We can't always take a vacation when we need it, but there are ways to get the same feeling a vacation brings. Here's are three tips for taking a mini-vacation right in your own home town.
#1 -Go Outside - most of us spend 80% or more of our day indoors. When we travel on vacation we usually spend up to 80% of our waking hours outdoors. Fresh air and open spaces can have an immediate calming effect on you. Reconnect with nature no matter what the temperature. Go to a park, take a walk, seek out some water or a mountain, a wide-open spaces view. When you expand your line of sight, you expand you vision, both literally and figuratively.
#2 - Try New Things - When you travel you are out of your element. The usual, routine and safe choices aren't there for you to fall back on. New places, restaurants, foods are exciting. you feel adventurous because, well, you are on an adventure. So right there in your hometown, go to a new restaurant, preferably with ethnic cuisine, and try something you have never had before. Pretend you are in New Zealand, or Paris or New York City. Drink in the new, slip a coaster or biz card into your bag for your journal. Try and pick out the other first-timers from the regulars. Take your time. Get dessert.
#3 - Detach from Technology - Chances are, when you are vacation you do not watch TV, surf the net, check your email or talk on you cellphone. If you're really relaxing, you don't even have to look at your watch. You do everything when you feel like it. So for your mini-vacation at home, do just that - abstain from all technology. Totally. For 24 hrs. And don't be a slave to the clock. Get up when you feel like it. Eat when you feel like it. Do whatever you feel like doing. (No computer humming.) Enjoy the silence. Listen for the small, still voice. Read, write, make art. It's a mental vacation.
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