Today I started my summer vacation and while that’s great and something I’ve been very much looking forward to, I was once again reminded of how difficult it is to relax and wind down during the first few days. When I woke up this morning my first thought was: hey, it’s business as usual, let’s start executing the customary Monday routines. Duh!
Let’s be absolutely clear about one thing – this is a first world problem and I’m grateful for not just having the possibility to have some vacation, but also for having a great job in the first place from where to go on vacation. Having said that, I think it’s useful to contemplate on why we tend to feel so incredibly busy most of the time in our “normal life”.
To be constantly busy is something, I believe, we construct ourselves. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be like that, but many of us think that in order to be successful and respected by our peers we need to project a constant sense of urgency and “getting things done”. You don’t have to be a psychologists to see that being busy all the time and trying to execute as much as possible might lead to distress (i.e. negative stress).
One of the best things with vacation is, especially if lasts for several weeks, that at some point you will be able to look back at your everyday life and reflect on various aspects of it. For example on this business of being constantly busy. Why should the status quo have be a constant sensation of being busy? Why do we even let ourselves think that it’s a desirable state?
I’m sure it’s possible to set up priorities and life goals in such a way that one would experience more of the so called eustress (positive stress), instead of distress. This is of course easier said than done and I’m sure that next week, when I’m hopefully feeling a bit more relaxed and calm, I’ll come up with fantastic (and totally unrealistic) plans on how my life will be post-vacation. You know, painting images of an idealistic life where you never feel too stressed or anxious about anything, but where you nevertheless manage to do everything that’s expected of you and simultaneously advance your own goals.
Then again, it would probably be wise to not think about your everyday life at all during vacation. That’s probably the reason why so many like to travel abroad or jump on a sailboat and cast off immediately when vacation starts.
Travelling to some other country will be hard this year due to COVID-19 and there’s probably a silver lining in that for all of us. Because ideally, one would not have to alter one’s state or surroundings in order to find peace and relaxation. Perhaps the fact that many of us will now have to spend summer vacation in familiar places will have some positive outcomes?
Or then not. Perhaps most of us realize that we indeed need a complete change of scenery in order to detach from everyday life and relax. Perhaps the realization for me personally will be that the next time I have a few weeks of vacation, I will simply have to check in to a silent retreat and isolate myself completely from the outside world and just meditate on my breath.