Leading up to taking a vacation can be an exciting time. You’re caught up in planning and daydreaming about your time off. However, if you’ve just returned or you’re not getting away anytime soon, can you still bring some of that excitement and sense of wellbeing into your life? You’ll still have to go to work and deal with your other responsibilities, but there are little things that you can do to recreate those good feelings when you’re back at home.
New Experiences
You know how every day of vacation feels so fresh and bright and memorable? Why can’t you get that same feeling when you’re at home? One of the reasons those days are so vivid is because you’re constantly doing new things. You can recreate this by doing things like finding someplace new to eat lunch that you’ve never been to before or taking a walk in a direction you’ve never gone before. You can also try new activities, like signing up for a swimming class.
Luxury
If vacations for you are all about luxury if you’re someone who won’t stay at a hotel that doesn’t have a spa, recreating some of that luxury at home can help you get that feeling back. A warm bath with scented candles is a great start. Giving yourself a relaxing facial while you lie down somewhere comfortable with relaxing music is another great way to bring back that hotel experience. You can purchase castor oil for natural hair growth and rub a small amount on your scalp or mix it with essential oils to use on your skin. It’s also good for your lips and nails. Look into some other beauty treatments that can help give you that sense of being pampered.
Sensory Reminders
Smell is the sense most powerfully connected to memory. If your favorite vacation spot is the beach and you love using coconut-scented sunscreen, pick up lotion, soap or candles that smell like coconut. Play some of the music that reminds you of being on vacation. If you can cook, try cooking some of the food that you like to eat when you’re away, or see if there’s a place in town that makes something similar. If there’s a place your family likes to regularly go on vacation, you could even spend an evening trying to recreate it as much as possible at home.
New Mindset
Above all, what you can do is change your mindset. Think about what you are like when you’re on vacation. Are you relaxed? Are you more open to trying things than you’d normally be? Do things bother you less? How can you shift into that state more in your day-to-day life? It’s true that it can be tough to do given your routine and responsibilities, but try to change your focus to what’s really most important in life. What are the things you can let go of to truly improve the quality of your life? Once you begin to think in this way, what happens goes far beyond the temporary revival that you get from vacation and becomes a shift in your entire way of living.
