It is always important to take a break, a break from work, from school, or just from life. You deserve it. No matter how long your to-do-list is, it's time to put that aside, December is finally here which means there's only one month left in 2016. While many people may, at this point be arming themselves with extra work, I think it is best to wind down. If you're stressed about work maybe you're looking at it from the wrong angle. Take a break, have a breather and then go back re-energised and focused.

Life is tough, and you can't just keep working, you can't keep fighting, in fact you really can't keep doing anything without taking a moment to breathe. Sometimes we all just need a holiday away from our lives. When everything starts to pile up and it feels like too much, just relax. I know that can be hard to hear (coming from someone who is very high strung) relaxing is almost never on my mind. However, it can do wonders for the body, mind and soul. While being told to 'chill out' isn't what a lot of people want to hear, sometimes it's exactly what they need to hear. The world isn't going to fall apart if you take a little time off for yourself.

And as December has finally begun, Christmas is coming and the new years is starting to sneak up on us. Yet despite all of this, I believe our focus should be on relaxation above and beyond everything else. As people we take care of our bodies, we wear bandages when we have cuts, and casts when we break a bone. But many of us forget that our mind also requires the same kind of care. When a person finishes a 20km run they don't just launch into another run; they stop and let themselves rest. Simply because they know that their body can't handle another 20km run without a break. The same goes for our mind. We cannot keep pushing ourselves and pushing ourselves with no rest in between, yet still expect ourselves to stay afloat.

Having a break, taking a holiday. To me is by far the single most important thing in making sure that we are able to continue to function at our best.

I have always thought that the truth has been something used only by the brave, by the courageous, that the very idea of being truthful is an act of heroism. Before you start laughing at how majestic I'm making it sound to simply tell the truth; allow me to explain. When someone asks you, do these jeans make me look fat? Whether they do or not our instinct is to lie, to tell them, "no of course they don't!" if not to spare the person's feelings then to spare our own guilt. We are taught to live only in the sunshine, to see only the good, to say only the kind. More often than not the truth is hidden within the darkest places.