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4 Perks of Travel To Incorporate Into Everyday Life
Live in the moment: When on holiday, we are super present in our days. We feel our feet in the grass and we are in tune with the sights and smells around us. Our senses are awakened. Europeans do this best in their daily lives. They savor and enjoy their meals and sit and sip wine for hours. Dinner is a long and elaborate event meant to relax, unwind, and experience, both from a social as well as a foodie viewpoint. Meals are designed to take hours to enjoy--no rush. Cafes are designed to sit and sip, and day dream--no rush. The art of getting lost in our meals may be a stretch for us in the U.S., but the ability to be really present in each thing we do and with every person we are with, is not. Being a little less "busy" allows us to attend to the details of the moment we are living rather than worrying about all that we have done or need to do. It also allows us to create the memories that really do last a lifetime.
Trust the process: We book a trip and we go...and we let go...and trust the process without second guessing the destination. We do not redo and rebook. We believe that our decisions are sound and that our research is done and valid. Then, we just let the journey unfold. No looking back. When we enjoy the process of taking vacation, we don't take the trip focused on the end of the trip, we take it focusing on the vacation as a whole. The willingness to deal successfully with that which we may not be able to control and predict is one of the true virtues of travel. Being able to look at our goals as we do our travel commitments is vital to freeing ourselves of overthinking and over analyzing in favor of trusting the small steps we take toward our destinations.
Explore: Being curious and discovering a destination is part of what makes a good vacation great. Traveling allows us to experience varied cultures, people, foods, and the unique landscapes of places we do not call home. In our everyday lives yearning for learning should be a foundation from which we benchmark our days. Expanding our minds grows and enriches our lives and unlocks our creative process. Dare to be playful, dare to ask questions, dare to experience all that is in your everyday! Try something unfamiliar and push your limits!
Let Go: Often, we are so wound up when we do go on vacation that it can take several days just to detox and ease into the lull of our "powered off" alter selves. More sleep, beach or pool time, exercise, and freedom away from the ordinary help us to get our lives better balanced. We are all looking for this quality of life in our everyday. It begins with a look inward and a daily dose of self-pampering.
Unleashing our forgotten selves is the answer. This is the part of us that prioritizes the importance of me time and down time. It is the part of us that may buy new clothes for vacation, may get a haircut, a spray tan or a good book. It is also the part of us that loses weight prior to leaving, or commits to a great adventure tour while away that capitalizes on our need to do something different and unexpected. Essentially, our forgotten self is the part of who we are that we put on hold when our everyday world becomes complicated and stressed. Let go and rediscover yourself!
Vacation sets free forgotten me. It realigns what is important. It puts the color back in my life where the black and white has taken over. I suspect it does the same for you too. So, it stands to reason that blending some of the things we like best about taking a holiday into our everyday will put a smile on our faces and more meaning and balance into our lives. Bon voyage!
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