Staying home rather than going away on holiday can be extremely relaxing.
Don't be tempted to see this as a waste of free time as some well-organised days off can enable you to return to work feeling rested and refreshed.
Relaxation research suggests people can best relax and recover from work-related stress by pursuing meaningful and engaging activities.
Known as Dramma, the model says we have six psychological needs: detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation.
We should try and meet these key psychological needs during leisure time to ensure our relaxation and well-being increase in the long term, studies say.
This applies whether you stay at home during your holidays or travel.
No matter what you do, the more aspects of this model you meet, the more rested you will feel.
The six ingredients are:
D for Detachment: If you want to switch off, you need to mentally distance yourself from work. You can do so by consciously setting boundaries.
In practical terms that means setting up your out-of-office message, tidying your home office workspace or removing it from view entirely, and ideally locking away your work laptop and mobile phone.
R for Relaxation: Physical and mental relaxation are important during our holiday time. Take time to consider what that could look like. It might mean listening to your favourite songs, taking a walk, meditating or treating yourself to a massage, a hot shower or a relaxing bath.
A for Autonomy: This is how we feel when we can decide for ourselves how to spend our free time. That means it’s best not to schedule appointments on your days off just to finally get round to doing them. Also, agree with your partner or family on time slots that you can use just for yourself.
M for Mastery: Knitting, playing the piano, taking a pottery class or unpacking your iceskates again. To relax, try to plan activities that help you master a new skill, learn something new or overcome a challenge.
M for Meaning: Even though we often think that scrolling for hours or binge-watching is the ultimate form of relaxation: Recreation and well-being should also include activities that give us the feeling of doing something meaningful.
That could be collecting litter in the neighbourhood, taking a trip with grandparents to their hometown, or helping the sports club organise the next summer festival.
A for Affiliation: This means doing things that foster connection and relationships with the people around us. That could be through meaningful conversations with close friends or playing board games with family or a partner.
The researchers pursued the Dramma model which originally comes from industrial and organisational psychology and was developed by US researchers David Newman, Louis Tay and Ed Diener.
It was first published in the Journal Of Happiness Studies, a specialist journal for happiness research, in 2014. – dpa
