How to deal with the melancholy of returning home Towards the end of summer and performance anxiety

There is a moment in the year when time itself seems to slow down, to expand, giving us the chance to breathe more deeply. Summer, with its long days, sunsets coloring the horizon, and the luxury of taking breaks without feeling guilty (at least sometimes), has always represented a suspended parenthesis. But every parenthesis, by definition, must close. And so, at the end of August or in the first days of September, as cities start to fill up again and rhythms become pressing, many of us are faced with a feeling of subtle melancholy, sometimes hard to name: post-holiday performance anxiety. It’s not just about missing the sea, the trips, or the days without schedules. It’s a more complex sensation: on one hand, nostalgia for what we leave behind; on the other, the weight of the expectations waiting for us. Summer, in fact, is never just a season: it’s also the symbol of a different kind of time, when we feel allowed to slow down. When it ends, our mind abruptly reminds us that ordinary time, made of deadlines, goals, and results, is looming.

End-of-summer melancholy: a collective feeling

End-of-summer melancholy is not an individual matter: it’s almost a collective ritual. It’s no coincidence that poets and musicians have often celebrated the end of August as a transition full of nostalgia. On one hand, there is the loss of lightness: the chance to stay outdoors, to live without too many structures, to let ourselves be carried by improvisation. On the other, the start of a cycle that brings us back to work, school, daily commitments. This transition carries with it a certain vulnerability. We fear we are not ready enough, that we haven’t recharged our batteries as we promised ourselves, that we won’t manage to be productive again with the same energy as before. The thought often becomes: "What if I can’t make it? What if I fall back into stress right away?"

Post-holiday performance anxiety

This kind of anxiety doesn’t only concern big professional commitments, but can also surface in more personal contexts. After a period of rest, we feel pressured to prove we’re back more energized, more high-performing, more "renewed." Almost as if vacations had been an investment, and on our return we had to show the results. The paradox is that this very thought risks canceling out the positive effects of holidays. It’s as if we felt obliged to capitalize on rest, when in fact rest was precious precisely because it had no productive purpose. Performance anxiety feeds on expectations, ours and others’, and on comparison, especially today, amplified by social media: seeing other people’s perfect summer photos and stories can turn our September into a minefield of insecurities.

Recognizing melancholy without judgment

The first step in dealing with this state of mind is to acknowledge it without judgment. End-of-summer melancholy is not a sign of weakness, but an emotion reminding us of how precious moments of pause are. It means we lived intensely and that time had value. There’s no need to repress sadness or mask it with a false enthusiasm for new beginnings. Accepting it allows us to experience it more lightly, as a natural transition.

Turning the return into a transition ritual

Traditional cultures know well the power of rituals in life transitions. And the end of summer is, in every way, a threshold. Creating small personal rituals can help make this moment softer: writing a holiday diary, printing some photos, cooking a recipe that recalls a recent trip. Small gestures that don’t violently close the summer, but integrate it into the time ahead. Likewise, planning something enjoyable for September - a concert, a trip, a dinner with friends - helps us not perceive the return only as a sentence to duty. We don’t need to wait for another summer to allow ourselves moments of lightness.

Small tips to avoid feeling overwhelmed

• Give your body time: returning to a fast-paced rhythm doesn’t need to be immediate. It’s helpful to allow for "buffer days," gradually winding down from vacation instead of diving straight into frantic days.
• Manage expectations: you don’t need big goals right away. It’s better to start with concrete and realistic tasks, avoiding the trap of "from September everything changes."
• Slow down even in the city: include breaks in your workdays, such as a walk, some reading, or a coffee without your phone, to preserve the summer quality of time within your routine.
• Cultivate relationships: summer often reminds us of the importance of social life. Continuing to meet friends, organizing shared moments, even brief ones, helps us feel less alone during the transition.

A new idea of productivity

Finally, the end of summer can be an opportunity to rethink the very concept of productivity. If performance anxiety affects us, it’s because we live in a society that measures personal value based on results. And yet, perhaps, the real gain of summer is remembering that time doesn’t always have to serve a purpose. Bringing this awareness into everyday life means learning to work and live with more balance.