Taking mini-vacations

I came across the concept of taking mini-vacations in Yvonne Dolan’s book Beyond Survival: Living Well is the Best Revenge (BT Press, Great Britain, 2000) and I loved the idea. When I was working full-time I often longed for times when I could take extended leave and travel, but this did not help me to get through challenging days or to make the best use of shorter breaks.

Yvonne describes mini-vacations as being about taking a few hours off from day-to-day occupations. She says that if we are feeling exhausted (which can be disguised as feeling lazy or depressed) we may need to take time off to do things we really enjoy doing, or just relax. However, if we have spent a lot of unstructured time, then we may need to use activity to self-renew.

Tuning into our needs

Most of us probably need a balance of rest, quiet and relaxation and being more active and/ or leaving for a few hours (or a day), but a full or part day out may allow for both. We need to tune into our needs at the time and allow for flexibility in our plans in case other demands arise.

 Relaxing/ doing things we enjoy

Here are some suggestions of ways to have this type of mini-vacation (maybe with the phone off the hook):

• Curling up with a movie/ watching TV and doing nothing
• Making a cuppa and sitting with a book or magazine
• Doing something to pamper ourselves
• Listening to a favourite music CD
• Finding a tranquil spot outside to sit
• Sitting and watching water
• Going fishing
• Doing relaxing crafts or hobbies

Being more active

And here are some ideas about how we might engage in this type of mini-vacation:

• Going for a drive to a place we love, whilst enjoying the scenery along the way
• Visiting friends
• Browsing through books at the local Library
• Going to new places to explore
• Bike-riding or bush-walking
• Cooking new recipes
• Window shopping or browsing in shops we love
• Going to the cinema or a concert (or a gallery of festival)
• Having a picnic, visiting a coffee shop or going out for a meal
• Gardening and/or engaging in more active crafts and hobbies

Doing the things we would usually do on vacations

If we reflect on the things we look forward to doing on vacations, this will give us appropriate ideas of what fits best for us on mini-vacations. We may need to do some of these things in different forms (e.g. if we love walking along beaches and live inland, we may need to consider the essence of the experience and try to replicate it walking elsewhere, for instance by a lake or river).

We can also re-live past vacations by looking at photos or re-reading travel diaries. I find that typing up hand written travel diaries at a later date helps me to re-live the experiences. I am still typing up our visit to the South Coast of NSW in February this year, but am finding that I need detective skills to discover where some of my photos were taken!

I have found that whatever I choose to do, being in the mindset of taking a mini-vacation helps me to relax and enjoy it more. I have also found that it is a useful concept to share with both clients and fellow workers.

I would love to hear about your ideas on how you would choose to spend mini-vacations.