Do people vacation primarily for excitement or relaxation?

Relax

1 of 23

by Shammah

• 

Write now Print Invite a writer™ Add to Favorites RSS Feed Contact this writer

Vacation is just that - I seek to "vacate" my day-to-day hectic lifestyle! I have absolutely no problem vegetating on a beach for a week or even two, being mindless, numb and kissed by the sun; free floating in the salty sea and eating whatever and whenever! Vacations, for me, are a time of regrouping, regathering and rethinking my "normal" life; a time of replanning, making "new years' resolutions", yes even in the middle of the summer and prioritizing what is really important in life.

However, I am afraid that for me, within two weeks of my return to the "real world" I find myself once again caught up in the vicious circle of unimportant things, allowing the pressures of the work life to gather and settle in me, darkening my mind and somehow washing away all those positive thoughts that danced in my head as I lay melting in the sun of some Caribbean Island!

Vacations are also an opportunity for me to see how the rest of the world lives. Being North American born and bred, I've lived a somewhat privileged life and am part of a society, that as a whole, really doesn't know what it means to suffer, to struggle day in and day out just to feed a family, keep a roof over your head. I travel to places that are remote and distinctly different to my normal environment. Certainly, I will stay at the resort where my every need is pampered and other people are waiting on me, cooking my meals and doing my dishes; even making my bed! But, when I am somewhere for anything over a week, I break up the time with day trips to the local sites, off the resort areas. I find an open air cafe and sit and sip on a coffee or some exotic drink and try to look open and available for conversation. Invariably I will be given the blessed opportunity to sit and chat with the locals for hours on end, to hear about their lives, their dreams and their hopes. I've even been invited to their homes to share a meal, to celebrate in the birthday of a child or grandchild. What an amazing privilege.

So you ask, what's so relaxing about this? Quite often when you hear their stories, you gasp in awe with the challenges of simply living that they are faced with, the struggles just to survive. My response is that this causes me to relax in that I look at my puny little challenges and complaints that cause me to "get my knickers in a knot" and am absolutely embarrassed and ashamed at my whiny and complaining attitude! I think to myself, "My G-d, if so and so looking at me the wrong way or saying something I didn't appreciate, gets me so uptight, hell I'd never survive this lifestyle." It causes me to let go and I can literally feel some of the tension ebbing out of the muscles of my body as my body relaxes. But even more so, my mind somehow is healed. I know, it is a terrible thing that the cause of someone else's grief or distress is a source of strength and healing to me, but I am being honest. Sharing with peoples from different cultures, well, it always has the effect of causing me to see just how blessed my life has been and is, and how "ungrateful" I've become over time!

More so than simply lying around on the beach for a week, I've found that the best medicine I've received, that has caused me to unwind, relax and bloody let go of my puny inconveniences in life, has been to get out into the communities, off of the resort, and share just a tiny bit of the lifestyles and cultures of other countries. I return home totally relaxed, with new resolve not to allow the unimportant things to get me uptight; but, like I said, within a matter of weeks I become almost as uptight as before I left.

I need the constant healing and relaxation of vacations out of my own country which includes getting to know the locals and learning about them!

Learn more about this author, Shammah.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.