Is it possible to bring the feelings from vacation into your other ‘every day’ life?

Where I am in my life, vacations represent rest. And calm. And ease. And unstructured, unplanned, unscheduled days, blending into more similar days.
There is no alarm, no choreography of lunch-making, outfit -picking-out the night before, of hurriedly shovelling in toast, of shuffling to a make an already late drop-off, to elbowing through a commute… All before 9am…
There’s a wake-up to the body’s alarm, there’s a lazy sipping of too many cups of coffee, to turning off the surveying, the thinking ahead, the planning… And just letting the days happen.
There was a time when vacations represented an opportunity to fill my creative buckets, to be inspired by new senses, taking in new foods, and smells, and sights until I’d collapse in a happy exhaustion at the end of each holiday day, the exciting experiences of the day replaying in my mind as I drifted off.
Maybe it’s living in New York, maybe it’s having two young kids- maybe it’s a combination of both, but I’m at peace with my new ‘unplugged’ version of holidays.

So to carry any of that calm, that rest, that suntanned glow forward to ‘real-life’ … Is that even possible? Isn’t the point of a holiday to feel something so different from the rest of your days? That’s kinda sad from that lense. We slog along for 346 days, to then get 7 days in the sun, and then return to the grind and survive until the next 7 day rescue period…?
Nah.
Maybe there is a way that you can, without it feeling too calculated and too over-processed, to still reflect on what it is about a holiday that can make you feel so good, and weave elements of it even into the rest of your days…maybe it allows us to evaluate how busy and stressed and tired we are feeling and either take steps to cut some of that out of our lives, or find ways to embrace the positive elements that it brings…
Maybe there’s a way to talk to others in a more relaxed, less frantic, and less demanding manner. Maybe there’s a way to build little boosts of holiday highlights into our days, even if that’s as small as stepping away from the busy to feel some sun on our skin for 5 quiet minutes.
Maybe.

I’m taking 5 extra minutes this morning to get a treat coffee as a mini spring break…;)