Why Holidays Feel So Good (and how to get that feeling back at home)

What was my mind getting on holiday that it's missing in everyday life?

You know that feeling when you come back from a really good holiday and you feel amazing? You’re a bit happier, your energy is starting to come back, problems somehow seem smaller, and life's little irritations don't feel quite so irritating anymore.

Then you get home, and by Wednesday the glow has gone and it’s almost like the holiday never happened.

Most people think they felt that good on holiday because of the holiday itself. But I don't think that's the whole story.

What if the holiday is giving you something else? Something that, once you understand it, you can begin recreating it within the life you already have. Something that your mind needs to feel good, to solve problems, be creative become more patient and naturally have more energy.

Holidays don't just change what you do. They change what your mind gets.

On holiday, your thinking mind naturally gets more breaks. It might happen while you are walking along the beach, swimming, sleeping in, eating a slow meal, sitting in nature and having fewer decisions to make.

Each of these moments gives your thinking mind a chance to have a break. And when that happens, another part of your mind finally gets its turn.

That matters more than we think. Your mind finally gets a chance to catch up.

When your thinking mind isn't working flat out all day, something else becomes possible.

Your mind gets the time it’s been waiting for to process. It starts sorting through everything that's been piling up and begins making sense of things in different ways.

The driver who cut you off no longer feels like a personal attack and more like someone who may have been rushing to an emergency. The conversation that upset you suddenly doesn’t feel quite so bad, or a problem at work connects with something you hadn't thought about before, and the solution appears almost out of nowhere.

When this part of your mind has the time it needs, something interesting happens.

You begin to regain access to qualities that often disappear when life becomes mentally overloaded, like creativity, resilience, perspective and intuition. As these capacities return, they free up energy. Motivation starts to come back. And you begin to feel like the real you is returning.

And that's because it is.

All because your mind finally had the conditions it needed to do the work it hadn't had time to do in normal everyday life.

Then we come home...we might feel the “post-holiday blues”, but I don’t think it’s just about missing the holiday. It’s that we are coming back to exactly the same conditions we left. Where we accidentally fill every space with more productivity, screens, and all the responsibilities return. The thinking mind is needed again. But something else compounds it too.

The little moments where our thinking mind could have taken a break disappear. We check our phones while the kettle boils, we answer emails while eating lunch and fill every spare moment trying to get back on top of everything. Without realising that the balance between thinking and not thinking is actually what allows us to think well in the first place. Gradually, the holiday feeling fades.

So how do you get it back?

As lovely as it would be to live permanently on holiday, or take one every month, for most of us that's simply not realistic. Fortunately, it's also not necessary.

Instead, ask yourself one question:

What was my mind getting on holiday that it's missing in everyday life?

The answer isn't "a beach”, or "a resort." It's conditions. The conditions that allowed another part of your mind to finally do what it had been waiting to do.

The beautiful thing is that many of those conditions can exist in ordinary life. Meditation and hypnotherapy are obvious examples. But the small moments count too. Looking at trees, cooking, swimming, dancing, pottering in the garden, making something with your hands, or sitting in the sunshine. The activity itself isn't the important part.

It's that, for a little while, your thinking mind isn't running the show.

If you find that going for a walk simply turns into more thinking, start somewhere easier. Choose an activity you genuinely enjoy that naturally absorbs your attention without requiring much thinking and build from there.

Every moment counts.

And the more often your mind experiences these conditions, the more easily it begins to return to them. You don't have to wait until your next holiday to feel more like yourself. You simply need to begin giving your mind more of what holidays naturally provide.

One small moment at a time.

Want to fast-track the process?

Hypnotherapy helps create these conditions while also working with the automatic patterns that keep you stuck in anxiety, overthinking, unwanted habits and emotional reactions.

If you'd like to find out whether it's the right approach for you, I’d love to help.

Book your free 15-minute conversation or explore how counselling and hypnotherapy can help. 

Ready to book a session? Book a session

Prefer to watch?: coming soon.