Guide to your vacation planning
If you make summer plans, it is good to look back at past summers and to ask yourself when you had a great summer. The following two questions can help you forge vacation plans:
- Which summer activities make you feel good? What is for you invigorating and vitalizing? Vitality refers to the experience of “enthusiasm, vibrancy and energy” (p. 159, Ryan et al., 2010). The more vital you feel, the less susceptible you are to physical complaints and ailments. One person gets energy from strolling in a small village, another person from spending time together with the children or grandchildren. Some like to go out with friends in nature or in the city, others think the summer is the ideal time to do chores or gardening.
- But your ‘usual’, invigorating summer activities may not be achievable during this corona holiday. To know better how to organize your holiday in 2020, it is good to think about what you do valuable finds. What goals would you like to realize during this holiday, what do you expect from it? If you are aware of what is important to you, it is better to come up with alternative holiday plans that match your values. One person finds peace and relaxation important, the other social contacts and hospitality, yet another is looking for adventure or culture.
Pleasant and valuable activities
Because many summer activities are canceled, such as a festival visit or a trip abroad, this summer also offers opportunities to gain new experiences. At the same time, the loss or change of established habits can also mean a loss or uncertainty. We are losing support. As a source of inspiration for suitable holiday plans, we list different types of activities, which research has shown that they can give you energy or increase your well-being. Because not all activities strengthen our mental health, not all values appear to promote our growth to the same extent.
- Recommendation 1: Find a connection with nature. A good way to charge your batteries is to spend time in nature (Kaplan, 1995; Ryan et al., 2010). You don’t necessarily have to be physically active to experience its beneficial effects. It is enough to enjoy the flowers in your garden chair, in a park of the splendor of trees, or on a bench of a rolling landscape. Being active in nature, such as gardening, walking, playing or exercising, provides an extra boost. For example, with an initiative such as ‘Welcome to my garden’ – people with a garden offer free camping space – people help each other to achieve a ‘green holiday’ close to home. Moreover, it is a cheap holiday alternative if you have suffered financially through the corona crisis.
- Recommendation 2: Put time in your hobbies. If you do something you enjoy doing, you get energy from it. Hobbies are pre-eminently examples of intrinsically motivating activities (Vansteenkiste & Soenens, 2015). Although we are spontaneously attracted to it, fascinating and fun activities can be covered with a thick layer of dust because of the corona problems. Therefore, try to make extra time for this holiday. Young people may enjoy skating or kicking a ball together. The elderly may enjoy playing cards or petanque. If you like to soak up culture, now is the ideal time to visit museums, get lost in cities or read a book.
- Recommendation 3: Maintain and deepen your relationships. By being together with your close family or friends and making time for each other, you experience connection. But also group activities such as team sport, youth clubs, or a theater performance on the street, create social connection. That sense of belonging is essential to our physical and mental well-being (Haslam, Jetten, Cruwys et al, 2018). Because of the measures, some have had to miss each other, such as grandparents and their grandchildren, and others may have been short on each other, such as adolescents in lockdown with their parents. Not everyone can see each other again this summer, think of all children with grandparents in a country where we are not yet allowed or dare to travel, for example. This lack makes it even more important than usual to continue nurturing those relationships this summer.
- Recommendation 4: Connect with each other, also physically. Many of us missed hugs, allowed to kiss each other, touch each other. Especially for singles or those who only experienced the lock down at home, this loss could have been intense. Giving your partner or friend a massage can be a good way to compensate for ‘skin hunger’ (ie the craving for meaningful physical touches). Touches reduce stress and give you a feeling of well-being. Even small touches (such as a pat on the back) already have a positive effect. Good sex also contributes to good mental and physical health, so enjoy yourself and each other. However, any physical contact can also pose a risk. So don’t forget the basic rules: wash your hands regularly and no physical contact when you notice possible symptoms of covid-19 in yourself or the other person (more guidelines and info can be found here).
- Recommendation 5: Try something new. By exploring the world around you and trying new things, you often come to surprising insights and experiences. You try a new recipe on your BBQ; you cycle along a different route to a familiar place, or you try a new sport. Experimenting with new things doesn’t have to cost a lot of money either. For example, you can borrow a board game that you do not yet know from neighbors or from the library. Although people differ in their urge to innovate and some of us are real creatures of habit, gaining new experiences can strengthen your mental health (Gonzalez-Cutre et al., 2020).
- Recommendation 6: Try to exercise regularly. Exercising regularly makes it easier to cope with stressful situations and that we are less likely to rush: we feel more in control of everything (Teychenne et al, 2020). You don’t have to suddenly start exercising like crazy if you don’t like that. Lighter forms of exercise such as a walk, swimming, cycling with a friend, or even ping-pong or playing a game with the (grand) children, also improve mental health. What especially makes us feel good is exercising regularly in a way that you like and if you feel like it.
- Recommendation 7: Do something for someone else. Being helpful and helping others in need helps you feel connected to others and better realize your values (Schwartz, 2010). This way you not only strengthen the mental health of the person helped, but also that of the helper. In corona times we have seen many examples of mutual aid and spontaneous solidarity. This summer holiday, more people will stay closer to home, so there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in your municipality or neighborhood. For example, neighbors in various municipalities organize ‘play streets’ where children play safely together during the summer weeks. Or you sign up as a volunteer for ‘summer schools’ who guide children who need it to keep up. It is crucial that this helpfulness is voluntary, gratuitous. If you help the other person out of guilt or because you were still indebted, in short, because you have to, you will not benefit greatly.
The pause button gives access to our internal compass
One danger when planning your vacation is to plan it too full. Unfilled days or half days provide a feeling of freedom and carefree. With a fully planned agenda, you leave little room for surprises. Now that many festivals, public events or long journeys have been removed from the agenda, there is a gap in the summer agenda for some. This is a relief. On the other hand, for some, the less visible telecommuting, evening work with children in bed, indenting for sick colleagues, and improvising on a daily basis so as not to drop your work in recent months have made the distinction between work and leisure time lost.
After this eventful period, it is more useful than ever to ban an overly full to-do list and press the pause button. Rest also ensures that you can give a place to the events of the past months. Our stamina and patience have been put to the test, and many have been through a rough period. By giving yourself the necessary rest, you can distance yourself more psychologically from the intense, hectic period. This way we can see things in perspective. Do you dare to be vulnerable instead of posing yourself stronger than necessary or to sweep negative emotions under the carpet. If we dare to discuss what we have missed and what was difficult, we get closer to what really touches us in life: which values do we find really important (eg health, intimacy)? What fun things have I really missed (eg leisure activity)? Which powerful relationships were necessarily on the back burner? The holiday is an ideal time to recharge, to get closer to our internal compass and to each other. This increased awareness of our core values, interests, and relationships allows us to remain more true to ourselves and our values. The corona summer holiday as a stepping stone to more authenticity and connection.
Source: UGent
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