How to Actually Relax on Vacation – Learn to let go

Have you ever come back from a vacation exhausted and needing another vacation to get over your eventful holiday? If so, it is a good idea to re-evaluate your holiday schedule and make some changes. In this article, we discuss a few steps to help you truly enjoy and find relaxation during your next holiday.

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Make a relaxing schedule

Planning a holiday is thrilling work. But sometimes this leads to over-excitement and a packed schedule. Simply include a lot of free time on your schedule. 

A lot of free time will allow you to:·    

• Improvise whenever you discover a new activity·    
• Creates plenty of wiggle room for sudden delays or detours·    
• Enjoy plenty of downtime, simply lounging about to distress or take a well-earned nap

When you draw up the schedule, take your entire vacation period into consideration. This includes travel time. For an instance, don’t forget to give yourself a couple of days at home in between flying away on your vacation and getting back to work. You need time to pack and make the last-minute preparation before the holiday and more time to settle back after you come back home.

Schedule activities that you find truly relaxing

To truly relax during your holiday, you must first be honest with yourself. We recommend making an honest list of things that you find relaxing. If you find visiting crowded tourist destinations, stress-inducing, avoid such activities. Instead, you could find something low key. You could book yourself a spa weekend or seek serenity somewhere off the beaten path. For example, you could book a Tissamaharama Hotel to find an environment that is truly tranquil. The Tissamaharama region is rural, rustic and time flows at a slower pace out there, and the good news is there are a number of hotels such as the Kithala Resort available there. You could alternate between action-packed days and lazy, hazy days.

Budget carefully

Making sure that your vacation is affordable seems like a no-brainer. But, sometimes we tend to overlook some costs that pop up during the vacation. Make a list of costs that you can expect during the vacation, such as travelling, meals, gift buying, tickets for activities, accommodation and other activities. Then leave some more holiday cash for unplanned expenses. A realistic budget with a buffer for unexpected expenses would save you a lot of stress.

Leave work behind

It is hard to enjoy your holiday if you have one eye on the next email from work. Before you leave for vacation, delegate work to colleagues and make a plan. Don’t forget to set an away message on your work email (even your personal one, if necessary). Ideally, you should turn off your ‘working persona’ during the holiday. But this may not be the most pragmatic solution. If that is the case, try setting limits to the amount of time per day that you spend on work-related communication. You could inform your colleagues about this plan. You could set about 30 minutes per day to check emails and take care of urgent matters. Afterwards, switch off from the work mode.

Set your mind to relaxation mode

Even if you do all of the above, you won’t be able to relax unless you set your mind to it. Prepare mentally for things that would be out of your control. Remember that sometimes events change and that is okay. Before you leave home, take care of everything that might otherwise stress you out during the vacation. Ask a neighbour to water your plants, and keep an eye on your house. Learn to go with the flow during your vacation and let it carry you to a place of relaxation and peace.