How to Make Every Day a Holiday

Like a lot of people, I am looking forward to a holiday over the summer: the change of scenery, time with family and time off work. My summer holiday for the past two years in a row has cured the insomnia that I had been struggling with at the time, and within just a few days, which has made me reflect on how I can bring a bit of that holiday spirit into every day so that I don’t get to the point where I need a break to fix a problem, especially as I am a firm believer that prevention is better than cure.

Many of us have experienced post-holiday blues, but what if the end of one holiday was the beginning of another? What if we maintained what we gained from our holiday in everyday life, whether that is relaxation, quality time with friends and family, more time outdoors, more sleep, being more physically active, etc? Okay, we may not be able to take the warmth and sunshine into our winter days, but perhaps we can fully appreciate what that season has to offer us instead.

In my experience, it really is worth looking at ways to tweak the daily, weekly, monthly routines to make them more sustainable at a personal level (even better if it is at an environmental level too!) Small changes really do add up over time. I am a great one for scheduling things in, because if it isn’t in the diary, so often it slips or doesn’t happen at all, whether that is meditation, exercise, meeting up with friends, calling family, etc. Much as I would love to live by the sea and swim in it every day (yes even in the winter), I can schedule at least quarterly trips to the coast and make the most of open water locally in the meantime. What would help you to make the uplifting things part of your routine?

Something that I have been trying out recently is to plan to enjoy an hour every day, with a view to extending that gradually over time until most of every day is filled with enjoyment, no matter what. Looking ahead to today, I had planned to enjoy writing this post, and so I have. It is not just about doing more of what you enjoy doing, important as that is, but also about finding ways to enjoy tasks that are necessary and less appealing. For example, I have recently found a way to enjoy cleaning the house by setting a time limit to each stint so that it doesn’t feel like an endless task and focusing on the positive difference I am making to my home environment, as well as enjoying the sense of satisfaction at a job well done.

I hope that your next holiday will inspire you with ways to bring at least some of it back with you to your everyday life and that what I have written here will inspire you in the meantime. May you enjoy your days and a greater sense of wellbeing…