Sometimes, you just need a break. Grief dominates every aspect of your life, from your quietest moments to your busiest schedules. Oftentimes, people try to overload themselves with distractions or swarm their schedule with work to avoid confronting their grief. Maybe if there's never a moment to sit with yourself, there won't be any time to feel the pain. It's tremendously unhealthy, eventually, you have to take something close to a break to decompress and let that cry out. Carrying that boulder by yourself will only make you sadder and more miserable.
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Thankfully, Nashville actress Hayden Panettiere allowed herself this space after she lost her brother Jansen. He passed away at 28 years old in 2023 due to complications from an enlarged heart syndrome. It would've been easy for her to continue working. Most people know that they have to in order to pay the bills. However, with the nature of her job, Hayden could afford to take time away from our screens to properly regroup. After a much needed break, she feels ready to take the world on.
Hayden Panettiere Finally Comes Back After Four Year Break From Acting
Recently, Panettiere spoke with Us Weekly, where she promotes her comeback film A Breed Apart. She admits that she didn't initially intend on taking such a lengthy break but remains grateful for it regardless. Surely, with her brother passing midway through her hiatus, Hayden needed additional time to properly mourn. Ultimately, the departure allows for her to feel firmer and more clearheaded than ever. "I feel much more solid and grounded in this world, the crazy world that we live in," she says of her break.
"It's healthy to continue to keep evolving as a person. Which I always try to do to keep reinventing ourselves and learning more things about ourselves and our wants and needs and dislikes and all the above," she continues. "But I've never been this version of me, I've never been as OK with being who I am without feeling the need to apologize for anything. I feel like I've finally earned the right to an opinion."
Additionally, it's important to note that this break was probably long overdue. Panettiere has been acting since she was four years old. Perhaps she never had the real opportunity to take a second and take everything in. Regardless, she reads as better than ever mentally, ready to continue her creative career.
