Hours planning your week of vacation spent looking for the best deals on hotels, flights, activities to do when you get there. Even when you reach your dream vacation you are engrossed in keeping the family together and on target with the usual tide of eating, sleeping, dressing etc. You try to enjoy the minutes of the vacation, feeling that “this is it, you have reached nirvana” yet all the while your mind is somewhere else. The curiosity burns with questions of work related matters, pending home related chores, the upcoming tax year and so on. Perhaps you are brave enough to turn on your smart phone and check a few emails from work and text messages to ensure your returning work pile is not as high when you get back to the office. Before you know it, you are packed and hustling and bustling the family back to home and the vacation is over and you are right back into your”comfort zone” with a sigh ” geez I wish I had a vacation !!”

We all  need a break from the daily grind, of this there is no doubt. No one is a machine that can continuously keep working and never stop, or at least at some point they will burn out eventually. We want to work so that we can have a vacation or do we want a vacation so that we can keep working.  We clearly do not want to be remembered as the person who would say ” I wish I could do more work !!” I have thought about this problem on many a post vacation occasion as I realize I too fall into this rut. Yet is there is a solution to this dilemma? The answer lies in first identifying the question. What do we seek : a vacation or an escape from reality. Both are very different and both cost different amounts. A vacation requires geography and usually financial funds. The latter requires a shift in perspective, a willing heart, a disciplined mind and no money, yet harder to achieve.

The escape from reality can occur daily and even though relatively planned into your schedule does not require sanctioned time off. By harnessing your mind and meditating on letting go of worries, tensions, fears and stresses, you end up quite recharged and rejuvenated. In fact sometimes even more refreshed than when you go for a vacation.  You are fulfilling the same intention which is getting rest from your daily ablutions in the home and work environments. I would gently suggest that perhaps the use of the meditation avenue might in fact have better health effects both physical and mental. By constantly being refreshed daily, you might even be more productive at work and at home, since you are perpetually energized as if you were taking daily mini vacations.

The escape from reality is not delusional nor is it illusional. It is simply just that, an escape. You are going to have to come back, but what state do you plan to be in when you do, grumpy or relaxed? Try incorporating a daily meditative routine into your life. Do not set yourself up for failure by fooling yourself and thinking that you can do a half hour or longer on the first, second or even third attempt. Meditate with the use of your breathing in and out. Few minutes will eventually build into  30 minutes, and gradually increase from there. The more you can do, the more rejuvenated you will become. Perhaps spending some time learning these techniques from a teacher, or a meditation school or class, or audio trainers might help. You could use some of your precious vacation days towards this endeavor, since it does pay dividend in the end game. You might be in so much bliss on your escape from reality you will need to escape back to reality !! Are you still dreaming of a vacation or you spending your vacation dreaming?

Escape while you can….Reality is calling