It’s time to go on holiday – but how to unwind, switch off, and relax? These are our top tips to make any holiday a dreamy time away.
Summer holidays are a sacred and incredibly important time. They give you the chance to recharge your sometimes burnt out batteries. They can be a time to reconnect with your family and friends without the stresses of everyday life, or maybe a chance to go solo and reconnect with yourself, maybe even time to create your own yoga holiday.
Having said that, planning a holiday, taking a long journey, and the pressure on ‘having a good time’, can easily turn into yet more exhausting tasks. It is also true that there is no magic switch that means you can miraculously change gear into relax and unwind mode.
Here are our top tips on how to unwind and relax while you are away on holiday, so you can make sure you return home feeling refreshed and rejuvenated:
1. Create your own yoga holiday
Love your routine of starting the day with yoga? Is a whole week yoga retreat not quite what you are looking for but can’t imagine a week without yoga? Take your favourite teachers with you and create your own yoga holiday.
Having a daily practice can be grounding wherever you are, and can be especially appreciated amongst the stresses of planning, packing, and traveling for the holiday. With the MFML app you can download your classes and take them with you. Having the classes downloaded on your device means you don’t have to be ‘online’, you can still attempt a holiday digital detox and reduce the stimulation of everyday life. You can switch off, be in the moment, but still have access to yoga, meditations, and other resources you love.
We recommend trying the The Ultimate Travel Unwind Course – A useful tool you can use on holiday to help you stay cool, calm and relaxed.
You can also curate your own yoga retreat, start the day with a meditation and a morning vinyasa flow, and end the day with restorative or some gentle yin practices.
2. Treat yourself
Life is busy and there are often a thousand things we are juggling in our minds throughout the day. On your holiday take the time to treat yourself and plan in some self-care time.
Book in spa treatments, take a long bath, siesta in the afternoons, do a nice long Yoga Nidra or Sound Healing session you don’t usually have time for.
3. The art of doing… nothing
Slow down and take it easy. Sounds simple right? But it can be very tempting to fill your days on holiday, the same way our days are bursting the rest of the time. We suggest you leave space in your day for just doing nothing. Allow yourself to REALLY unwind and slow down.
Try not to fill your holiday schedule. This way your break can actually be restorative and fill you up with more energy to take home.
Sometimes in the moments where you have no plans the most magic can happen!
4. Read a book
Is there a book that’s been gathering dust sitting on your bedside table? Or one you have been carrying around in your bag with the good intentions to read on your commute? Ever find when you sit down to read you’re just too tired to focus?
Enjoy the feeling of being on holiday and having less demands on you. It’s likely there’s more space to focus on reading. Pick up the book and enjoy reading, it is a real treat!
Research says that even just reading for 6 minutes can reduce stress levels by 68%!
Here are some summer book recommendations if you’re looking for inspiration.
5. Go for a walk and spend time in nature
Many of us spend a disproportionate amount of time in front of our computers, rather than outdoors in nature. Too much desk and computer time can have negative effects on our mind and bodies.
Nature can relieve stress, bring more clarity to your mind, improve creativity and even reduce the risk of sickness and poor health.
This holiday make time to reconnect with the great outdoors and the natural beauty all around. Go for a walk, maybe even barefoot, and receive nature with all your senses. Smell the trees, and breathe in salty sea air, bathe in the sun, swim in the sea, maybe even use the MFML app to download your favourite yoga or meditation and take them outside with you.
Take your holiday vibes home
Holidays are a great time to refill our cups and restore our energy levels. It can also be interesting to reflect on how to bring some of this self care and relaxation into your every day routine. How would it feel if you didn’t NEED to escape your life to get a break? How can you infuse your life with some of the holiday magic? What if your yoga holiday could be part of your daily life?
Some ways to prolong your holiday vibes are to make a commitment to switch off your screens for a few hours a day, try out a home retreat once a month with your favourite MFML teachers guiding you, commit to joining a live workshop, book in a regular massage session, and take time (really) offline. Take yourself out on an adventure in nature, once a week treat yourself to a Yoga Nidra before bed, carve out time to read, write and get creative!
We would love to hear the ways you relax and unwind on holiday, and if you’re taking your yoga with you? Let us know in the comments!
Try the Ultimate Travel Unwind Course – Download the classes on the MFML App and take your favourite yoga teachers on holiday with you.
Written by Joanna Gilbert – Joanna originally trained in Frog Lotus Vinyasa Flow with Vidya Heisel in 2015 and since then has been discovering new ways to connect to her body. Joanna is passionate about combining mindful-movement, with play, and self exploration.
When not playing she can be found working behind the scenes with MFML as the chief Happiness Maven!
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