How to Manage Post-Vacation Blues
We’ve all been there. You get back from a trip, lose your vacation high amid the chaos of re-entry to daily life, and soon enough you’re in a bit of a funk feeling like you were never gone at all.
What if I told you there were ways to alleviate this?
An easy re-entry process begins before you leave home.
Step 1: Before you leave, minimize worries about home.
Set yourself up for success when you return. What can you do before your trip so that post-vacation you doesn’t have to figure it out?
When planning, give yourself at least 1-2 decompression days to tend to your own needs when you return
Schedule something to look forward to shortly after your return (an overnight trip, reservations at a favorite restaurant, attending a new festival, etc.)
Set up a grocery delivery so you can avoid running to the store as soon as you arrive or the next morning
Organize clothes and supplies needed to return to work/school so those last-minute decisions are already made
Set your out-of-office email responder
Create your post-vacation work to-do list (hint: start by tackling email, not major initiatives)
Step 2: On the trip, forget about home and live in the present moment.
Home doesn’t exist. You have no job. Your life consists of moving from city to city, learning new things, meeting new people, and enjoying all of it. You’re in control of your time. Immerse yourself in it. You came all this way, you may as well get everything you can out of the experience.
Unplug – stay out of email, social media time sucks, turn off notifications, etc.
Tune in – What do you notice? What do your kids notice? What does your partner notice? What did someone mention at the restaurant last night that you want to check out today?
Keep a simple journal
Just some bullet points at the end of each day will suffice. You’ll note the important stuff in a way that’s easy to maintain for the whole trip. Besides, you look interesting and thoughtful sitting in a café writing in a notebook.
Step 3: When you return, ease back into being home.
Take the help you have put in place and thank your pre-vacation self for setting you up so nicely for easy re-entry.
Feed yourself
Pick up food on the way home (you probably have an app for your favorite spot)
Have groceries delivered or have a friend/house sitter drop off basics before you arrive
Enforce the decompression days you scheduled. Allow yourself to recombobulate. If you are flying from more than 3 time zones away, you probably need more than one day. By day I mean full a 24-hour period.
Rest: sleep, binge-watch, walk through your favorite park, or whatever helps you reset and reground yourself.
Put your daily trip notes to a different use
Over the next several days or weeks (you’ve got plenty of time), handwrite or type out the full stories of each day. Doing so helps you relive the days and the good memories and helps you process what you’ve learned. You’ll have the benefit of looking back on the entire trip and may see things you didn’t while you were in the midst of it.
This technique alone will help you immensely in reintegrating into daily life. To get the most out of it, you might ask these questions while journaling. See how they change the way you recall and record your trip:
How am I different?
How does the world look to me now?
What did I experience there that I never have here?
If you like, add your journaling to a photo book you can design and print online.
Over time little parts of your trips will become part of your life. They’ll create a unique, varied, and interesting story that’s yours alone. When you really immerse yourself in new places, you come to love and understand the ideas representative of the region in addition to the food and beverages. You learn to put concepts together in unique ways. You’ll have an eye for different groups to join at home, different books to read, and even different ways to furnish your living space. You’ll change how you move your body and how you structure your day. In short, you’ll create a version of yourself you never even knew was possible.
This is how you get the most out of your trips. You let them change you for the better.
What if the blues are actually depression?
If the blues last more than a few days (especially if they last more than 2 weeks) and are interfering with work, school, relationships, appetite, etc., they may be more than blues. This may indicate depression and you should contact a mental health professional today to set an appointment. Call 988 (the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) if you are having a mental health emergency. Please note, I am not a mental health professional and you deserve help from someone who is.
