds.
Here’s why
First, the holidays are often a desperately needed pause after 11.5 months of nonstop “go, go, go.” A few weeks of reduced pace, family time or simply not being on the grind can feel like oxygen. The problem is that a short break is rarely enough to fully reset a burned-out system. And when the holidays end, what’s waiting on the other side isn’t relief — it’s another 11.5 months of the same pace. For people who live with depression, anxiety or other mental health challenges, that realization can feel overwhelming and trigger serious distress.
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