On Vacation

It’s right up there with Self Care, isn’t it?  But bigger, broader and fuller than merely taking care of oneself.  A vacation is where you get to be free from work, obligations, have to’s and should’s.   Where you can empty out and take in all at once, free from the daily details that consume.  Where you can be mindless and unfocused, yet allow for more mindfulness and a sharper focus than you might routinely have.

Interesting that often the destination or the doing becomes the measure of how successful a vacation is.  Yet, despite the careful deliberation of what to pack and what to leave, we always bring ourselves along.  Leave the bills, the assignments, the arrangements, the chores, the deadlines and schedules, but we take what’s inside.  Whatever the wanting is that prompts us to take the vacation in the first place sets an intention for that period, and that, more than anything else, determines how good, how restful, how rejuvenating the vacation turns out to be.  The intention answers the question, even before we leave, whether we will come back a clearer version of who we were when we left.

Does “vacation” also mean allowing indulgence?  Does it mean letting go what normally seems to serve us and being free to do whatever?  What do you give up to be on vacation?  Do you continue your yoga practice or meditation or is that part of the schedule that is set aside?

I suspect that, discounting guilt for stepping outside the bounds, vacations are meant to assist us in integrating what’s been happening to us in our lives up to that point.  Vacations create space for being with ourselves in a different way and open the door to the process of living that swirls around us on a daily basis.  They enable us to take a moment, another kind of moment, and appreciate it in a way that is unclouded by what is generally required of us.

So, showing up for “vacation” with an intention of clarity and openness, means that there may be room in the suitcase to bring back a new perspective, a change of heart, a clearer vision, a renewed commitment or, perhaps, just you being you in a simpler way…

2 Comments

Filed under Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga

2 Responses to On Vacation

  1. Thinking of a vacation in this way makes all the sense in the world to me. The most expensive vacation can seem so empty and unrewarding without conscious intention. Thanks for the timely reminder!

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