The hard part about returning from holidays is not only the early morning starts and going back to work, but feeling guilty when we don’t maintain our new found routine that seemed so effortless while on vacation.
Waking up to a warm lemon water to cleanse the liver, followed by a brisk beach walk; and finally rounding the morning off with a healthy scrambled egg breakfast with gluten free bread, if any bread at all. With a morning start like that, it is no wonder we feel light and refreshed, ready for a day of reading, hiking, shopping, exploring or whatever it may be that takes your fancy.
.Let’s just stop for a moment and compare that to our regular mornings of literally rolling out of bed, somehow making it down the stairs without breaking your neck, to a dog busting for a wee and ready to trip you over with its bounds of joys at the sight of seeing your unsightly self. You persevere. Take the dog out for a brisk walk, brisk because you have to keep pace to make it pass all the other furry mutts that just wanna hump your dog and slow you down. After wrestling your way through the park and back up to your front door, you have just enough time to make that ever so important first coffee of the day, before jumping in the car and swearing your way to work at all the incompetent drivers, that make a point of deliberately getting in your way and driving 20km below the speed limit. Under such circumstances, it is near impossible to arrive at work in your holiday Zen self.
Luckily, these days we can work from home and simply sit in front of the computer screen in a hoodie while doing zoom meetings, which sounds great, until you actually have to have a shower and get dressed like the good old days and turn up in person to your office. This also means actually talking to people face to face, which can be a challenge if you are use to attending meetings simply by obligation. No longer can you secretly text your best friend while playing Word Play on your phone. Now, you actually have to pretend to be interested in what others have to say. You may even have to smile and nod to show you are listening. This is when the second cup of coffee is required, because the first one was only enough to get you through the morning traffic.
By the end of the day, you are so mentally drained you can barely be bothered to take your beloved fur baby for a much needed walk, or meet your mates for a friendly catch up drink. The new routine you promised to stick to becomes a distant memory. But that’s ok.
This is why we need vacations, to not only re-centre ourselves and relax, but simply to unwind and find balance. Even if we simply manage to slow down a little and find one healthy habit we can hold on to, then we are doing better than ok.
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