Vacation, planned or planned? Although the question seems somewhat absurd, it must be qualified because how we make the plan may depend on whether we achieve the purpose of the holidays or whether we achieve that these are a disaster that accompanies us the rest of the year.
The difference between the two words is that “planning” a vacation involves making a wish list of what you would like to do, where to go or what to see. Desires are the first step in carrying out an activity. But we must separate the wishes that are viable from those that are pure fantasy.
On the other hand, vacation planning involves making a “roadmap”: what is going to be done, when it is going to be done, how it is going to be done, and so on.
Planning is just as important as planning, and the crux of the matter will lie in planning. Planning, as we said, is making a wish list. Planning can increase the success in satisfying those desires, but be careful: what we have to plan are the activities that we are going to do on vacation, not every vacation.
This planning must be done based on those wishes that we know are viable and we must see how, when and in what way we are going to be able to carry them out. However, both the excess of plans and the excessive rigor in carrying them out can make us fall back into that stressful situation from which we need to flee through the holidays.
The perfect vacation, or ideal, does not exist. And the problem that can lead to the failure of a vacation is the idealization and over-dimensionalization of it.
In order not to fall into these errors, we must take into account several aspects:
- The main objective is rest , especially at the beginning, since we start the holidays totally stressed from the maelstrom of the work year and the body and mind must readjust to this new vital rhythm. In this initial phase, a progressive inclusion should be made to what was desired to be done in this period.
- Open up to new experiences . The human mind needs variety because otherwise the mind becomes bored and its level of pleasant activity drops considerably. We must do new, different, stimulating things.
- It is essential to plan the things that we really want . Holidays are for fun.
Jorge Juan Collantes Núñez, member of Saluspot and clinical and forensic psychologist at the Discernment Clinic. Edited by Victoria González
