Summer is calling! How you can make holidays truly restful

For many of us, the summer holidays are the best time of year. We have put together several tips in this article on how to achieve real relaxation – regardless of whether you want to take some time for yourself or experience as many new things as possible.

Rest must be measured differently to everyday life

In our everyday life, we have trained ourselves to use our time as efficiently as possible. We stand at the supermarket checkout and use every minute to check our emails or to quickly text someone. Constant availability has been normalised. And whether we notice it or not: this way of being creates a permanent state of underlying stress. We are completely unaware that this was not always the case. But we are in fact the first generation of people for whom it has been like this. People who suffer from headaches can attest that stress is a breeding ground and trigger for migraine attacks as well as tension headaches. This is why it is particularly important to counteract this while on holiday.

Meaningful time management is important

One recommendation is not to begin a planned trip on your very first day off. It can be a good idea to plan (at least) one day as a “buffer” before heading off on your travels. What you do on this day is up to each person to decide for themselves. Maybe you would like to finish up some small everyday tasks, so that you don’t have to worry about them anymore, go through your travel gear, or simply have a breather. The key thing is that your time off can start without stress. This way, you will already be feeling relaxed and looking forward to the holiday before it even begins.

Creating contrast to your everyday life

For many people, it is helpful to create a genuine contrast to everyday stress while on holiday – whether travelling or at home. People who spend a lot of time at their desk while studying might find for example that activities in the fresh air or in nature are a nice way of balancing this out. Day trips, going climbing or hiking, a day spent cycling, all of this can be done on your doorstep as well as on holiday. People who spend a lot of time with others in their everyday life might be craving peace and quiet and can make sure they don’t have too much hustle and bustle around them. As a rule, you should always ask: “What do I want to do today, what would do me good?”. The fact that you are even able to consider this question with no pressure is great for preventing stress.

Your mind also needs a break sometimes

Even when on holiday, we do not leave our defining characteristics at home. Particularly people who are very responsible often find it difficult to set aside everyday tasks and projects for a while. But even little things from university which we mentally take with us on our travels can “mess up the trip”. It is always advisable to take care of anything that can be finished before the holiday begins, or at least identify a step which you can mentally tick off as “complete”, as a kind of self-preservation, so that you can actually let go of the ongoing project.

Why not forget about time for a while?

It can be a good idea to consciously give up knowing the exact time while on holiday. Many people decide to remove their watch on the first day of the holidays and to put their phone away. They report that the pace of the day slows down massively. If we also limit the number of appointments that we plan, days feel significantly longer. Try it for yourself. Your mind is happiest when it’s off the clock.

Digital moderation

Presumably, most of us will take our smartphone or maybe a laptop with us when we travel. This is not necessarily a problem. However, you should try not to have your devices permanently switched on, like in everyday life, or to follow the same routines as usual. If you only switch the devices on when necessary – for example, to find an address – you will be surprised after a few days how few of your “missed” notifications would actually have been of interest to you.

Practise patience

It is entirely possible that the holiday feeling will not set in right at the beginning. A little bit of patience is helpful here for leaving stress behind. If the holidays are filled with lots of expectations, then you are preprogrammed for disappointment. Therefore, you should not judge a day based on what you experienced, but based on how you were feeling. A holiday is not something you complete like you would a university project. It just happens, so you also have to leave room for chance. If we allow ourselves to “waste” time and to deliberately miss out on some opportunities, we are giving in to a spontaneous idea. We then have a better chance of relaxing, having creative ideas, and recharging.

A break from headache

If you relax on your holidays, you will be delighted to discover how restful it can be when all the tasks which normally feel incredibly urgent and like they need to be done straight away can fade into the background. And if everyday stress is far away, there is a good chance that recurring headaches can also be out of sight and out of mind. However, for people who typically suffer from recurring tension headaches or migraine, it is still important to follow the basic rules of headache prevention while on holiday in order to have as few symptoms as possible. Regular meals, drinking enough water – especially in hot climates or during physical exertion – and regular, restful sleep are still possible (and necessary) when you let yourself drift calmly through the day. In this way, summer can bring two types of rest: from everyday life, and from headaches.