There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when going on holiday was a chance to escape from the stresses of life and truly switch off. You would often be unreachable; you couldn’t take your work with you, and you could be present and fully in the moment.
Now, instead of a time to relax, recharge, and unplug, holidays have become coloured by the stress of planning, preparing and getting behind at work.
It may take days to switch off, and you may find you’re only truly relaxed just in time for the journey home. Clinical psychologist Dr Tracy King explains why this happens: “We can’t expect a holiday to repair months of accumulated stress in the same way we expect a paracetamol to take away a headache. In fact, space and fewer demands can mean we experience more stress that was unable to be fully processed when we were in ‘firefighting mode’, batting away demand after demand of life.”
Shorts
Here, mental health experts explain how to avoid stress ruining your holiday, and how to arrive home less frazzled and more relaxed.
