Vacation is one of those things. One looks forward to it for months, saves money, sifts through offers, brings diverging views within the family to the design of the most beautiful time of the year to a common denominator. Sea or mountains? Hotel or camping? South or north?
If this is done without major disruptions, you book, pay, and, if no virus and no fire intervenes, you actually go there. Stroll along the Adriatic Sea, bathe in the Atlantic, hike across the Alpe di Siusi or eat five courses every day in San Sebastian. After two weeks it goes back again, mostly not voluntarily, but with the hope that you can carry the relaxation, the lightheartedness and good mood with you for a few more weeks like a magic backpack that makes you lighter and not heavier.
And this is exactly where the dog is buried. Because it’s always the same: After three days in everyday life or at work, you ask yourself: Was there something? It seems like a long time ago that you were on vacation, as if you had been there last year or before the last war. Science is still in its infancy about why this is so: space through time times psychology – this formula has not yet been found.
A survey by the health insurance company DAK has shown that this is the case, and sometimes even worse: According to their “Holiday Report 2021”, one in five Germans has so far not recovered well or not at all this summer. The proportion of vacationers who could not recover during the vacation is therefore at a “consistently high level”, writes the DAK. Women in particular complained that they could “not relax at all” while on vacation. There were far fewer of the men. The majority of those who refused to relax gave the reason that they had not managed to distance themselves from everyday life. Failed travel plans and bad weather were also mentioned a lot.
Now, of course, you can ask yourself: Why are we doing all this to ourselves? After all, such a vacation is also associated with stress and exertion, see above. But the question falls short. Because what would the alternative be? For fear of not recovering from everyday life, would you prefer to stay with everyday life and certainly not relax? The French have a nice saying: “La peur n’empêche pas de mourir, mais elle empêche de vivre.” – Fear does not prevent death, it prevents life. That may sound a bit pathetic now, in reference to the holiday, but it is true nonetheless. And to be completely honest, ladies and other non-relaxers: There was one or the other nice moment on vacation after all !? So let’s keep it with Horace: “Carpe diem – enjoy the day and trust as little as possible in the next!”