How do you make vacations truly fun and not stressful? Sometimes getting away and organizing a trip can be stressful. Trying to wrap up work tasks and making sure everything is covered before you leave can create pressure. Sometimes securing your home and making sure someone takes care of the pets creates stress. After we leave home, some of us take a few days to decompress and wind down from our busy work schedule. We may also worry about the chores left undone or the security of the house. Sometimes we have left family members behind who are struggling with health problems and we worry about their well being. And a few of us are able to let go and disconnect from it all. Some of us are better at compartmentalizing things and shutting off our minds. But even with all the planning and pre-planning, inevitably things go wrong and your trip takes an unexpected turn. How well do you recover from these detours?
Some of us lack patience and flexibility which is difficult when you're thrown a curveball. We can't expect that everything is going to flow smoothly throughout the trip. Our ability to be resilient and not allow roadblocks to completely destroy our positive experience requires effort. Sometimes the best way to cope is finding humor in the mishaps and even sharing the story with others so that you can let it go. Depending upon the circumstances, finding a healthy outlet of expression like writing can help us let go of frustrations. We need to remind ourselves that the original purpose and intention of vacations is to have fun and relax. Accepting that we can't control every aspect of our trip and not allowing things to fester inside helps in the moving on process. How do we not lose sight of the ultimate intention of our vacation? For starters we can focus on the many good things we've experienced and the time away from our daily routine. We can concentrate on being grateful for the ability to have a vacation at all and visit someplace new. Maybe we get to have more time with our spouse, family, or friends than we normally do and that can be positive too.
Everything comes back to our attitude and choosing to focus on the positive aspects of the experience. Maybe we can talk about the favorite parts of the trip or things we learned from the experience. Sometimes we get to meet new people, try unfamiliar foods, or experience different activities on our trip which makes it special. Or maybe we challenge ourselves during our adventure and find greater confidence in our abilities. We might even find pleasure in doing nothing and being still. Sometimes people catch up on their reading or activities that they don't have the time to do in their normal life schedule. Regardless of how you use your time during vacation be sure to find the value and good in the experiences. Don't allow the negative ones to detract or negate the positive ones. Lastly, appreciate what you have been able to see and do that you wouldn't have if you didn't set this time aside to have a vacation. Life can be so much better when we let go of the negative and bask in the positive.
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