It’s January, and the temperature is 1°C. In front of me is a steep hill that I’m about to sprint up. The first few strides are fast and I feel good, but when I’m less than a few steps away from the top, just near the crest of the hill, I hit a wall: my breath comes out in gasps and my quads start to ache. My body wants to stop but this is a key moment – because if push through this feeling, things become easier. 

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, I’d been wondering why – even after eight hours of sleep – chugging caffeine was the only way I could feel like a functioning person again. It wasn’t until Christmas when I took two weeks off, stayed away from social media and avoided news feeds, that I realised how mentally exhausted I was. During the in-between period of Christmas and New Year, I was doing what I can only now describe as “regenerating”, watching back-to-back Bridgerton and eating record amounts of peanut butter on toast.