10 Steps To Getting Over Your Holiday Blues

We all love a break from the real world now and again, with a holiday providing us with the chance to relax, unwind and recuperate.

However, this is usually accompanied by the holiday blues when you return home to reality, which can put a bit of a dampener on the whole experience.

With that in mind, we’ve found 10 steps that can help you to get over your holiday blues after your holiday of a lifetime.

 

Start off small

One of the best ways to start getting over your post-holiday blues is to begin with easy, manageable tasks.

Rather than trying to catch up on the mountain of emails waiting for you or wash the piles of dirty laundry from your holiday, choose the most important parts of each and only focus on those.

Taking small steps can help to ease you back into routine and prevent you from feeling overwhelmed, which is often what causes the drop in your mood.

 

Engage your creativity

Rather than trying to get rid of any thoughts of your holiday, try to incorporate your favourite parts of the holiday into your home.

Whether you choose to paint a wall of your room with the colour of a beautiful building you saw, purchase one of your favourite plants from your most recent destination, or follow a decoration style you picked up abroad, continuing this holiday theme at home can help your sunny mood to continue as well.

Plus, getting creative and using your hands can help to take your mind off any negative feelings.

 

Make the most of your holiday feeling

In a similar vein, making the most of your holiday feeling can help to stave off any holiday blues.

When you come back from holiday, you’re usually looking and feeling your best, having been refreshed and revitalised on your relaxing trip away.

So, why not make the most of it, by throwing a party or trying the local gym class you’ve always wanted to do? We often avoid doing these sorts of things if we’re not feeling too confident, so taking advantage of your holiday feeling is the perfect time to do whatever you’ve been putting off.

 

Spend time outdoors

Another way to help beat the holiday blues is to try to spend as much time as you can outdoors, rather than under artificial lighting.

One of the reasons we feel so good while we’re on holiday is because we spend most of the time outside in natural light, so returning to harsh, yellow lighting at work or at home can really get us down.

However, you can carry on this positive feeling by going out for a brisk walk at lunch or cycling to work. Whilst this won’t be the same as relaxing on a beach here in Barbados, it can help your body to adjust at a more reasonable rate.

 

Eat well and stay hydrated

Another reason that we tend to feel a bit better after a holiday is because we often eat less and drink more whilst we’re away.

In hot climates, many of us tend to opt for lighter meals, including fruit and salads, and drink more water in order to stay dehydrated, which helps both our physical and mental well-being and often results in a sunnier mood.

In order to feel better once you arrive back home, try to continue these behaviours as much as you can in order to avoid a sudden drop in mood from changes in your diet.

 

Focus on the memories

One of the best ways to beat the holiday blues is to try to change the way you think about your most recent trip away.

Whilst this is easier said than done, focusing on the memories you’ve created and the time you spent with loved ones, or time you spent with yourself, is much more productive than fantasising about lying on the beach in the sun.

This can help you to focus on the positives of building up your relationships and adding to your memories rather than focusing on the negatives of the rainy weather back at home.

Similarly, changing your mindset to view your recent trip as just one of the ways to enhance your life, and one of many holidays to come in the future, can help you to reduce any negative feelings and look for the positives in the experience.

 

Make some changes

Returning from your holiday can be the ideal time to make some positive changes in your life and can be a real chance to reinvigorate yourself.

You could try something new that you’ve been wanting to do, such as pottery classes or writing a bullet journal, or just continue some things you did on holiday, such as reading a book, eating more seafood, or cooking more homemade meals.

All of this can help us to focus on what we enjoy the most and improve our everyday lives, meaning your favourite aspects of the holiday don’t have to end!

 

Acknowledge the holiday blues

Despite the fact that most of us suffer from some sort of drop in mood after returning home, many people don’t acknowledge their feelings and frequently make light of it all.

However, one of the first steps in getting over the holiday blues is accepting that this experience is normal. It’s natural to feel a bit downcast when returning to usual routines but this will eventually pass, and accepting this fact can make it easier to deal with any negative moods.

 

Treat yourself

As strange as it may seem to take some time for yourself when you’ve just returned from a holiday doing just that, treating yourself can be a great way to combat the holiday blues.

Holidays can be stressful at times, whether it’s the travelling, having to negotiate the different interests of the group all the time, or even just having to get used to a new place in a short space of time.

As a result, taking some time to relax when you get home, whether it’s a massage, a trip to the cinema, or a bubble bath, can help to de-stress and soften the blow of coming back to reality.

 

Plan your next experience

Finally, one of the best ways to beat the holiday blues is to give yourself something else to look forward to.

Whether it’s booking a spa break in a local hotel or another holiday here with us at Royal Westmoreland, having something in the future to think about can distract you from any holiday blues you might have when you return home!