The 2 Wellbeing lessons from my holiday!

Hi friends,

How are you going, how are you really going since I have been away?

I was grateful to finally get back to Europe after 5 years.

You may well be thinking, that’s simple Derek, you learnt to relax properly/ fully on your holiday!

If we had gone to Asia and sat around a pool for a month, well yes, that would sort out even the most stressed, but no.

Traveling around Spain, France and Italy by local trains and buses, visiting and experiencing breathtaking little hilltop medieval villages is not really a relaxing holiday, but an adventure! An amazing adventure.

You may have followed my Facebook/Instagram photos?

When traveling to a foreign country you have never been to, don’t speak or read the language and Google maps isn’t working accurately or timely because you are in a narrow medieval street with 7 storey high buildings, our brain and its senses are on full alert. Danger and where am I and how do we get to where we want to go!!

Not to mention, having my phone stolen out of my back pocket on a crowded bus on day 2. Yes, I know I should have put it in my front pocket, but I was caught off guard as the bus came early and stopped further away. When rushing to get on, I automatically put my phone in my back pocket as I do every day at home when going for my walk.

Then there was catching our booked train to our next city often across the country.

The platform number wouldn’t come up until 5 minutes before, then we had to rush with our 22kg suitcases up and often downstairs as we couldn’t find the elevators, or they were out of action!!

This can be rather stressful and at the end of the day, exhausting.

Lesson 1. Be mindful, very mindful. Be present, very present to each moment.

When we are calm, we are able to make better decisions. When stressed, we can’t think straight.

I also had to remind myself, looking at the many absolutely stunning views we saw, to STOP and breathe. Take it in, take it all in.

I often used the 5 senses exercise to connect with this magical moment by slowly my thoughts down, which allowed me to just be, be there.

5 Things I can see.

4 things I can touch.

3 things I can hear.

2 things I can smell.

1 thing I can taste.

Lesson 2. Breathe, breathe slowly and purposefully through the nose.

When stressed I had to remind myself to slow down my breathing to get calm again, as when stressed have you ever noticed how we take shorter and shorter breaths and start breathing through our mouths?

This switches on our Sympathetic Nervous System, our flight and fight system. ?

Through a minute or 2 of slow deep breaths, we can start to get the blood flow back to our brain and switch back on our Parasympathetic System, our rest and digest system.