One of the main reasons to go on a long trip is to give yourself a chance to relax. The world is a stressful place, and there’s no denying that dealing with that long term stress can have a serious impact on your physical and mental health.
Vacations are supposed to provide you with an opportunity to relieve that stress and give you a real break from the day to day world.
Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Most people find that they’re taking their stresses with them on these extended trips, and when they do that stress tends to leak into their vacations.
For those of you who have a stressful life and are trying to leave it behind on your trip, try the following strategies to leave your stress at home.
1. Create a Trip Goal – Giving yourself something you feel you need to do while on your vacation is important. It helps take your mind off of what’s going on at home because it gives you something you need to focus on in the present in order to “successfully” complete your trip. Goals are often rare on vacations and don’t necessarily sound like a way to relax, but they can be a big help.
2. Turn Off Your Life – Chances are you have a cell phone and a laptop or tablet PC, and you check in often on your life. It’s hard to tell you that turning them off will be a big help, but in many cases the anxiety comes from the never ending updates on your stresses. If you’re able to leave your technology at home, you’ll find a great deal of relief.
3. Get Started With the Fun Right Away – The longer time you have to think about your stresses the more they’ll affect you. So when you get to a new location, make sure you start creating excitement for yourself right away. That will be a tremendous help in relieving some of the thoughts you have that tend to overwhelm your mind.
4. Integrate Exercise – Exercise is an often forgotten but extremely powerful stress reduction technique, and one that you should strongly consider integrating into your trip. Whether it’s hiking, jogging around the city, or taking advantage of the fitness center and spa at your timeshare resort, it’ll be both fun and a great way to reduce your stress.
5. Journal Your Thoughts – One of the main reasons that home stresses seem to over-occupy your mind is because when you’re travelling, you’ll often have thoughts that are related to things that you need to address at home. Because you’re abroad, you know you can’t share those thoughts or perform those actions now. So your mind has a tendency to dwell on them. Writing them down will tell your mind they’re in a safe place so it can stop obsessing over it.
There’s no perfect way to reduce your home stress, because stress is stress for a reason. But the above tips will minimize the effects it has on your vacation, and ultimately maximize your vacation enjoyment.
A budget-friendly timeshare rental, or timeshare exchange, vacation at a luxury resort somewhere you’ve always dreamed of visiting is a sure-fire de-stressor, and easy to do.
Our guest author, Ryan Rivera, is a stress specialist that focuses on anxiety treatment strategies. He writes about anxiety at Calm Clinic.
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