No, we’re not talking about skipping out on work with lame excuses or staying home with no cell phones/tv/etc. and calling it a “vacation”. When you’re living your everyday life and can’t find the time to get away, how do you trick yourself into feeling the same excitement and joy that you get from traveling somewhere new?

Easy. Pretend you are on vacation everyday! This idea comes courtesy of The Daily Cup of Yoga and it is brilliant. Sounds silly, but by using the same mindfulness techniques that are practiced in yoga you can find the joy and adventure in your everyday life and travels. “Using our senses is one of the easiest, most effective practices we can adopt to help us drop out of our planning, rehashing, and worrying mind”.

To do this, simply get out of your own head. You don’t have to change your normal routine, but as you walk or drive to work or going about your day, pay attention to the things you see along the way, the same way you would if you were in a new place. Slow down your power walk and turn your head and look around! Take notice of the flowers growing along the road. Peek into the shops you pass. Really examine what is inside of them. Look at the people you pass on the street. Suddenly it is as if you are experiencing it all for the first time, which is exactly why vacations and traveling are so much fun. We can have that same feeling everyday if we just allow ourselves.

You might also find that your hour-long commute suddenly seems shorter and that you arrive at your destination in a better mood, instead of frazzled and anxious. Did you ever notice that when you are on your way somewhere new, whether it’s vacation or a road trip or out on a new date, the trip seems so short because you are looking at absolutely everything and feeling so excited, and then the ride home seems to take forever? Exactly. It’s all about mindfulness and being present in the moment.

Voila, instant vacation.

Do you use this technique, or are you going to start? Let’s see what happens on Facebook!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 3:06 pm and is filed under prancing leopard organics blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.