Holidays are an effective way to relax and regenerate. Taking time out regularly is important for your psyche. In fact, people become more susceptible to illness when they go without vacation for years. The vacation can take place at home, as long as all stressors from everyday life and work can be pushed aside. Since most people fail to do this, moving to another location is still the best option. Are exciting city trips the solution, holidays by the sea or a combination? What does the psyche really need to recover? The article provides information.
Quality determines the recovery effect
Researchers from Radboud University NIjmegen (Netherlands) have in the study “Vacation from work as prototypical recovery opportunity “(PDF file) found that people feel fitter, more relaxed, more alert, full of energy and healthier when traveling than in everyday work. The recovery effect of short trips and longer trips is comparable with each other. The decisive factor is not the length of the trip, but the quality. So it doesn’t have to be a three-week luxury vacation in a distant country. Instead, the way you plan your vacation is crucial. The following aspects are particularly effective when it comes to recovery:
Real encounters and closeness to the body
Real, personal encounters with other people contribute significantly to relaxation and happiness on vacation. Recovery works best when we start the most beautiful time of the year with loved ones. Close friends, family and partners are most likely to provide the relaxation effect. Physical encounters with lovers support the release of the hormone oxytocin. This has a blood pressure lowering effect and also eliminates the stress hormone cortisol in the blood. The bottom line is that the hormonal processes mentioned support the positive holiday feeling.
Celebrate movement
Jogging on the beach in the morning, enjoying the endless space and of course the harmony of the sea is ideal for optimizing the relaxation effect. Anyone who does sport stimulates the production of the happiness hormone endorphin, which creates a good mood. In addition, exercise is a real stress killer that has a beneficial effect on numerous physical functions. Holidaymakers who indulge in this positive feeling and enjoy it with all their senses draw the greatest relaxation effect from their daily exercise.
Enjoy nature and choose a quiet holiday home
A vacation in nature is much more relaxing than a city trip or a trip to a party stronghold. Of course, this also has its charm, but a vacation in nature contributes considerably more to regeneration than a city walk, for example. who regularly enjoys nature, benefits from a stable cardiovascular system, lower stress hormone levels and better sleep. An ideal destination for a relaxing holiday, for example, is a Holiday home in Denmark that is in the dunes near the sea lies. Here the stress and hectic pace of everyday life are far away and the closeness to nature is 100 percent. The way to the sea is short, the fresh sea breeze is omnipresent. In addition, vacationers can practice a variety of activities in nature. These include hiking, cycling, jogging and water sports. Holidaymakers who want to take their friends or a large family with them on vacation will find the option of renting larger holiday homes or holiday homes close together on the coastal areas of Denmark.
Better to go on vacation more often and for a short time
As mentioned at the beginning, the recovery effect on short trips is comparable to the recovery effect on longer trips. This reaches its peak after about a week. Dutch scientists recommend taking shorter, more frequent vacations than taking a long trip once a year.
It is important to make your arrival and departure as stress-free as possible. What is experienced as stress varies from person to person. If the holiday destination is within reach, most of them will come with their own car. Those who travel from afar can opt for a train or a plane. Regardless of how you arrive, it should be seen as part of the vacation and it is therefore advisable to take the time pressure off. This also means, among other things, that the day of arrival does not have to start at 3 or 4 a.m. in order to be on the plane at 8 a.m. after an early morning drive and looking for a parking space.
Anti-stress tip: Those who travel by train or car can have their suitcases sent to their holiday destination in advance by post instead of taking all their luggage with them on the day of travel.
Mix of relaxation and activities strengthens the psyche
Vacationers get an ideal relaxation effect from their days off when relaxation and activities are balanced in a healthy mix. Activities are preferably excursions into nature combined with exercise and being close to friends and / or family. Experiencing something new together ensures that we return home strengthened from vacation and literally feel the regeneration. It doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary. It is enough, for example, to spend the night with the children in the open air, to go on a long hike through unknown territory together or to paddle a bit across the sea in a canoe.
Optimize the recovery effect: start stress-free after the holiday
In order to extend the holiday effect for as long as possible, it is strongly recommended to keep the days after the holiday free from stress. This means that vacationers do not return to the office to an overcrowded desk the day after their vacation, but ideally to a tidy, clean apartment in which a freshly filled refrigerator is waiting for the returnees.
If you like, you can give your holiday laundry to a laundry service and continue at home where you left off on holiday, namely with relaxation. If you then go back to work shortly afterwards, small breaks in the first week at work can help to keep that relaxed holiday feeling a few days longer.
07/09/2021