How Do Holidays Alter Your Day To Day Life Year Round?
Ironically, it’s the highs of life that usually set us up for the biggest falls. We spend most of the year working at jobs we despise, making sacrifices to save up for that annual summer holiday, not to mention the several hundred laborious hours sweating away on the treadmill as we endeavour to shed the pounds to fit into our holiday outfits. How can we seriously be expected to relax and indulge in paradise for 2 weeks, knowing the pain we’ve suffered to get there and the misery we’re destined to return to when the precious days have fizzled away?
The only problem with holidays is that they come to a very abrupt end. All too soon we find ourselves packing for the return journey and waving goodbye to the most wonderful days of our lives. For some people, the post-holiday blues can be deeply distressing, even to the point that the holiday itself is tinged with anxiety from start to finish. Some holiday resorts offer some serious luxury which can be in such a contrast to our everyday lives that we can’t quite take it in. The idea that our summer break refreshes us and reinvigorates our minds so that we’re eager and ready to return to work is, perhaps, a slightly idealistic concept, reserved for the workaholics and the ultra-ambitious.
There are of course things we can do to combat those sinking back-to-work feelings. All the great authorities on the positive approach to life would advise us to embrace the return home with enthusiasm and energy, ready to show off the fresh, sun-kissed look and all those new clothes and accessories we’ve splashed out on. When it comes to work, going back on a Thursday can greatly ease the shock and resolving not to rush into any new and challenging projects can greatly ease the burden. Be indulgent in your choice of activities, taking time out to enjoy those little indulgences you’ve missed, whether it be a long soak in the bath with the aromatherapy candles, or even eating fish and chips from the paper while watching your favourite soaps.
Take the positive thinking ethos even further and there’s no limit to the new doors that can be opened. Thousands of people inspired by their holiday experiences have gone on to achieve great things; raising money to build new educational facilities in Africa for instance. On a personal level, new activities tried for the first time on holiday can be taken to new heights by being pursued as a long-term hobby, whether they be exotic cookery or scuba-diving.
But for the more unyielding holiday addicts, no amount of imagination can serve to cure the misery and in the face of desperation, emigrating abroad becomes the only conceivable option. Over 200,000 British citizens are doing it every year, mainly to Australia, New Zealand, Spain and France, in the quest for a better standard of living, a more temperate and predictable climate and a laid-back way of life. The very fact that there are more British people living abroad than any other nationality must, if nothing else, speak volumes about our national aversion to rain, trash culture, traffic jams, taxes and the endless daily commute.
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