Vacation anxiety? Here are 3 tips to get rid of it

Also this year the long-awaited holidays have arrived and you can finally take some time for yourself, you can relax, be quiet and switch off! Every year you probably repeat the same thing to yourself and every year you don’t get to enjoy the quiet life you want. Fortunately, life is never “quiet” as we think , but it always reserves a certain degree of unpredictability!

 

 

Therefore, when we try to enclose it in predefined patterns, when everything seems to go as we planned, something happens that upsets our balance and forces us to seek new stability. On the other hand, what does it mean to unplug? You have to relax, you have to rest, you have to be with your family, you have to have fun at all costs .. how many “I have to”. Mid-August, New Year’s Eve or Christmas risk becoming appointments in which you absolutely must do something pre-defined, in which you absolutely must find fun. So if we don’t want to go out on a Saturday night it’s not a problem, but if it happens on New Year’s Eve we feel unfortunate in having to do something with our friends.

 

But why do we get anxiety on vacation? We can identify 3 main reasons:

  1. The novelty. The holiday is a break from habits, our routine and our security. Too much confidence breeds boredom , but too much novelty breeds fear . This is an unconscious mechanism driven by the amygdala, a part of the brain responsible for handling things “out of the ordinary”. The amygdala does not know if what happens to us is good or bad but every time something new enters our life this part of the brain is activated and generates in us those symptoms that we call anxiety and stress. Especially for those who are habitual, the novelty of the different place (perhaps the hotel or the campsite), of unknown people and the need to create a new routine can be destabilizing elements.
  2. The bad thoughts. It is easy that after a few moments when you start to relax boredom takes over and with it thoughts such as “what will I do when I get back?”, “What have I been up to this year?” the person for me .. ”, and so on. In short, you begin to take stock and mull over your life without finding an answer to the various questions that crowd into your head.
  3. Fear of not having left everything in order. Leaving your job for a few days may raise the question that you have not done all the right things or that you have not left everything in order. Basically this happens for two reasons: the need for control and the fear of the judgment of others. If to feel good I need everything to be perfect (by the way, here are 7 tips to free yourself from perfectionism and enjoy life) and therefore I exercise maximum control to be sure of this, holidays are by definition the moment when I leave the workplace and lose that control. The fear of the judgment of others, on the other hand, arises when we begin to think that something we have left (for example at work) may not go well and that therefore a problem related to our work may emerge. What will my colleagues think?

 

How can we get out of this situation ? Here are 3 first-hand proven tips that will help you free yourself from vacation anxiety:

  1. Live the adventure. Quando vai in vacanza non solo cambi panorama esterno passando magari dalla tua città al mare o alla montagna, ma cambi anche quello interno, accantonando le solite persone, i soliti orari, i soliti discorsi. Liberati da tutti i pesi quotidiani, dalla televisione spazzatura e dalle opinioni altrui che ci condizionano ci ritroviamo improvvisamente denudati ed esposti a noi stessi: improvvisamente abbiamo un sacco di spazio da riempire. È solo creando questo vuoto che possiamo lasciare spazio a nuove cose, a nuove avventure e conoscenze. È solo così che possiamo far germogliare il seme che è in noi. Immagina la tua vacanza come un’avventura, non pianificare ogni giorno, ogni incontro, ogni escursione, ma lascia aperta la possibilità che succedano cose non preventivate, lascia che la tua anima si esprima liberamente e rimarrai sorpresa!
  2. Play with the images. We are naturally inclined to think in images, to remember images and to visualize our fears with images. The images are a very powerful tool at our disposal and we can play with them. Now that you are on vacation, perhaps lying in the sun or on the sofa reading a book, with your anxiety coming to keep you company, take a piece of paper and write the first word that comes to mind. Then start with free association to fill the page until nothing comes to mind. For example, loneliness, love, rose, thorns, pain, escape. Do not look for any rational interpretation of what you have written, you will not find it and no psychologist will find it, no matter how good he is (or rather three psychologists will give you four different interpretations ..). Just accept what your soul is saying and give it the space to find the solution. You can repeat this exercise every day and as you have more fun you will find that unexpected words will come out: a new language that reflects who you really are and what you really need.
  3. Free yourself from the judgment of others. Typically we suffer the judgment of the boss, colleagues or schoolmates and on this judgment we base our entire existence. To feel accepted, we are willing to change our look to speak differently to show ourselves confident even when we are not. So when we go on vacation and leave our job for a few days, we start to think that something might not be in the right place and therefore what the consequences could be. In reality if you think about it you are not worried about the consequences, also because only in rare cases they could be serious, but it scares you what others might think. The basic mistake is to believe that to be appreciated and esteemed you must never go wrong! If, however, you start thinking about what the real consequences are and that mistakes or forgetfulness are not a sign of incapacity, but an indispensable element of any human activity, you will free yourself from the judgment of others and finally you will be able to live your holidays with the serenity you deserve !

 

by Abdullah Sam
I’m a teacher, researcher and writer. I write about study subjects to improve the learning of college and university students. I write top Quality study notes Mostly, Tech, Games, Education, And Solutions/Tips and Tricks. I am a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue.

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