Post Holiday Mental Health: The 'January Blues' Are Real

This week marks the return to work for many who have had the luxury of some time off over the festive season. Feeling relaxed and recharged we’re heading back to our usual routines, with sleep-ins and lazy beach days just a distant memory.

The post-holiday blues has likely set in for some of us. With feelings of sadness that the fun (and the anticipation of it) seemingly over. We’re now relegated to dreaming about holidays through our tropical island screensaver and visualising ourselves on our next break.

With most people having travel on their resolution as well as their bucket lists, it’s suffice to say most of us enjoy being on holidays. We don’t need a reminder that having them is extremely beneficial for both our physical and mental health.

A holiday always “is just what we needed”, and we plan to recreate it all soon. But however relaxing or adventurous our holidays were, most of us get back to our normal routines once the holidays are over, and forget all about what we promised ourselves. When people are out of their usual routine and without their important roles attached to their identity, is often when people feel most alive.

But surely we shouldn't be feeling at our best only on holidays. After all, that’s only a few weeks a year. To sustain that holiday feeling, we need to be incorporating some of our recent holiday behaviours into our daily lives.

We can learn a lot from our holiday selves. It’s likely that we’re more physically active during the day, something that us office workers tend not to do. Whether exploring new jaunts, hiking in the rainforest, paddle boarding it down the beach or swimming in hotel pools, we tend to just move our body more.

When we’re on holiday we spend time doing things just because we want to, rather than what we feel we have to. Whether it’s enjoying an out-of-the-ordinary late night, a sunset, a long beach or a nap in a hammock, we do it because we simply feel like it.

We are generally more open to new experiences and tend to be more spontaneous on holiday. Shooting down waterslides, going fishing or parasailing during the week is not out of the question.

We tend to relax more on holiday, on purpose. Perhaps lying by a pool or sunning ourselves on a beach. Sitting in a café sipping coffee and reading the paper without rushing off to do something that is deemed more important.

We’re also likely to sleep more, allowing our brain and body to get the appropriate replenishing rest it often craves. We’re less likely to stare out our phone late into the night, as we are often more exhausted from what we got up to during the day.

When we go away we tend to engage with people a little more than usual. We often feel more connected to those around us. They get more of our attention and we give them more of ours. We can purposefully do that at home.

Often when we are away we get out of our usual dinner routine and indulge in different types of cuisines that we would never try at home. Indulging in new flavours and eating more fresh and healthy meals.

The crazy thing about all of this, is all of this can be done at home. We just need to build it into our life as though it’s important as getting that report completed, vacuuming the house and making lasagne on a Wednesday.

We all need to think about what we get up to when we’re on holiday, and try to bring a little more of it into our life whilst we’re back in our weekly work routine.

That way we’ll not only be looking forward to our next holiday, but also just enjoying right now.

This article was originally written on www.bodyandsoul.com.au and was written by Dr Marny Lishman