By David Price, Health Assured CEO and workplace wellbeing expert
Itโs summer, and itโs time to get away. Everyoneโs jetting off to faraway climesโwhether you enjoy the blazing sunshine or the Arctic blizzards, itโs the time of year to get away, relax and take your mind off work for a couple of weeks.
Thing is, once that couple of weeks is over, itโs back to the daily grind. And the thought of being chained to your desk for eight hours a day, trudging to and from the office, slowly chipping away at a mountain of tasksโwell, itโs enough to bring anyone down. Even if your job isnโt that badโeven if you love your jobโwe can all feel a certain post-holiday blues.
This isnโt just a bit of a slumpโitโs serious. It saps energy, makes you feel rotten. But there are ways to beat these blues, with a little planning and forethought. Here are some of the best ways:
Take time to readjust
Donโt just get home on a Sunday night and be back at your desk on Monday morningโyouโll be tired, youโll be jetlagged, and youโll probably still be full of holiday food (and possibly alcohol).
Take an extra few days to do very little. Unpack, get your life back in order, fix your sleeping patterns. Itโs not quite an extension of the holiday, but readjusting to home life is a vital bookend, and itโll make getting back to a routine a lot easier.
Stay busy
Once you are back at work, make sure your time is full. Donโt sit and think too hard about the holiday you just left behindโof course, memories are great, and youโll have fun telling and showing your colleagues the pictures, videos and tan youโve got.
But making sure youโre as busy as possible will help stop glumness kicking in. This should be at work and homeโtake up a project, finish one you already have, go out and see friends. Itโs important to stay busy and have fun doing so.
Back away from social media
Everyoneโs feeds are full of sunshine at this time of year. The Instagram feeds of your friends are brimming with sandy beached and bronzed fleshโand yours likely is, too. The problem is that this is a stark reminder of the shiny holiday you just left behindโฆ
Itโs a good idea to spend a little time without the focusing lens of social media when you get back from holidays. Update your profiles, upload your photos, write your blog about the great time you hadโthen log out, and donโt touch it for a few days.
Youโre right, logging out for days at a time is hard. Itโs going to feel like youโve severed a link to the outside world. But rememberโthose social media feeds are going to be full of people who are still enjoying their holidays, and itโll make you long to go back.
Focus on feeling good
So, now that youโve logged out of Facebook, got yourself a few days to readjust and decided on some projects, itโs time to work on your wellbeing. Eating well, hydrating (itโs still summer, after all), sleeping properly and concentrating on feeling good about yourself are the most important steps.
Follow these tips, and youโll feel a lot better about getting back to reality. And when youโre feeling great about yourself, then next yearโs holiday will seem to come around all the faster.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
