Top Tips to Lift the Holiday Blues
We all feel a little sad after our holidays have ended, that’s normal. But what happens if our motivation and focus don’t return after a few days? What can we do if we’ve left our mojo on the beach? Follow our top tips below and feel the difference!
Tip 1: Look at your holiday photos
Too often our holiday photo’s end up stuck on our phone or computer without us really appreciating them. Plan an evening looking back over your photo’s and reminiscing about what you did. Why not pick a few to use as screen savers or print some out to put on the fridge door to remind you of your recent experiences. Don’t just share your photo’s on facebook and sit back and wait for the likes, actively talk to your friends about your favourite photo’s and what you did maximising your opportunities to reminisce. Don’t feel sad about the fact that it is over, appreciate the fact it happened! Positive reminiscence is a great way to lift our mood.
Tip 2: Bring a little bit of holiday home with you
Don’t just go back to your normal routines, think about something you enjoyed on holiday and see how you can bring it in to your life back home. Maybe try eating some of the local food you ate on holiday, or take an evening stroll, or find out your local swimming pool opening times. We are allowed to have fun and enjoy ourselves outside of holiday times too!
Tip 3: Do something good with your spare change
It can be tempting to spend our way out of the holiday blues with a shopping trip but if you have any spare change from your holiday currency the best thing you can do with it is buy a gift for someone else or make a donation to your favourite cause. We are often told that money can’t buy us happiness but that’s just because we spend it the wrong way! All the research shows us that spending money on other people or, better still, on helping other people has a far greater and longer lasting effect on our levels of happiness.
Tip 4: Plan your next holiday
Having something to look forward to is really important for our wellbeing, whether that’s a full blown holiday, a weekend away, a day trip or just an evening out. Make sure you have plenty of things in your diary you can look forward to and crucially, make sure you spend the time looking forward to them! Research and plan what you will do, imagine what it will be like when you get there. Our brain doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality so when we look ahead to the future in a positive way our brain releases the same feel good hormones it would if we were actually doing it.
Tip 5: See work as a positive activity
Lets face it, if it wasn’t for work we wouldn’t be able to afford the holidays, or appreciate how good it feels to go on one. A shift in perspective is sometimes all that is needed to see the daily grind in a different way. Think about how much of your weekly wages you will put towards your next holiday and every week you can celebrate that the work you have done that week will take you a little bit closer to paying for your next holiday!
Tip 6: Get outside
We tend to spend far more time outside on our holidays soaking up the sun than we would do back home. Sunlight is responsible for the production of some of our feel good hormones so when we go back to work and spend the day sitting inside we naturally get a slump. So don’t sit in the canteen at lunchtime, go out for a walk; don’t sit on the sofa after dinner, head out into the garden. Take the time to get out and about and it will help to lift those blues.
Tip 7: Have some “you time”
Although they are fun holidays can sometimes be exhausting, especially if you are taking the family and are responsible for their fun too! When you get back schedule some down time to recover from all that organising, the travelling, the unpacking and washing. Even if it’s just a few hours away from everyone to have an indulgent cuppa and cake in a favourite café, or having your nails done – do something just for you.
Tip 8: Actively boost your serotonin
Our feel good hormones, like serotonin, are responsible for that lovely happy relaxed feeling we associate with our holidays. But there are lots of things you can do back home to boost your serotonin levels too. The key to serotonin production is positive action, positive interaction and positive thinking (take a look at our previous tips, they will all fit into one of these categories!). Actively think about what you can do in each of those categories every day and notice how good it makes you feel!
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