Countdown to Vacation, "Anticipation is Making Me Wait"

Did you know that there are positive psychological effects in planning and anticipating a vacation?  We are looking forward to spending some quality time with family and friends soon.  Every time it crosses my mind, I get so excited!!

Tara Parker Pope wrote an article for the New York Times, entitled "How Vacations Affect Your Happiness".  The article states,  "Researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts. They studied happiness levels among 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the 32-week study period. 

The study, published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks."

So make plans, and make them often.......for an overnight, a long weekend, a sabbatical, or glamping.  Teach yourself to believe you are worth it, practice makes perfect!!  If you always have a vacation on the horizon, even a low-cost, waiting-for-the-deal excursion, you are boosting your happiness quotient.  Schedule time away, even if the destination is a mystery in the beginning.  

There are plenty of low-cost ways to snag an inexpensive hotel at the last minute, plenty of ways to glam up camping and plenty of ways to save for either of these, if money is a concern.  You could do a house swap, or even stay with out of town friends or relatives.  You can pack a vacation box with all of the things you enjoy when you get away:  games, gadgets, a picnic set and your crazy Hawaiian shirt............wouldn't it be fun to see that box every time you go into your closet?  That is the beginning of making it real!!  Enjoy planning and executing vacations, because as Carly Simon sings, "these are the good old days".

Have a wonderful day!

Xo

Conni

Today's Mantra:  I intend to make time to plan a vacation!!

Mantra for Every Day: I choose to send love to all; receiving love back multiplied in infinite proportions, creating and nurturing pathways of love.