Are you more stressed on vacation than you are at work?

Summer means vacation, vacation means relaxation … or so we think every year, busy with a thousand daily commitments and convinced that yes, this year will be different, and we will really relax on holidays!

If it has happened to you at least once in your life to arrive at the end of the summer holidays thinking “thank goodness I’ll go home tomorrow”, you could be the victim of a well-known psychological phenomenon, and not at all strange: vacation stress.

There are many reasons why the time of year when we allow ourselves more freedom can turn into a nightmare: one of them, the anxiety of doing all the things we love and have always put off! Here are some tips for treating yourself to a stress-free holiday.

Prevention is better than cure – A good part of the anxieties that arise on vacation can be prevented before departure: from searching for information on the place you will visit to the trivial check of all the reservations you have made (or that you have postponed while waiting for a last-minute offer). A holiday in the Amazon will need different actions than a sailing holiday on the Amalfi Coast, but they all have in common the need to check the documents and the planned activities before setting off.

Follow your instinct – Be honest with yourself and choose a holiday geared towards your well-being, welcoming the signals your body and mind send you. If your profession requires a lot of physical effort, for example, make sure you plan for truly relaxing activities for your holidays, actively planning moments dedicated to you. If you carry out a job that chains you to your desk every day of the year, try to include activities in your vacation that get you moving!

Accept the inevitable … and find an alternative – The crowds at the beach, the queue of cars on the Sorrento Coast, the time spent in the car waiting for a parking space near the beach where you took the family to become available: all these things are not really unexpected events, but systematic problems of some types of holidays. Whether you decide to tackle them anyway or you choose a sailing holiday to save yourself, being aware of the problems related to the type of holiday you choose is the first step to living them more peacefully!

Learn to say no – The coffee with the friend we haven’t seen for a long time, the book left on the bedside table for months, the partner we neglected for work and that new place we have wanted to see for a while: holidays become the container of all that we have postponed during the year, and no planning can spare you from telling “no” to someone or something. Holidays must have nothing in common with performance. This is perhaps the most difficult aspect to manage, but it is also the one that will contribute most of all to giving you back your relaxation time next summer.

If you have made it this far and you think that for one reason or another you will not be able to follow these 4 tips for a stress-free vacation, the solution could be to choose a “carefree” boat experience, designed by professionals and focused on your well-being. There are many opportunities to deeply enjoy your holidays: the important thing is to remember that that time should be dedicated above all to you!