JOIN USChilling out sounds fun, but it is turning to be strenuous for many. Work is addictive, while holidays are exhausting, or so it seems.
Long vacations seem a distant dream. And if that is possible, it is filled with planned activities that may leave one more burned out rather than rejuvenated.
There used to be a time when there was no pressure to utilize holidays in ‘learning something specific’. Earlier, vacations had no purpose. It was just a way of life, as slow paced and leisurely as it could get. Life was unplugged and most returned after a complete rejuvenating experience with minimal expenses. The motto was crystal clear - ‘having fun by doing sweet nothings’.
Holidays with an agenda
Modern day vacations for children are stacked up with learning schedules. Math classes, baking, cooking, gardening, learning a new language, shloka classes, camps to learn good-touch, bad-touch... You need only imagine it, google it, and wham! You will find innumerable such clubs for your kids.
Holidays with digital touch
If nothing else, there are enough fancy toys and video games that are getting kids and adults alike addicted to them. There is also the weird itch to check work mails or put-up our pictures on the web! As though it needs to be done at that very moment... It’s hardly a holiday where one cherishes the experience for the sake of it.
Holidays for social status
Holidays are also taken to keep up with peer pressure. Children too want to showcase to their friends where they had been for vacations. Pity they have to bear insensitive comments if they have not been to a worthy location that can talk of social status and interests. Mountaineering, skiing, swimming, snorkeling, spending a holiday amidst wildlife, all display affordability and financial place.
Jam-packed holidays
It seems that the warm days of ‘doing nothing’ but lazing around are replaced by whole lot of activities to be done during a vacation. There are also quite a handful who have jumped into the bandwagon of choosing itinerary-packed holidays, with their sightseeing activities planned from sunrise to sunset. Some even plan in a minute-to-minute style to make sure every moment is utilized to its fullest. It is all “here today, there tomorrow”!
Holidays, every now and then
Our lives have become so stressed-out that we constantly long for vacations. We look up travel destinations among glossy magazines, soak it up by watching travel shows, read it up on internet in the promise leisure and peace of mind. Interestingly, holidays have also become instantaneous in the sense they are taken at the spur of the moment- thanks to instant information available on the net and company of adventurous friends who are game for spontaneous trips.
Want to have a real holiday?
* Do not have expectations of a ‘perfect holiday’. It’s about forgetting your worries and trying to live each moment as it comes.
*Do not try to go for holidays only to talk about it to others. Instead try to go for those destinations that would actually make you feel blessed for being on a holiday. It need not be a fancy destination at a fancy price. Remember not all good things come at a price.
* Leave your gadgets behind if possible for a single trip at least in a year. This includes your laptop, and official mobile phones, and even the camera (if you can).
* Make sure you allow enough time for the quiet moments. The recuperative powers of 'doing nothing' while on holidays are underrated.
* Try to go for a solo trip. Be alone in a place that will make you feel good without the baggage of communication tools, or having to tend to the needs of others around you.
* Treasure your experiences in handwritten memoirs, blogs, pictures, and videos. But it need not be shared with others…not necessarily always.