Well, my vacation to Maine with the family was really marvelous. We played in the ocean, found star fish and sand dollars, watched the sun set from porches and read books! It was so relaxing and amazing that re-entry into regular life has been a challenge for me this week.
It makes me wonder if one of the reasons that 42% of Americans don’t take any vacations all year (beside practical things like cash, immovable responsibilities and a lack of vacation time..) (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-united-states-of-no-vacation/ )is that – not only is the getting ready and taking off to vacation challenging – the re-entry is even worse.
I have learned over the years that all the discomfort, change and chaos of taking a vacation is worth it in the long run. Even though getting ready for a vacation always reminds me of the Anne Morrow Lindberg quote, “Is there anything as horrible as starting on a trip? Once you’re off, that’s all right, but the last moments are earthquake and convulsion, and the feeling that you are a snail being pulled off your rock.“
Getting away from your regular life on vacation puts really puts your regular life in perspective. And sometimes that can be a wonderful, yet painful thing.
-Spending multiple days of relaxed quality time together as a family makes you realize how little you do that at home.
-Having all that unstructured time points out how structured life is at home.
-Sleeping with no alarm clock to wake you reminds you that alarm clocks stink.
-Having no anxiety about the lawn, the possible weeds or a wobbly railing makes you notice how much there is to do at home!
I could go on….
Of course, I’m glad to come home for many reasons. As my friend said while we sat on the beach talking about home life vs. vacation life, “It’s not like my regular life sucks!” but there can be anguish and discomfort realizing how different our life is from vacation and how quickly the routine of everyday life pulls us back in. Another friend messaged me upon return to work, “And in case you are wondering it takes 6.5 hrs at work to crash a vacation buzz “
Getting away from my structured regular life reminds me of things I love to do, like read, write, do spontaneous things with my family (full moon kayaking!) and get more sleep. So vacations are precious partly because they remind us of those things every time we go away. Those annual (or hopefully biannual or why not even triannual) reminders keep us going in those directions that make us happy and feed our souls, even though it can be painful to see how we’re not doing them as much as we’d like. (Hopefully that’s what vacations do. My mother-in-law calls family vacations “feeding and taking care of everyone-somewhere else.”)
So, first make sure to do everything you can to take a vacation. A relaxing one!
Then, when you come back try some of these things that have helped me this week.
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| Here is a pic from a moonlight kayak ride in the bay on the full moon night. A habit I’d like to bring home. |
Clean up before you leave. This one is so boring and creates much of my pre-trip stress, BUT it is so worth it when you get home. I have come home to such mess and catch-up that I used to wonder if vacation was worth it. Now I do all sorts of clean-up, like bill-paying, order-fulfilling, returning emails and phone calls, big run
s to the dump, filling in google calendar, watering the plants and all that other stuff. Uggh. Do it if you can-because it lets you relax more on vacation and feel better when you come home.
Get the aromatherapy diffuser going. As soon as I got home I put in a blend of Lavender Green Mandarin and Ylang Ylang in the diffuser. They smelled so good together and made me happy to be home even though I couldn’t smell the ocean anymore. It helped the whole family adjust and unpack with relative ease. Here’s a link to more information on aromatherapy diffusers. http://crowladyhealing.com/aromatherapy-diffusers
Tap! I did a great deal of tapping on vacation while sitting
in the car and a bit during free time every day. It is so helpful in general, but if you have a bit of extra time on vacation; use it to feel even more at ease by tapping away stresses that come up. Getting a break from issues also gives us a fresh perspective which can make tapping even more effective. And then when you get home you can tap some more! Here’s a visual reminder on the tapping points. http://crowladyhealing.com/the-tapping-points and a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_6VLi9MUds
Make an altar Set up a little area at home to remind you of your trip. Put some shells or anything from your trip in a prominent place to bring you back to the the relaxation and fun. Put some pics on your phone or screen saver, or add them to your pinterest page.You can even print out actual pictures and put them on the fridge.
Make a change learned from vacation, even a small one. Take more frequent walks, check facebook less, spend time outside, enjoy some family unstructured time,(I know – you have to structure it in!) keep in touch with vacation friends. Do something so that what you enjoyed on vacation comes home with you.
Be gentle with yourself Try to give yourself at least a day before going back to work. Let yourself mourn the passing of another vacation. It’s OK to feel sad or disappointed it’s done. Tapping on that with some essential oils like rose and grapefruit diffusing in the background will really help. Then you can start planning the next vacation!
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| A lovely bright St Johnswort flower I picked by the sea for to make a massage oil that relieves nerve pain. |
