Summer vacation means so many great things – a break from regular obligations, more family time, new experiences, and a little indulgence. Whether you are taking a road trip to visit extended family, camping in a beautiful setting, enjoying a fancy resort, or flying to another country, you anticipate a fun and refreshing respite from the everyday grind. That alone is a great reason to go ahead and take a vacation! But with a little mindfulness, vacation can be even more – the chance to reset and bring lasting changes that improve the life you return to when it’s over.
Try these strategies to get the most of your summer vacation.
Change your surroundings
Even if the travel budget is slim, it’s so helpful to find a way to go outside the area where you live. A change of scenery signals to the mind – “It’s officially time to set down some daily burdens and just enjoy.” Going somewhere with natural beauty is ideal for a mental reset. However, the architectural and artistic beauty found in cities is also great! The main idea is just to make a change.
Disconnect
As tempting as it might be to do the opposite, put away screens and encourage family members to do the same – at least for a good portion of each day. Instead of zoning out on devices, make the most of being in a new place. Focus on connecting with each other and really noticing your surroundings, using all five senses. See, hear, smell, taste, and touch the place where you are!
One of the best outcomes of disconnecting is just giving your mind a chance to wander. Maybe your whole vacation is relaxed – canoeing on a lake, lounging by the pool, sunbathing on the beach, or hiking in the mountains. But even if your trip is packed with activity, maybe you can still make time for a leisurely cup of coffee before the day gets going and let your thoughts wander where they will.
During your down time, observe where your mind goes. Have some conversations with God about the things that keep rising to the surface – worries, desires, questions, hopes. Open yourself to hearing from him on these things, and give yourself the opportunity for some listening and yielding as he guides.
Read something edifying – fiction or nonfiction
Vacation can be a wonderful time to read something you’ve had your eye on for a while. It’s great if you can find a book that will nurture and encourage your soul. Truly, few things have as much power to move us as a well-told story. Take advantage of the time you have on vacation to revel in a great one – even if that time is just as you drift off to sleep at night.
Try something new
You can enjoy something exciting on your trip, like zip-lining or zooming down a freezing cold mountain sliding rock, or you can try something that could become a new hobby, like hiking, crafting, photography, or watercolor painting. Whatever you choose, doing something you’ve never done before is a great way to break you and your family out of your shell and form some new connections together. You might also discover something you'd like to include in your daily life Maybe you'll fall in love with a new form of exercise or a hobby!
Making the Benefits Last
How can you be sure to carry some of your vacation's awesomeness with you after you return?
Plan some time on the trip home or the day after returning to make some notes about what made you feel healthy and thriving, especially anything that drew you closer to God. Maybe that peaceful morning agenda-free coffee time really made a difference in your day. Perhaps the few deep conversations you got to have with your sister made you realize how much your connection to her matters to you. Maybe walking in a natural setting left you noticeably less tense. Whatever it is, consider how you might be able to prioritize those things in your regular routine.
Notice, also, what elements of your regular routine were absent and how those affected your family. If it was just fantastic having no housecleaning to do – well, eliminating chores permanently might not be practical. However, if a higher ratio of outdoor time to screen time was highly beneficial, take notice of that and determine how you can encourage a better balance in that at home.
Maybe skipping the in-bed initial scroll of the day (checking news and email, etc.) gave each morning a whole new feel. Perhaps just a mindset of gratitude and anticipation instead of dread or anxiety made a difference in how your days progressed. So many of these things can be carried well beyond vacation.
Try to assess the same things for your children. What really made them feel rested, refreshed, joyful, and full of life?
If your children are mature enough, it would be helpful to ask them some thought-provoking questions to determine what about their time away was healing and nurturing. If they can observe themselves and learn about what most nurtures their souls and then intentionally use that information to order their days, you all have accomplished something great! Teaching them these skills is miles ahead of observing it yourself and setting up requirements for them. Alas, often, we parents do have to step in and set the boundaries for our children’s good. But any progress you can make toward helping them take ownership of their spiritual, mental, and physical health is a victory.
So here’s to enjoying summer vacation to the full and also taking its benefits forward into regular life! If nothing else, it’s important to remember that some of the things that wear us down and make us feel stuck in life are actually under our control. Let’s learn from our time away to do more living every day.
Xo,
Christie
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