Why are we already thinking about the next vacation, having just returned?

Looking through your photos on your smartphone on the way back from vacation, you have only one thing on your mind: to get back. When you’re a parent, you quickly count down the days until the All Saints school holidays. An urgent need to breathe, clear your mind, regain your strength or revise your daily routine… How to explain this desire to go back to idleness so quickly? Clarifications with psychologist and coach Boris Charpentier and clinical psychologist and author Marie-Estelle Dupont (1).

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Post-holiday blues

At the beginning of the academic year, we can say goodbye to beach volleyball games, water fights and marshmallow evenings. Brackets are over and “the post-holiday blues are in,” according to psychologist and coach Boris Charpentier. “During the summer period, you feel like you’re in a bubble where the unusual and unexpected experiences you get give you a sense of superiority and alignment with yourself,” develops the specialist. Back to reality, the idea of ​​being just one among many brings little, if any, satisfaction with its share of imperatives. “In the face of this recovery, we will produce the stress hormone cortisol,” says clinical psychologist Marie-Estelle Dupont.

Plan to escape

Baggage barely put down, we soon review new travel offers on the web, train tickets and possible summer camps for children. The psychologist considers planning the next vacation an important step. “This is a healthy defense mechanism to tolerate micro-disappointments. In fact, on an emotional level, we perceive the future more calmly, freed from routines, functions and limitations,” explains Boris Charpentier. “The preparations are as much fun as the event itself, because we have time to dream of future special moments to share with loved ones,” adds Marie-Estelle Dupont.

Cope with the everyday

Not everyone is lucky enough to get away in the sun so quickly. If necessary, experts give advice on healthy living during this period. First, it makes no sense to delay the deadline by coming back at the last minute. “Cutting your vacation by two days allows you to anticipate tasks and thus fight stress better,” the specialist notes. Then you have to evaluate yourself, because, as Boris Charpentier points out, “everyone has their own tolerance threshold and is able to discover their own limits.” For example, we may ask ourselves why we are worried or at the end of our rope as soon as the work starts.

Finally, after reflection, action. It’s good to think about what we can install right now. First, by reorienting ourselves to values ​​that are meaningful to us, such as charity or mutual aid, and then giving ourselves small moments to share with family. In short, as coach Boris Charpentier says, “by reversing the trend, we regain control more easily.”

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(1) Get rid of your toxic selfMarie-Estelle Dupont, published August 2017 by Larousse Editions, 224 pages, €15.95.