There are many ways to beat the post-holiday blues. After a break, getting back into your usual routines and rhythms takes a physical and mental toll, often leaving you tired and in a bad mood.
The return to work is often experienced as an unpleasant moment. In the days leading up to it, radio stations, television channels and newspapers systematically cover the subject, offering all manner of advice on how to get through this difficult time, suggesting some form of cushioning, distraction or resignation in the face of the discomfort. But, as often happens, many of these suggestions create the problem rather than solving it, because the message they communicate — and therefore spread — is that coming back is painful, and this leads people to programme themselves and others to return from their holidays feeling depressed.
Coming back might not be a pleasant moment. If, however, we already have something we enjoy in mind, everything becomes more bearable. Is there a concert you're interested in, or a fascinating show? Treat yourself! A good idea would have been to buy the ticket before the holidays, so it's waiting on the bedside table when you return. It takes no time at all to be swallowed up by the usual routines. Let's do everything we can to prevent that from happening. Let's dive back into work without neglecting the small personal pleasures.
Let's make sure the return to work isn't traumatic. Once we're back, let's try not to get swallowed up by the frantic pace of work.
Let's get ahead of things, in the truest sense: rather than rushing and scrambling to avoid being late, let's set the alarm ten minutes earlier. We're certainly not depriving ourselves of hours of sleep, but we can allow ourselves a relaxed breakfast, just like on holiday. And perhaps we won't arrive at the office flustered and irritable before the day has even begun.
For a few days, let's avoid answering emails outside working hours. Let's try not to leave the office too late. Let's disable those deeply annoying notifications. Our minds will thank us for it.
On this point, all experts agree. No strict diets or unnecessary restrictions: instead, embrace three main meals a day and five daily portions of fruit and vegetables, favouring organic produce for its lower content of potentially harmful substances and its greater richness in beneficial active compounds such as antioxidants.
If you want to shed a few extra kilos gained over the holidays, go about it gradually. Simply cutting out sugar and fizzy and alcoholic drinks will be enough. Or replace dressings with spices, preferring grilled or steamed cooking to frying. And, wherever possible, choose fruit and vegetables for all five meals of the day. Meanwhile, to detox, eat foods rich in vitamins and help yourself along with draining herbal teas, green tea and herbs such as dandelion, fennel and mint.
All you need to do is choose mood-boosting foods that help overcome the drop in physical and mental energy that comes after the holidays, whether summer or winter ones. Among foods, there are indeed some that work as natural antidepressants and relaxants, ready to effectively counteract the drop in vitality that accompanies the return.
Dried fruit, and almonds in particular, are rich in magnesium, a precious mineral that protects against both physical and mental fatigue and helps regulate mood, helping to overcome the depression, anxiety and irritability of the return. As well as at breakfast, almonds are perfect as a hunger-busting snack between meals, on their own or added to low-fat yogurt and fruit salads, to regain energy and tone in a short space of time.
Among vegetables, broccoli is particularly rich in mineral salts (including calcium, iron, phosphorus and potassium) and vitamins such as B1, B2 and C, which together strengthen the body's immune defences, making it stronger and more resilient. Lentils, too, thanks to their high content of iron, calcium, potassium and phosphorus, support several key processes in the body and provide a feeling of satiety and satisfaction. Not forgetting that they constitute a kind of natural, seasonal antidote to anxiety and depression.
Oats, unfortunately neglected in our diets, are a cereal with high nutritional value that can be particularly helpful when returning from holiday. They combine carbohydrates with a decent amount of fibre, which together manage to give the body an energy boost without weighing it down, above all thanks to the zinc content, which combats fatigue. Brown rice and other whole grains are also a source of carbohydrates and, above all, of tryptophan, the hormone that regulates mood and imparts a feeling of fulfilment and serenity.
The combination of potassium and magnesium that characterises bananas helps to restore vitality and wellbeing, and they also contain chromium, which regulates the hormone capable of instilling a sense of wellbeing and lifting one's mood — namely serotonin.
The same applies to chocolate, which, thanks to tryptophan, is a precious ally of wellbeing.
In summer, who looks best in a swimsuit? Who chose the best holiday? Who spotted the longest yacht? Whose child built the most beautiful sandcastle? And in winter, which magical blankets of snow were captured on camera? Who stayed in the most remote and inaccessible chalet, who skied the fastest? Getting back to normality has its positive sides.
If post-holiday stress is stopping us from living peacefully, let's try to fight it by planning the next holiday. It could be a weekend away in the near future, or a getaway for the next holiday period — whether Easter, summer, or why not, the big trip of the coming year. If our body is yearning for a holiday, let's go there at least in our imagination, seeking out places that make us feel good. That way we'll also feel better in our everyday lives, today.
When a parent expects their child to go back to school willingly — perhaps urging them to stop making a fuss, to be more responsible — or when a manager complains that their staff are distracted because they're still thinking about the holidays, it is precisely those adults who have transmitted, albeit unconsciously, that coming back is a sad, hard moment, just like every Monday morning, and that work is a burden, a source of suffering, along with other negative messages of the same kind.
To better manage these moments of transition, there is a more harmonious alternative that can be of genuine help. It is possible to focus on the joyful moments, however brief, experienced during the holiday period, so that they continue to live on within us. These moments, like any others, are recorded in our memory, and by bringing them back to consciousness we can evoke the sense of wellbeing associated with them and enrich our present, rather than straining to divert our attention away from it.
Here is a brief sequence of steps to follow whenever you feel the need:
By repeating this exercise a number of times, you will notice that as the months pass, the joyful moments just experienced — or even those from a more distant past — remain more vivid. They will also serve as a point of reference for recharging yourself in any situation in the future.