7 great ways to help you unplug for the holidays

Your tropical holiday is booked, you’re ready to rock your new bikini and catch some vitamin D. Only problem: how to unwind when you normally don’t even find the time to eat a proper lunch during your day-to-day work? Going on holiday and leaving your working life behind, can make you anxious.

To feel relaxed and totally stress-free, it’s very necessary to power down and unplug during your vacation. Ahead, we wrote down a few tips to de-stress and unwind during your well-deserved tech-free time off(line). Goodbye to tangled iPhone chargers! Are you ready to have some fun in the sun?

BEFORE JETTING OFF
Inform your co-workers
Make your desk tidy, inform your colleagues on current projects and activate your out of office reply one day in advance (hello vacation, hello out of office reply!). Let your co-workers (and boss) know you won’t be able to respond to emails, Facebook chats, Snapchats, Instagrams and phone calls. Don’t panic. If there’s an insuperable emergency they will call you.

Identify what you can and can’t control
Leave with a clear mind. When you feel stressed and overwhelmed because of you leaving the office for a few weeks, try focusing on what you can and can’t control. Think about precisely what you’re concerned about and then ask yourself if I have any control over it. If the answer is no – and it often is – you let it go.

DURING YOUR VACATION
Get away from it al, literally
Since we live in a non-stop society, it may be hard-pressed to find hotels without WiFi. But even if it’s available, don’t get tempted to go online. Resist the urge to grab your phone and look at what people sent you. Instead, go explore places with no cell service. Vacation should be about adventures, heightening your senses and bringing a strong measure of relief.

Disconnect to reconnect
No 3G, no 4G… Now that you have extra time on your hands (an average person checks their phone 150 times a day!) and you don’t have to stay in perpetual go mode, press pause and try some meditation or yoga. Start by reconnecting with your physical self.

Make a list of the day’s triumphs..
When we’re stressed, we tend to focus on everything that is going wrong, which makes it even harder to relax. Another thing that’s especially helpful for de-stressing is writing down what you’re grateful for. Name the top three good things that happened to you that day or even in the last month.

… or write in your journal
More a journal type-of-girl? Some people like to unwind by writing pages in their journal, others prefer to jot down one or two lines about their day. It’s fun, but when this becomes a task during your break, skip it immediately!

Pamper yourself
When your brain is so full and your body so tired, there’s nothing better than to treat yourself with some TLC. Take a short nap on the beach (beware, anything over 30 minutes takes you into a deep sleep, and makes you groggy). Get your nails done, plan a pedicure, book a spa day at the hotel, take a long shower, sleep in or get a massage. Take a deep breath in, and let it all go!

Are you planning a digital detox during your vacation?

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