The Re-Entry: What nobody tells you about coming back

By Tricia Scott.

Have you ever returned from a break or holiday and felt… off?

If you're reading this and nodding, keep going — because this has fascinated me since starting The Rest Test. Because of this six-month experiment, I'm noticing everything, and all the things I would usually just work through are now being shoved under a microscope for my (and your) inspection and often amusement; you're welcome.

So, let's talk about that feeling.

You've been away, had a rest, didn't answer many emails and returned home feeling pretty good. Hey, you did the thing! You took a break, right?

Well, not so much (not in my case anyway). Yes, I had the break, sat by the Mediterranean and ate more tapas than was strictly necessary, but when I came home I felt… off.

Not sad. Not anxious exactly. Just a bit like someone had rearranged all the furniture in my brain by a few inches. Nothing was where I expected it to be, and I couldn't quite find my footing. The steady rhythm I rely on day-to-day just wasn't there. The full-on I'M BACK AND RESTED, WATCH OUT WORLD momentum I thought I'd come back to? Nowhere to be found (rude).

I kept waiting for it to click back into place.

It didn't.

Part of me didn't even want to tell you this. It feels a bit defeatist to even write, but when I started The Rest Test I made a promise — to tell the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth. So when all of that rest I was going for (and had) didn't initially give me the result I expected, I thought I'd 'done it wrong' — not to mention that saying "I went on holiday and felt awful when I got back" to a world of people dealing with genuinely hard things requires some nerve.

But here's what I've learned over all of the years growing this business... the hard way, repeatedly, like a brick to the face... about keeping things in and not saying them: nothing good comes of it.

So I'm saying it. Coming back from rest is harder than I expected. And because I genuinely didn't want to believe that, and before the foot stomping and ITS NOT BLOODY FAIR started, I turned to the science.

What the science says

Turns out that when you stop running at full speed (really stop, holiday stop, no-inbox, off-the-grid stop), your nervous system exhales. Your cortisol drops. Your brain, finally released from the relentless pressure of decisions and deadlines and everything you have to hold, starts to actually rest. Dopamine, that shiny pleasure chemical that keeps us moving and motivated, quietens all the way down. Everything slows. And it feels like relief.

The problem is the coming back.

When you return, your body is asked to reboot a system it was just beginning to let go of. Your cortisol spikes. Your sympathetic nervous system re-activates: heart rate up, muscles bracing, the familiar background tension comes sliding back in like a creep in your DMs. Psychologists call the sharp emotional dip that follows re-entry "post-vacation blues" — and one researcher, Dutch psychologist Ad Vingerhoets, even coined the term "leisure sickness" for the symptoms: anxiety, sluggishness, a particular sadness that's hard to name.

It has a name!!

None of this, by the way, means you shouldn't rest; it just means your body finally trusted you enough to stop. Which, in my opinion, is totally progress.

The next right thing

But in the moment, in that first week back, feeling uneasy and disoriented, it's hard to remember that. It's easy to spiral. To wonder if something's actually wrong. To feel like everyone else on Instagram powered straight back into their week with their inbox cleared and their strategy sorted, while you're sitting there wondering what day it is.

So, when I got back and discovered "leisure sickness", I did the next right thing. I called a friend.

Not any friend — I called a fellow entrepreneur. Someone who runs her own successful business, who I knew had also just come back from a break. And do you know what she said when I told her I couldn't seem to find my rhythm?

She said: me too!

Not a polite "oh I know what you mean." Me too in the way that means I have been feeling exactly this, and I thought I was the only one, and oh thank God it's you.

We are all, always, doing the same things and feeling the same feelings. And until we actually say the thing (the real thing, not the managed version) we suffer separately when we could be suffering together. (Which sounds grim but is, I promise, significantly better.)

Then I met Gill

I'm back on track now. Give it ten days or so (apparently this is the re-acclimatisation window) and the rhythm does return. The momentum does come back. And when it does, it feels a little different, a little more intentional than before.

And then, because the universe is beautifully, comically on the nose — I was introduced by the same holiday blues friend to Gill.

Gill Bennison-Souri is the founder of Create Retreats, and she is one of those women you immediately exhale when you meet. You know the type. Soul magic. The kind of person who understands, without explanation, exactly what you've been carrying — and who makes you feel like it's entirely reasonable to put it down for a moment. I don't know how some people do this; Gill just has it.

I told her about the post-holiday wobble. She got it immediately. Of course she did — restoration is literally her work. And I immediately did what any sensible person does in the presence of someone who runs beautiful wellness days in stunning countryside locations.

I signed up.

The Rest Test continues

On Sunday 16th August, I'm taking The Rest Test to Brinkburn in Northumberland — tucked into a wooded valley beside the River Coquet — for a full day with Create Retreats. Pilates, breathwork, a guided nature walk, plant-based lunch, and a closing restoration session. The kind of day that returns you to yourself.

If you're able to get to Northumberland, please feel free to join me — details here: createretreats.co.uk/uk-wellness-days/brinkburn/

I'm starting to understand that the test isn't just "can I rest?" It's: can I keep choosing it, even when the re-entry is hard? Even when coming back feels worse than going? Even when the momentum stalls and the nervous system needs time to catch up?

Rest, it seems, is a practice. Not a destination. You don't arrive at it and stay; you keep returning to it. Imperfectly perhaps, but you keep returning.

The Rest Test Continues.

I believe in you (always).

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 Tricia Scott is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Female CEO — a global platform, magazine, and community dedicated to helping women build confident, aligned, powerful businesses.

A startup mentor and multi-company director, she’s spent the past decade helping women move from overwhelmed and isolated to empowered and intentional.

Most days, she’s juggling her MacBook, her next big idea, and a very necessary caffeine supply. Connect with her at thefemaleceo.com.