The 3 Best Ways to Transform Your Holiday Vacation into a Holiday Escape

Whether you’re feeling the stress of the impending holiday madness or already are feeling the effects of shorter days and colder weather, you should consider turning your holiday vacation into a holiday escape. From taking a solo trip, to visiting relatives, to stealing away with your partner, there are several ways you can ensure your holidays are more relaxing and stress-free this year.

1. Prioritize Your Time

Chances are, you have a few days off for the holidays. While you want to spend time with friends and family, you also want to spend time unwinding away from the rat race of the holidays. The solution is to prioritize your time. Carve out a few days for the most important family and friend activities you want to participate in, but reserve the bulk of your time for a holiday escape. Regardless of whether your escape is to a hotel instead of your old bedroom when visiting relatives for the holiday or an amazing rental on the beach, make sure that you make time for you during your holiday vacation.

In fact, having time alone during your holiday vacation may just deliver the escape you need if you cannot work traveling into your vacation time. Allowing yourself to slow down and take a break from work, family, and chores gives you the opportunity to experience inner growth and renewal. You’ll be more creative, gain more insight through reflection, and improve your mental health when you take time to yourself to rest, read, or do any other activity that brings you joy.

2. Head to the Beach to Relieve Stress

It’s especially important for you to plan a holiday escape if you live with seasonal affective disorder. A specific type of depression occurring at the same time every year, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) normally affects people during the winter months. Symptoms of SAD include changes in your mood, appetite, sleep patterns, and energy levels. Your relationships, social life, career, and sense of self-worth take a hit when you live with SAD. Unfortunately, SAD can lead to addiction because people tend to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol to relieve their symptoms.

A healthy alternative to relieving your symptoms is making a holiday escape to a sunny, warm destination. The Alabama beaches, Panama City Beach, Florida, and Destin, Florida, are ideal locations for a holiday escape because they offer ample opportunities to relax in the sun on the beach or outside on a nature trail.

The physical and mental health benefits of traveling to the beach are hard to ignore: beach vacations relieve stress because the sun and waves relax you, release your tension, and free you from stress. The sun delivers much-needed vitamin D to improve your mood and combat seasonal affective disorder, and the sounds and sights of the beach and ocean are calming.

3. Take a Real Break from Work

Your holiday vacation cannot become a holiday escape if you spend time working. You must give yourself permission to shut down during your vacation, including ignoring your email and refusing to open any apps relating to work. To maximize your vacation time and transform it into a relaxing, stress-free holiday no matter your destination, give yourself a reprieve from your phone and email. Set a goal to not use your phone or other electronics at least six hours a day during your vacation.

Taking a real holiday from work is the best way to minimize stress and avoid burnout. You’ll also be more productive when you return to work, according to a study that shows you become less productive without adequate breaks.  In fact, vacations improve your energy and mood upon returning to work when you plan at least a month in advance and get away from work. Even though it may be hard to take a holiday from work, it’s better for your mental health and career when you do.

You have the power to turn your holiday vacation into a relaxing, stress-free escape if you prioritize your time, head to the beach, and take a real break from work. Make it easier on yourself by planning your vacation ahead of time and striking a balance between yourself and your friends and family this holiday season.

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