A snap survey of colleagues, friends and acquaintances reveals a diverse picture:
Some like to go to the sea on vacation, others to the mountains. Families with small children prefer to go to the same place a few times if it suits everyone. Others are always looking for new destinations and are happy to accept surprises.
Expats use the vacations to visit their families and friends at home. Some of those surveyed prefer to stay at home in the summer because they finally want to get to know their surroundings better, tend and enjoy their garden or simply indulge in sweet idleness.
Images of sandcastles, colorful cocktails, walks through cool forests, glittering drops of water as you boldly jump into a lake, the feeling of lightness as you swim in the sea, and of readers who could be anywhere in the world, completely immersed in their story.
How we go on vacation and recharge our batteries is very different. However, taking regular time out and recharging our batteries is important for our health and well-being. And that's not all: allowing ourselves to relax is also crucial for maintaining our performance in the long term.
"The art of resting" ...
Claudia Hammond, lecturer in psychology at Boston University in London, even goes so far as to prescribe "time-outs" as a prescription against our incessant busyness in her book "The Art of Rest - How to find real relaxation", published by Dumont in 2019.
However, the phenomenon of being constantly busy is not necessarily new. Even Socrates warned of the unproductivity of an overly busy life, in which doing and not doing become blurred. Hammond's recommendation for well-being and maintaining our performance is to pay as much attention to resting more often and better as we do to planning our (professional) activities.
It is helpful to be aware of what you can actively control and where there are limits to your own influence: A dream vacation cannot be planned, but being open to beautiful memories is entirely within our control.
We are not immune to conflicts with our partner while on vacation, but perhaps we can use the extra time together to listen to each other more attentively. We could explore our partner's needs as well as our own and perhaps even come home from our vacation with even more understanding for each other.
Free from the stress of school, we could observe our children's talents, such as their curiosity and endless patience when building a sandcastle or observing fishermen, the effortless overcoming of all language barriers in contact with other children, or the consistency of only ever eating the familiar pasta dish. Perhaps some of these skills can be called upon and put to good use during the next homework stress.
What you can plan is to travel light, literally and figuratively: leave everything at home that you don't absolutely need on vacation and take what you're sure to enjoy.
Recipe for recovery
- Make sure you get enough rest, at least when you're on vacation (you're busy at work all day anyway).
- Use the right ingredients and mix them according to your personal preferences, e.g:
- Withdrawing from others or seeking company
- Doing sports to relax the mind or dozing in a hammock.
- Let your mind wander and daydream.
- If worries arise, make a few notes for later and then distract yourself (with a book, an activity, a podcast).
- Allow yourself not to have to achieve anything special.
- Allow yourself to sleep in (remember: getting up early is not morally better).
- Especially in everyday life, but also on vacation: if you feel stressed, prescribe yourself 15 minutes of what you prefer to do to relax.
- Don't be overly impressed by the unchangeable: For example, if you are standing in a queue, you can also daydream, play "I see, I see what you don't see", talk to your companion or other people, listen to a podcast ...
- Enjoy the moment, and beware of derogatory comparisons (with last year's already glorified vacation, with other people's dream vacation ...)
- Be curious and collect impressions, feelings and good memories that you can recall later, e.g. in stressful situations.
- Make sure that your curiosity and desire for adventure don't degenerate into a hectic pace: it's better to experience less and enjoy it intensively than to do so superficially.
- Make compromises and say no sometimes: e.g. go with them to a hut and wait there for your partner to reach the summit, or give up the boat trip if you get seasick easily.
- Be generous with yourself and good to yourself.
Five steps to your feel-good vacation
1. planning
Once you have decided on a vacation destination, enjoy the anticipation. Browse through travel guides (which you can also borrow from the library), read crime novels set in the area, find out about local specialties and maybe even try out a new recipe.
2. pack your suitcase
Less is more. Maybe check the weather forecast for a few days to make sure you can leave the down jacket at home. An e-reader may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it can save kilos in your luggage. Make a checklist of what you really need (e.g. medication).
" to the checklists3. arrival
We may not like to hear it, but no matter which means of travel you choose, your best travel companion is patience.
4. on site
Be curious and give your vacation destination the chance it deserves. If you were very stressed before your vacation, you won't be able to relax on the first day. Give yourself time and follow the guide to relaxation.
5. back home
You may want to make notes about what you particularly enjoyed. If you enjoy creating things, you can perhaps record the positive experiences and adventures in a collage. Back in everyday life, you can then take a look at your good memories again and again and recall the good feelings.
Mindfulness
Recovery research shows that the regenerative effects of a vacation fizzle out after just 20 days. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a method of stress management that is scientifically proven to be effective in the long term.
The standardized mindfulness program can be learned in courses. Among other things, it involves adopting an inner observer's perspective in order to not simply be driven in stressful situations, but to see choices for one's actions.
The well-known German doctor and psychotherapist Luise Reddemann recommends starting small. Use your vacation to take the first step by simply trying once a day to "break through the automated routines and consciously take on the role of an inner observer or briefly check whether, for example, your own walking speed is being experienced as appropriate.
The training volume should be: Just a little bit more than never."
(Hentschke, 2019, p. 105)1
[1] Hentschke, F. (2019). 101 x psychology! Everything that is important. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
