You need a vacation! You deserve a vacation! How do we invigorate your mind! Aren’t these phrases music to your ears? People have images in their minds of lounging in an adirondack chair. Staring out at a blue ocean with the salty water pushing up the white, sandy beach, slowly creeping towards your toes with every new break of the waves. This is usually accompanied by a cold drink is in hand. Sometimes there a miniature umbrella sticking out of it. The umbrella is protecting, in the off chance that a freak rainstorm will rush upon you and get water in your drink. What is the best part of this image of a vacation that you have just vividly pictured in your mind? Having no worries!
Do you suppose that you alone have had this experience? Are you surprised, as if it were a novelty, that after such long travel and so many changes of scene you have not been able to shake off the gloom and heaviness of your mind? You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate. Though you may cross vast spaces of sea, and though, as our Virgil remarks ’Lands and cities are left astern, your faults will follow you whithersoever you travel.’
Seneca
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It is wonderful to go to an exotic location somewhere far away from home and experience a different culture. It is also possible to take a vacation no matter where you are. Vacations are truly a way to invigorate your mind and not your physical body. When you take a vacation, you make a conscious effort to leave everything behind. This travel allows you to concentrate, actually focus, on having an amazing time and enjoying yourself. This state of mind can be done anywhere although a change in surroundings does help you with the escape. The change could be a different room or just going outside. Just take in the moment for what it is. Let your thoughts and being escape and wander to places that you might not have expected.
Start by taking a vacation to your downtown area to invigorate your mind. Act like a tourist in your own city. Don’t go to the places that you would normally go. Alternatively, go to areas that tourists and out of towner’s would flock to and blog to their friends about. Visit the convention and visitors bureau in your locale for more information on your city. Moreover, I will bet that you get information that is amazing and startling about your corner of the world. Doing this will give you a completely different perspective on the city in which you live and work.
Eat somewhere that you would not normally frequent and might be outside your comfort zone. The best part of this is that you can do it in a weekend, a day or a couple of hours. This kind of escape will do wonders for your well being. It will help center yourself again and let your mind think more clearly.
In order for this to work you have to dive in whole heartedly into what you are doing on your vacation. You have to live in the present moment. Basically, when you are visiting a museum, let the moment take you away to another time in another world. Invigorate your mind with the surroundings. Become fully absorbed in the moment so that nothing else in this world matters but the museum and the masterpiece that your senses are currently focused on. Your life will be there when you come back so enjoy the time spent away from it for this moment. Visit the local farmers market. Discuss with the people that are selling their merchandise about how best to prepare dishes using their products. Take in the atmosphere of the market. How differently the sellers show their wares as opposed to your local grocery store.
No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind, especially if he can dip into thoughts there which put him at immediate and complete ease: and by ease I simply mean a well-ordered life. So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.
Marcus Aurelius
As the quote above from Marcus Aurelius mentions, the best retreat would be in our own minds. This is where you don’t travel anywhere physically. However, relaxation would be acquired through a well ordered life. We need these retreats to take us to another place, if only for a fleeting second. These moments are enough to invigorate your mind.
You can take numerous vacations a year and I would actually recommend at least three to five a month minimum. Vacations can relieve stress and possibly lead to extreme amounts of fun. In addition, these types of vacations are by far cheaper than flying off to an island that has hotel rooms that hover above the ocean. Remember that you are just here to have fun, not to bemoan that you are missing out on “more” fun by not having a private butler serving you fruity drinks poolside. I know that you think this is what a vacation should be. Most importantly, in the end a vacation is just having fun with people you love in locations that will bring you happiness and/or fond memories that you can relay to people in the future.
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Fantastic post! Some great advice. Namaste. ✌
Thank you for the comments! We always need to ground ourselves with what is important in our lives.
Great article! Well written and an interesting read. I like those quotes you use. Especially the Seneca one. To me that always meant that many people travel to escape, but that if you dont sit with yourself and solve your own issues, than no matter how far you go, they will be there waiting for you. I liked your take on it as well and it made me think about it a bit deeper. Excellent stuff.
I agree you have to enjoy the moment.