A mental health day is a day off of work to unwind. Therapists recommend taking them, especially during the coronavirus pandemic and a particularly stressful year.Joey Hadden/Business Insider
- It's more important than ever to take days off, therapist Nicole O-Pries told Insider.
- That's because the boundaries between work life and home life are blurring for many people who are working from home during the pandemic.
- Taking mental health days actually makes you more productive, therapist Mark Loewen told Insider.
- Here are seven tips for taking time off while working from home.
Mental health days provide people with the space to be productive, creative problem solvers.
That's according to a Richmond, Virginia-based therapist named Mark Loewen. He noted that shifting focus away from work helps the brain reboot.
"The problem is that we figuratively overheat certain parts of the brain," Loewen told Insider. "Disconnecting from one thing to focus on something else literally makes different areas of the brain light up."
Another therapist based in Richmond, Virginia, Nicole O-Pries, said teleworkers might not currently be taking time off because the pandemic limits travel. Nonetheless, our minds need a break, O-Pries said.
"Even if stepping away doesn't mean stepping away from your home," O-Pries said, "stepping away from the work within your home is really important."
Here are seven therapist-backed tips for taking mental health days while working remotely.