On my most recent holiday, aboard the Vision of the Seas, the cruise director gave a little speech at the end of the show on the night before we arrived at our final port.
She said, essentially, that a vacation isn’t truly over even when it ends.
She spoke about the “bragging rights” that somebody can claim after a great vacation. That is, essentially, the thrill of telling friends and colleagues all about it, and showing them your holiday snaps (as if they haven’t already seen them on social media).
Now that might sound a bit touchy-feely, but we should recognise that post-vacation blues is a real thing and that we need strategies to cope with it.
No finer authority than Wikipedia states: “A person may suffer from post vacation blues after returning home or to a normal routine from a long vacation, especially if it was a pleasurable one. The longer a trip lasts, the more intense the post vacation blues may be. This is because after the person returns home, they realize how boring and unsatisfactory their normal lifestyle routine is when compared to the activities he or she did while on their holiday/vacation.”
Now, I am not a professional and I always recommend that people with real problems go to an expert. But if you are feeling just a bit down after your holiday, I can suggest a solution that works for me: start planning the next one.
