Travel used to be about discovering new and exciting places. It used to be about discovering new people to talk to, new foods that send you screaming to the bathroom, and new stories that regale your friends. Now, it's more about discovering yourself.
HAVE YOUR MEMORIES FOR A LIFETIME
After every vacation it's great to have pictures and small souvenirs that bring back memories of your vacation. One fabulous way to create these memories is by making a scrapbook on your family vacation. You'll eliminate "Honey, where were we again when this was taken?", it also gives your children (toddlers and up) something to do on a rainy day.
To start out with, get your children in the habit of saving one thing from each place you visit. It can be anything from a napkin to a restaurant, postcard from a national park, or your children's drawings of the theme park you all just visited.
Another great hint is; bring along a disposable camera for your children. It's a great inexpensive way to allow your children to feel included, at the same time getting their point of view about the trip.
Here are a few suggestions that can help make the craft session run smoothly:
- Let each child have their own page to work on
- Let them be as creative as they want
- Keep all the materials in the same area so it is easier to keep track of
- Have your kids SHARE all the materials
- Try to avoid one child monopolizing the red marker too long
Once the film has been developed, the child who took the picture should have the option to use it first. This means that each child should have the same amount of time with the camera. Or you can buy each child its own special camera. Enjoy your new scrapbook! The memories will last a lifetime.
TAKE MORE VACATIONS
This may sound like strange advice, especially when we are talking about how badly returning from a vacation can throw you off the track. But have you ever stopped to think about why vacations are such a shock to the system? Because is something really wrong with that! We must have breaks in our lives we need times when we walk away from the daily grind, spend some time re-energizing, and come back more refreshed than before.
But when you wait until you have hit a wall to take that break, it almost does more harm than good. Going from one extreme (total immersion in work and stress and activity) to another (complete isolation from every aspect of real life) isn't relaxing. In fact, it can cause whiplash, if you aren't careful.
A way to reverse this trend is to make vacations more a part of daily life instead of an ESCAPE from daily life. Plan small weekend getaways or day trips at least once a month. Instead of using all of your vacation on one killer trip, spread it over several smaller excursions spaced evenly throughout the year.
Teach your body that vacation is just another part of your regular routine, and it won't react like a white cell attacking a foreign invader when you do allow yourself to take a break.
HAVE A PLAN
If you are planning to leave for your trip on Friday, plan to take Thursday afternoon off to tie up any loose ends before you head out. Make your phone calls, pay your bills, straighten up the house, clean out the refrigerator, do the dishes, and pick up any last-minute travel supplies you might have forgotten.
It's definitely much easier to get back into your normal routine if you have a roadmap to follow, and it's best if you start laying out your route before you leave town.
GIVE YOURSELF SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO
Sometimes, the idea of coming back to the same old grind, stuck in the same old routine, doing the same old stuff that you were doing before you left is just more than you can bear. Monotony is enough to kill anyone's motivation, so why not plan something special for your return?
Plan a fun event to celebrate your return; dinner with friends, a trip to the zoo, a day at a spa. Just that tiny bit of self-care can make all the difference between ending your trip on an upbeat note, or suffering from that "Post-Travel Depression" - another pervasive but little-recognized syndrome!
-----------------
Daniel Clarke is the webmaster of TorontoBizGuide.ca He likes to share thoughts and experiences about Travel as a form of escaping routine. My travel page is: http://www.torontobizguide.ca/travel
Subscribe for your FREE Newsletter: http://www.torontobizguide.ca
|
What is hot:
