Have you ever been on vacation, pleasantly enjoying yourself – when suddenly, your phone rings? Or you receive an urgent work email? It can be all too easy to let the stress of our work lives trickle into relaxation time. Sometimes we might even return from a vacation and not feel recharged at all.
Don’t Check Your Email
Without even realizing it, all people who have smartphones are often and constantly checking and rechecking messages. Even when they don’t want to be! Make some firm boundaries with yourself and with your cell phone while on vacation. Turn off email notifications entirely if you have to – or even just temporarily uninstall the app. If you’re worried about work emergencies, in the direst of circumstances, you might want to consider instructing your coworkers to call you if they absolutely have to. On the other hand, if there is no potential situation where you might be needed for an emergency, instruct your job to not call you either. Leave the digitized stress behind.
Try Relaxing Activities
Even if the everyday logistics of stressful life stay behind and your work doesn’t contact you, what good is that if your vacation is stressful? In some ways, some small stress is unavoidable. It might be stressful to plan the trip, when deciding what to do, when actually traveling – even more so if you have kids to wrangle. Thus, it’s important to plan activities that really relax you. Relaxation comes in many different forms. You might want to get a professional massage. A spa treatment by the beach can help you relax. Even just sleeping or watching TV in your hotel room can be the right answer. Make sure to balance the stressful activities with whatever will help you rest and energize.
Practice Mindfulness
This one is just a good tip for life. But if you find yourself completely unable to stop the anxiety of normal life from seeping through the cracks, you might want to start on vacation. This is especially true if you return from vacation feeling unfulfilled or like you’ve wasted your time. Basic meditation is simple and effective. Even just taking a moment to breathe deeply, feel the earth and the wind, and to let your blood flow can work wonders.
This is a process, and that’s okay. It’s going to take time to learn to leave your worries behind. But by practicing mindfulness, relaxing activities, and healthy boundaries, you can come out the other side feeling completely new.
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