Being on vacation isn’t just a chance to unplug from work; it’s also an opportunity for us to live the best version of ourselves. While feeling that vacation vibe, we tend to get more rest and exercise, we’re more likely to have meaningful conversations, and we often make time to sit and think.
“There’s a certain… level of energy and [emotion] you’re feeling [when you’re on vacation],” says Mimi Bishop, co-founder of Modern Gen X Woman + MGXW Consulting in New York. When we are back home, we need to remember those feelings and emotions and find ways to intentionally create pockets of time to experience them in our day-to-day lives, she adds. For Bishop, that means finding ways to recreate sensory memories that bring her back to beloved vacation spots. Two ways she does that is by listening to French music while she works and having fresh flowers on her desk.
“We call it [a] vacation feeling, but really it’s a feeling that we happened [to generate while we were on] vacation,” says Marie-Helene Pelletier, Ph.D., MBA, an executive coach and keynote speaker based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Our vacation didn’t create these feelings—we created those feelings while on vacation, she says. The challenge is to recreate those feelings once you’ve returned home.
Here are five ways to bring your vacation feelings back home.
1. Pay attention to what you do while on vacation
“Notice what you were doing while on vacation that actually brought you [a] sense of joy,” says Alessia Tenebruso, a certified life and travel coach in New York. Did you enjoy taking long walks? Did you feel a sense of peace because you were by the ocean or in the mountains? Did you relish meeting new people or trying new foods? Did you create new daily rituals while you were away, like taking a nightly bath or watching the sunrise? “Pay attention to what you’re doing and how you’re feeling while doing [these things] when you’re traveling because that’s [going to be] your compass for what feels good to you. And that’s most likely [going to] bring you that same feeling when you’re back home,” Tenebruso adds.
2. Reflect on why your vacation vibe was wonderful
When we describe our vacation vibes to friends, we often don’t use very descriptive words. We’ll say, “It was wonderful,” or “I was relaxed.” However, using specific words to describe what made our travel experiences so refreshing will give us a sense of what “might be missing in [our] day-to-day lives,” says Jennifer Panning, Psy.D., owner and founder of Mindful Psychology Associates in Evanston, Illinois. “Distill [your vacation vibes] down to three or five [descriptive] words,” such as restful, exciting, or a break from routine. Then, for each word or phrase, “take a behavior or an idea attached to each of those words” and incorporate it into your everyday life to mimic how you felt on vacation, she says.
Maybe your word is restful. Often, people only allow themselves to rest while they’re on vacation. Try giving yourself permission to relax for “a half day a weekend,” Panning adds. For instance, make a commitment to yourself to not open your email or do any chores or errands after noon on Saturdays.
Maybe on vacation, you found it very relaxing to listen to the ocean waves. When you come home, you can listen to an audio recording of waves for a few minutes before lunch every day, Pelletier says. “Everyone has two minutes. It’s not that long, and you can grow it in length over time.”
3. Bring back a souvenir
Bring back an item that reminds you of your vacation feelings. It could be scent-based, like a soap or perfume, or it could be pottery or clothing. When life coach Tony Johnson travels with his family, he brings back cookbooks and local spices so they can recreate their favorite dishes from their trip. On a recent trip to Spain, he bought a cookbook, saffron and paprika so they could make paella at home in Boston. “When we came home, we went shopping for a massive paella pan,” he says.
You can also bring back a less expensive item, such as a shell you found on the beach or a polished stone you discovered on a walk. However, Pelletier warns that the item won’t work on its own. “What gives [the item its] meaning and power… comes from, initially, your own commitment to bringing this aspect… in[to] your non-vacation time,” she says. For instance, the shell could be a visual reminder that you’re going to listen to an audio recording of waves for two minutes every day before lunch.
4. Be a tourist at home
Explore your local city or town. If hiking was your vacation vibe, find local trails near your home. If browsing through a museum inspires you, visit a local museum on the weekend. “Being a tourist in your own area… [will] give you [a] feeling of adventure and… [will help] bring back the feelings that you felt when you were traveling,” Tenebruso says. “[It will also] allow you to appreciate your home and your everyday life and not feel like you need a vacation from it.”
Pelletier suggests treating your weekend like “a mini vacation.” You might still need to shop for groceries and put in a load of laundry, but starting your weekend off with the “mindset… [that] you will carve out more [time to have fun] during those two days… will likely influence how you feel after,” she says.
5. Promise yourself another vacation
While you’re on vacation, start planning your next vacation. Too often, we say we can’t plan that far ahead because we don’t know what we’ll be doing in seven months or whether that week will be a good time to go away. But prioritizing your next getaway is important. “It’s a commitment that you’re making again, sending a strong message to yourself that planning for [your] time off is high on your radar,” Pelletier says.
Photo by Sven Hansche/Shutterstock.com
