Have you had your vacation yet? If not, good. If you have, then not so good. Hmmm…I’ve been thinking about this for awhile because I’m mourning the passage of my vacation a few weeks back and dreaming about taking another one. Well, at least a long weekend - that would help my post vacation blues.

As I think back to pre-vacation, I remember the anticipation and feeling great about the prospect of a week away in Maine and then a week at home to catch up on projects around the house that never seem to get done on the weekend. Two whole weeks away from work…ahh I couldn’t wait. And in fact, it was a great vacation. The weather in Maine was fantastic, sunny, warm and clear the whole week, which is actually pretty amazing considering you usually get drizzly, cool and foggy. Then a long week at home tackling things like leaky toilets and overgrown gardens. It was actually quite relaxing because of the pace I set and I could do what I wanted when I wanted. I slept well, ate some scrumptious meals, rode my bike, read some, found some great live music and enjoyed the company of family and good friends. So I felt a sense of accomplishment on the chore side of things, but interspersed with fun stuff throughout the week.

I came back to work smiling, refreshed and ready to dive back in. Sure, I hit a few spots where I felt trapped in my office and mired in my email inbox and wished I was back on the beach or even fixing a toilet. A co-worker even told me I seemed unfocused. I’ll take that as a compliment. I did seem to feel an afterglow…for a while anyway. And before you know it you’re back into the swing of things, all focused again checking tasks off the to-do list and rapidly dispatching emails like a teenager playing video games.

Not all vacations have been like this. And coming back to work can be a dreaded experience and within hours of returning you can barely remember having been on vacation at all! This one was different and it got me to thinking about vacations and what they mean to us. How come the planning and anticipation was as fun as the actual time off? And why do I come back refreshed from some vacations and not others?

Turns out that researchers from the Netherlands studied the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts.

Next week I’ll report on the findings.

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George "Bud" Wassell, M.S., LPC, CEAP
Director, Solutions EAP
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