10 Ways to Capture That Vacation Feeling…Without Leaving Your House!
Some feel-good quick fixes you can do in the comfort (and safety) of your homes.
When I told one of my friends that I’m writing this piece, her reply was “the irony!!!!”. I agree. But when the foreseeable future is us stuck within our countries and homes, then we need to think of ways to uplift ourselves! Not all of us can afford expensive ‘staycations’ in hotels or Airbnbs so here are other ways to recapture that holiday feeling!
1. Eat like you’re on vacation. Cook and/or eat food that reminds you of your favorite holiday destination. As we all know, food and happiness are interlinked. Now, I’m not talking about changing daily eating habits here. This exercise is to trigger ‘feel-good’ hormones that transport you back to your happy holiday destination. This may be replicating a good quality croissant and coffee from a bakery near you that reminds you of that Parisian breakfast, or a ‘pan con tomate’, fresh tomato pureed and spread on a simple, good quality bread with a drizzle of olive oil and salt, taking you back to a small cafe in a Spanish pueblo! In the end, it’s still all about balance:
“Whether it’s psychological or physiological, it’s clear that foods have a powerful effect on our moods. It would appear that eating only nutrient-packed foods that affect brain chemistry might be the best way to achieve happiness, but the occasional indulgence should make you just as happy. Perhaps a healthy balance of nutritious foods and comfort foods can help maintain the balance in a person’s mood best of all.” — Josh Clark, Can food make people happy?
2. Watch destination films or documentaries. Woody Allen films are pretty good with this and I recently watched “Midnight in Paris” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, both brought back special holiday memories of my travels in both cities the last 2 years. Audrey Hepburn’s “Roman Holiday” is an Italian treat! Even the old Lonely Planet or Chef’s Table series can be a nice substitute to jog your memories. Walt Disney claimed that when planning their next movies, ‘[they] do not think of grown-ups or children, but just of that kind, clean, unspoiled spot down deep inside every one of us, that the world has maybe made us forget, and maybe our pictures can help to recall’. Niemiec and Wedding defended this notion on their paper that :
‘Movies, especially positive psychology movies speak to that clean spot that is present in all of us, where people escape from their lives into themselves and come out feeling better, stronger and more willing to take healthy action.’
3. Read a book set in a foreign country in the eyes of its heroine. Everyone should know “Eat Pray Love”, “Shantaram”, and my cheesy romantic favorite, “The Food of Love”. The characters tend to savor the culture of their foreign settings and as a reader gives you that sense of wonder when you’re traveling in real life. Not only that, but reading is also just a good workout for our brains!
4. Smell like you’re on vacation. The olfactory senses play a part in triggering memories, which translates into emotions. This could be using tropical fruit scents, or any cosmetics you tend to only use when you’re on holiday. Or candles or aromatic oils that reminds you of your Balinese massage! According to a study by the University of Wisconsin:
“We encounter anxiety and as a result we experience the world more negatively. The environment smells bad in the context of anxiety. It can become a vicious cycle, making one more susceptible to a clinical state of anxiety as the effects accumulate. It can potentially lead to a higher level of emotional disturbances with rising ambient sensory stress.”
In other words, make your world smell of roses, and you’ll view the world in a more positive light!
6. Listen to your holiday playlist. Studies have shown that music releases a pleasure chemical called “Dopamine”, the same happy hormone released in our brains when we get a hug or those who take drugs! This chemical is triggered particularly when one listens to happy or ambient music. You may not have a playlist now, but this could be a nice project to do with your music app whilst stuck at home. I have specific songs that remind me of that walk along the River Tiber on a quiet, sunny November morning, or that run in the Portuguese countryside as I watched the windmills in Torres Vedras. As what one of the earliest philosophers, Plato said:
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
6. Wear that special outfit. Backed by Science, “Enclothed Cognition” is used to describe how certain clothes we wear affect our various psychological processes. Bright colors give you the “pick me up mood” and I can certainly attest to this when I pack for my beach holidays where I always tend to choose colors that cheer me up! On the other hand, I associate dimmer, darker colors to something more formal, somber, and night time. Nothing wrong with feeling special at any time of the day! So go ahead and wear your beach dress on your sofa!
7. Have a nap. I don’t need to tell you that numerous articles are supporting the benefits of napping. According to a blog by Michael J Breus Ph.D.“Psychology Today”:
Research suggests naps help improve emotional regulation, including increasing your ability to tolerate frustration and reducing your tendency to be impulsive.
I don’t need an excuse to take that ‘siesta’ but I know that some people can only do naps when they’re on holiday. The secret to this mood booster is the length of the nap. 30 minutes is enough to lift your spirits and activate mental alertness. Waking up from longer naps may take you a while to get your energy back up to normal, but its effect is said to be prolonged. Admittedly, I can have 3-hour naps and I still feel pretty chirpy right after. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones!
8. Drink your holiday concoction. It’s 5 pm somewhere! Yep, don’t wait for an excuse to open that bottle of wine or bubbles, or making yourself a mocktail. If you think you deserve it, then have a drink with your loved ones and toast all blessings you have in life, however big or small they are, even virtually!
9. Get some sun. Sunshine is not just a source of Vitamin D for bone health, but it also helps with regulating Serotonin in our body, boosts immunity, improves brain function and sleep quality, just to name a few of the benefits!
10. Plan your next holiday. The fun of a vacation starts from the moment you plan it. The anticipation of a new adventure ahead releases Endorphins, the same happy chemical you get from exercising and eating chocolate!
“The practical lesson for an individual is that you derive most of your happiness from anticipating the holiday trip,” Jeroen Nawijn, the study’s lead author, told The New York Times.
A Dutch study on how happiness and holidays showed that the largest boost in happiness came from planning a vacation. It may seem masochistic planning a trip you cannot take in the foreseeable future but our current state isn’t forever. This time, you have plenty of time to browse and plan how to make your next holiday more memorable.
Closing thoughts:
This pandemic has been hard for everyone and we have no way to know when this will be over. However, we need to continue to control what we can and not let so much negativity affect our everyday lives. Choose where you spend your energy and time. They’re our valuable assets that should not be wasted.
