Why Does the Vacation Vibe Fizzle So Quickly

Back to life, back to reality…why is it when we return from vacation that amazing vacation vibe fizzles so quickly? All the energy, relaxation, and joy we enjoyed goes right out the window upon opening our front door…sometimes before we even get on the plane to return home!

Frustrating! We spend so much time and money planning, waiting for, and going on vacation just to have it drain right out of us upon our return home.

As an avid traveler I recognized the difference-maker long ago. Now, not only are my vacations more enjoyable, less stressful, and more fun but they resonate within me…well forever.

The secret sauce is immersion. It’s so easy to dive into vacation with either a to-do list a mile long (that was most often me) or a fierce intention to relax and take it easy (that was occasionally me if relax and take it easy means read 14 books in 4 days).  Neither means you aren’t immersing yourself in your vacation. It means your mindset is either do and see it ALL or do NOTHING I need a break. Either way, your focus is on accomplishing something instead of focusing on immersing yourself in where you are and what you are doing. You can vacay how you like, and keep that energy with you after, if you approach it with all your senses and let go into it.

What’s immersion? It’s not a rigid definition it’s more a way of being.  It doesn’t mean you don’t have your list of things you want to see and do, or a desire to not do much of anything. For me, it means you are in the moment in whatever you are doing with all your senses. With your imagination, with your heart, and your curiosity. Are you literally noticing that you are breathing in air that is….crisp mountain air?  Salty seaside air? A mesh of smells and flavors floating on the air in a diverse city? If you imagine, you can taste and smell all the people who came before you in this spot…all the energy around you…what the wind carries. It’s deeper, it’s interesting, it’s a bit magical.

It is walking down a street, be it a hustling and bustling city street or a medieval cobblestone road, feeling who walked there before you. I still feel the sense of awe from the first time I stepped into the interior of the Colosseum and walked to the place the emperor sat. The depth of knowing Roman emperors walked this path and stood in this spot. In that moment I could feel all the moments that came before. That was over 25 years ago and I can still literally feel it. That vacation did not fizzle away.

It is tasting something local even if its to know you don’t care for it.  I don’t mean you have to eat some crazy type of food, I mean unless you want to, but try something with local spices or flavors. If you don’t like it great, but you opened you deepened your experience by trying it. And when people refer to curry or Nashville hot chicken, or jerk you can remember with your senses and know you didn’t like it – or that you did!

You are in it, a part of it, not just on the outside checking off boxes.

Feelings and sensory experiences stay with you. Box checking does not.

Sometimes we need a guide. It’s hard to slow down the rushing of our brains which ignores our sensory experience to immerse ourselves.  It’s a practice. 

Try it out. On your next vacation, for a moment each day, in one experience, go all in with all your senses. Breath it in, imagine who walked before you, see what the wind knows.  I promise you that moment will stay with you.

Back at home, in the office, in the school pick up line, you will be able to tap into that moment and feel that magic.

Laney

Go Get Some Fresh Air

Have you ever been told ‘go get some fresh air’ or perhaps ‘go take a walk’!  Meaning, you need to step away, calm down, get control over yourself…

The past 6 days I’ve been sitting in the house with a sick kid.  Bored to tears.  Actually not to tears, I was too bored to even muster up a cry.  To make it worse he got sick on Christmas so Christmas Day was a bust and looks like New Year’s Eve will be too.  I like time alone but realized over the past 6 days time alone, but not really alone trying to manage the physical and emotional well-being of a sick, disappointed kid who is too ill to really DO anything with you gives you LOTS of time to think of ALL your problems, your disappointments, and your fears. 

I like to escape from people…read a great book…chill.  But I realized in 6 days of isolation that escaping from people requires well having been around people!

Funny I didn’t really realize this during COVID.  Luckily I had a full family living in my house and kids around.  They weren’t sick, nor was I, so while it was challenging to find new things to do that were COVID safe we sidewalk chalked, hiked, crafted it up.  It was a scary time but I didn’t feel that mental isolation.

But this week, wow.  It hit hard.

Today, I stepped out for a quick trip to the store to get some valentine’s decorations for my son’s classroom.  The weather is surprisingly warm for January and the sun is shining. 

I rolled the windows down in my Jeep and just drove, breathing in the fresh air, feeling the wind on my face, the warmth of the sun on my arms.  I’d been doing a lot of breath work over the past 6 days but for the first time in 6 days I focused on nothing and breathed in fresh air.  Felt sunlight.  Enjoyed the moment without TRYING to enjoy the moment. 

We have insultingly misused ‘go get some fresh air’.  Getting some fresh air isn’t euphemism for an adult time out, a get yourself together warning.  Go get some fresh air is go free your mind for a moment, feel the sun, BREATH IN FRESH AIR.  Literally.  Breath it into all of your senses. 

It’s healing.  It’s full of hope and peace.

With all my love I beg you – go get some fresh air.

Laney