Post Holiday Stress - Managing the Return to Normality
Imagine the following scene. The date is January 4th (or 9th, or
16th, or whenever you go back to work after your holiday). The
place is the water cooler, or wherever conversations tend to
happen at your workplace. You ask a colleague how their holiday
was. How likely are they to say something like, 'Yeah, great...
now I just need a holiday to recover from it.' Or perhaps
they've returned to work with horror stories of family
flare-ups, financial worries after over-spending, or all-out
depression at having to coming back to work. Perhaps you find
yourself answering the same way?
If you do, you're not alone. In theory, the holiday season is a
chance to relax, recuperate and celebrate with the people you
love. In practice, holidays can be immensely stressful - and
even if they're not, getting back to 'real life' post-holiday
can really turn on the tension. So what can we do to get back to
normality as painlessly as possible?
EASE BACK INTO ROUTINE
If you've been keeping to a completely different timetable
during the holiday season to the one you'd usually keep (for
example, late nights and even later rising), plan to ease
yourself back into your workday routines. Try setting the alarm
for the same time you'd need to get up if you were working for a
few days before you actually start back. Once your body has
re-established its routine, you'll probably find heading back to
work less stressful. If your eating or exercising changed over
the holiday period, try gradually easing them back to normal as
well.
REVIEW THE HAPPENINGS OVER THE HOLIDAY
If your holiday period wasn't everything you'd hoped it would
be, take some time to get to grips with what happened. Perhaps
family tensions flared up, relationships ended, or the world of
work intruded into what was supposed to be a time of rest and
celebration.
Whatever the situation, what were your expectations or hopes
going in? How realistic were they? How much control did you
honestly have over what did or didn't happen? Try to be as
objective as possible about what happened and the likely
consequences going forward. It may help to spend some time
journaling this, or talking it through with a trusted friend.
Many things that felt earth-shattering when they happened become
far less so once we separate out objective events from the
interpretations and meanings we give them.
GET MINDFUL ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS
In a perfect world, we'd be so passionate our jobs we'd actually
feel a tinge of regret as the holiday season approached and we
had to take a break from it. Sound too far-fetched to be real?
Actually, for those lucky people who've found a way to make a
living from their passion, that's exactly how reality is. Not
that that's the only right way to be - for others, a job is just
how they finance their real passion - whatever it might be.
But what if neither of these things describes you? What if you
don't *have* a passion - in or out of your job? What if you only
go to work because you have to pay the bills somehow? What if
you actively hate your job? In either case, however long your
holidays last, it won't be long enough, and you'll find yourself
dreading the return to reality.
If that sounds familiar, you may be getting a wake-up call from
your subconscious. Ask yourself whether you're truly happy with
how your life is at the moment. It's all very well enjoying your
two or three weeks vacation each year, but what about the other
49 or 50? What would need to change in your life - your everyday
life - for you to start enjoying that too? This may not be a
question with easy answers, but by asking yourself it (and
committing to acting on the answers), it can make a huge
difference in the quality of your life.
Ideally, however you spent your holiday, it will have been time
you enjoyed, rather than endured. Good or bad, however, it's now
in the past; and focusing on the present and short-term future
will do a great deal to alleviate any post-holiday stress you
may be feeling.