When You Need a Vacation After Your Vacation
Ever get back from vacation and feel more stressed than before you left? Or end the summer, looking back and wondering how it went by so fast and how you are now going to manage "getting back to normal".
This is not just in your head. Often we get swept away planning for amazing trips and events for the summer. We look forward to the excitement of our plans. Try to make the most of those moments. Vacations provide psychological, physiological, and cognitive benefits through breaking up the cycle of sustained work.
Evidence proves better sleep quality, reduced cortisol levels and helping to offset the chronic impact of ongoing stress. There’s no doubt vacations are needed. But why then can we feel so down after a vacation or sluggish getting into routines?
Science has helped us understand that there is a means of optimizing the positive effects of vacations. Key factors include:
Frequency of vacations
Length of Vacation
Planned Return to Regular Activities
So how often do you really need a vacation? Evidence shows that frequent, shorter vacations are more impactful and help maintain a healthy recovery period. Suggested frequency is time to disconnect (truly disconnect from work) every two months. This does not mean you need to travel, there’s benefit in enjoying your home, friends and family close by or just catching up on things you love and run out of time for when busy with work.
Studies indicate the period after a vacation can be referred to as the “fade-out period”. This is when the positive effects begin to subside and can take anywhere from three days to four weeks to feel back in the stress cycle of work and personal demands. Now, speaking from personal experience, there have been many times where I jumped right back into work after a long trip, finding my desk piled high, email box full, and a never ending list of things to do including extra cleaning at home.
So how to avoid the fade-out period, make a plan. Use your calendar and plan for after vacation like it’s a continuation of the preplanning. If you can, block an extra day for the extra laundry, cleaning, meal prepping, etc. If you can’t block a full day, help plan ahead. I have a friend who always has a frozen meal ready to go for her family when they get back from their trip. She preps and freezes everything so when they get home, they’re not spending more money eating out and get to enjoy their first home cooked meal without stress.
Slowly get back into filling up your schedule when you return. But make sure there are things to look forward to after the trip. Maybe it’s the run club you love, a puppy yoga event with a friend, or going out to a favorite restaurant. Something that brings you joy at home, and bonus points for reconnecting with nature (or a massage)! Time to relax, reflect and enjoy the times you had will help prolong those memories made.
The key is to plan ahead, past the trip to the return. Give yourself grace, enjoy the moments away from work and while you start returning to your amazing daily life! And my favorite go to; start thinking about the next trip after you get back from this one! What can I say, I am a Sagittarius!
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_avoid_post_vacation_stress_and_sadness
