What I didn't do on holiday

And mostly didn't miss

I've been on my holidays - I went to Tenerife and had a lovely time.

I've been back nearly a week and spent my time trying to reacclimatise to the cold.

Brr.

You do things differently on holiday don't you - it's more relaxed, you go with the flow more, you drop a lot of the unhelpful things you do at home.

I wanted to reflect on the things I didn't do on holiday:

Social media - I don't think I opened any social media (except Substack which is different) while I was away.

I didn’t miss it.

I had a bit of a zombie scroll the other day and thought 'why am I doing this?'.

Post holiday plan: cut my social media time.

I like catching up on what friends are up to, but that's no longer the experience on most socials.

TV - I didn't watch any tv at all while I was away.

I didnt miss it.

I read a LOT of books instead.

Post holiday plan: don't automatically put the telly on.

Playing games on my phone - ok, I did this a bit but not as much as normal.

I didn’t miss it that much.

Post holiday plan: don't automatically reach for Fishdom or Farm Heroes, do something else instead.

Morning pages (which I normally do in the evening) - I wrote a few notes and thoughts on a couple of days, but largely, didn’t miss it that much.

I guess there was no stress to process, no thoughts to untangle, no complications to unravel.

Post holiday plan: I know this process is good for my mental health, so I probably won’t ditch it entirely, but I’m not going to worry about doing it daily.

Yoga and Qigong - I had no yoga mat, it was hot...excuses, excuses!

I missed my regular yoga and qigong practice - I could feel the difference in my neck, back, shoulders, hips.

Post holiday plan: get back into the habit of daily(ish) yoga or qigong.

Those are the things I didn't do, but here's what I did do:

Watched the sunset every day (even on the day when it was cloudy I went to look, just in case there was a gap in the clouds).

Walked every day (the best spot for sunset walking was a 10-15 minute walk away).

Put my feet in the sea (and had a swim...but the Atlantic is cold!).

Sat. Just sat, watching the world go by.

Nothing. Lots of it.

Post holiday plan: Do more of all of these.

Ok, it's hard to put my feet in the sea here in the centre of England, but I could do more sunset watching, walking, sitting, and nothing!

It's so interesting to notice what you do and don't do away from your natural habitat.

It's easy to get stuck in ruts in our day to day life, to sink into bad habits (especially in winter here in the Northern hemisphere).

Do you remember what you did and didn't do on your last break?

Can you bring some of that holiday feel into your real life?

(Even by looking at photos of your break to bring back some of that good feeling.)