Holidays and vacations are supposed to be a time of complete relaxation. It’s the part of the year where you can put your feet up, unwind and not have to worry about any of the problems back home for a while, giving your mind the break it needs and deserves.
In a way, a holiday is a form of mediation, typically going to nice places with beautiful surroundings and fresh air that can help you clear your head. However, these vacations can quickly turn into stressful nightmares if you’re not careful.
Letting Go of the Stress
Typically, most people will go on holiday with their friends or family. This means that any stress that you have between these individuals or groups of people needs to be left at home, which of course is easier said than done.
When you get to your destination, and you’re trying to pick a restaurant, or activity, or even where you’re going to sit on the beach, stresses can instantly increase, and arguments can so easily break out.
However, this is your holiday, and you don’t want things to be ruined, so something needs to take place. As you should be doing when you’re at home, you need to learn and take notice of the times where you need to appreciate that you’re in a beautiful place with beautiful people, something that can be encouraged through meditation.
Quick Meditating to De-Stress
When it comes to being on holiday, especially when you’re with other people, you might not have the time or a quiet environment in which to meditate which can cause stress to increase within itself if you typically practice every day.
However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t meditate and there are things you can do so you can fully enjoy your holiday experience. One of the easiest things you can do is to simply lay on your back and sit in your chair while looking up at the sky/ceiling.
Once here, simply close your eyes or softly gaze ahead and repeat in your mind ‘I am grateful to be here’. This is a simple affirmation or mantra that you can repeat to yourself or simply edit to whatever you to say, maybe something like ‘This place is so beautiful, and I’m happy to be here’.
This works in the exact same way that affirmations and mantras work and even if you’re sat in a restaurant, and you do it once, twice, or even for a few minutes, it can be all you need to keep yourself present and enjoying your experience as much as you can.
Keep Up Your Practice
Just because you’re on holiday, it doesn’t mean that you need to stop your practice. Of course, if you’re sleeping in a hotel, an apartment, or even a hostel, it can be difficult to find somewhere where you can have some peace and quiet to relax, but it’s not impossible.
Whether you’re laying in bed listening to a guided meditation through your headphones, getting up early to take a walk and soak up some early sun or the same in the evening, take an opportunity to find some peace and quiet, if only for several minutes, so you can fully enjoy your holiday.