5 top tips to hold onto your holiday high

High on the list of the most important experiences we’ll have while we’re on holiday is the food and drink that we’ll try. Not least because we’re sharing it with friends and family. Try researching the recipes of the local cuisine and recreate a dish you loved in a local restaurant or a cocktail in your favourite bar for your loved ones. You can even decorate the table with any souvenirs you brought back with you. This is guaranteed to get you talking about the night (or nights!) you enjoyed it.

Music is one of the most evocative triggers for memory, and you can be instantly sucked back into a spectacular journey, vibrant beach bar or wonderful cultural experience. Whether it’s the music you chose to play on your travels or the most popular tunes from radio stations you happened upon, this is one of our go-to’s for keeping our holiday highs. Of course, it helps to have a little boogie at the same time!

Take your time over this, but make sure you start shortly after you return, otherwise the intention is too quickly forgotten. Pulling out all the best shots you took and compiling them into a beautiful reminder of your travels will take you right back to the heart of your holiday feeling. We’re many of us a little bit guilty of taking a multitude of pictures and videos and storing them without bothering to filter out the dross, but scheduling this in a few times a week means you can have many little virtual holidays!

We’re really bad at this! When we’re at home there are always distractions and chores, even just the day-to-day cooking and cleaning, which we find difficult to switch off from. Yet when we’re on holiday this feels like the easiest thing in the world, whether it’s sitting for hours with a book at the beach, spending time gazing effortlessly at a beautiful view or immersing ourselves in daydreams, doing very little at all. Try making a point of planning some time in to do just this now that you’re back. So turn off your social media, don’t check in with the news, put down your to-do list and sit in the garden simply to contemplate, curl up on the sofa with a good book or take a guilt-free afternoon nap. It will do wonders for your wellbeing…

The research* identified that one of the key factors in creating your high is the experience of holiday ‘firsts’. Novelty, or the quality of something being new, is incredibly rewarding and this is particularly true of places. And as rewards trigger the dopamine receptors in your brain to release a rush of positive feelings, why save this just for your adventures abroad? Try it at home too – plan with friends to visit a city you’ve never been to or go camping with your loved ones for a spontaneous weekend. Just grab the bus, train or car and go!

… Try a little brainstorming with your friends or family. Anticipation of your next trip works in much the same way for the dopamine effect as experiencing it in real time. In other words, just thinking about where you might go and making plans to put it all together makes you happy because it activates the reward system in your brain. So let your imagination run wild!

*University College London Affective Brain Lab, May 2019.