How to banish the post-summer holiday blues

The week after we returned from holiday I found myself feeling rather down in the dumps.  Why on Earth was that? I couldn't understand it. I'd just returned from a fantastic fortnight away with my family in sunny Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, our first summer holiday in five years and our first two-week break in eight! On arriving home we were warmly welcomed by friends who had been house-sitting and we still had ten days of the summer holidays left including fun with family so why did I feel so flat?

Last weekend I turned to the internet to try to fathom it out and it turns out that 'post-holiday blues' is a thing. The back to Earth with a bumpness of coming home to piles of laundry, the return to cooking and cleaning and the humdrum of work and home life. Some people dread the return to the routine of work and school but I am looking forward to it - to knowing where I should be and when and what is required of me. I think I need a bit of structure again and am now impatient for it.

I had to give myself a bit of a talking to last weekend to get myself out of the doldrums. I took a walk and looked at the advice on how to get out of the post-holiday blues. The first thing I saw that resonated with me and seemed to work was to...

In the melee of returning home I'd forgotten to be grateful for what I'd experienced, I just felt sorry for myself that I wasn't still there! Although I'm no longer on holiday I still have the memories don't I? I took a few moments to look through my photos and be actively thankful for the fantastic holiday, for my husband who organised it all, for my children for being such fun, for the places we visited, the food we ate, the water we swam in, the sun we bathed in, the toil of those who've gone before who created such marvels as Venice, the labour of those who waited on us in restaurants, cleaned our hotel rooms and ferried us about.

Not just that but I looked through the last three months of photos, a record of a superb summer. Plenty of time spent with friends, a camping trip to Cloud Farm on Exmoor for Felix's birthday and day trips to the beach.

I'm grateful for my creative friends who helped me host a fundraising event for Mind and another successful watercolour painting course. 

I'm grateful for the deliciousness of the season - the fruit and veg that has grown in my garden and coloured my plate. 

I'm grateful for my volunteers and staff who keep the cottages and yurts clean and ready for our guests and especially for holding the fort while we were away. 

Finally I'm grateful for our guests who make it all possible by coming to share a slice of our little piece of heaven in Devon. 

I've made a slideshow on my phone I can look at to reflect on our holiday and the summer in general. I might even put some of our memories on the walls to prompt a reminder throughout the year. 

The second piece of advice that helped me get out of the dumps was to...

I gave it a bit of thought and decided that on my list will be a spa break with my sister, hopefully in November once the yurts and cottages are closed for the season. I'm tempted to join a yoga retreat in Croatia run by a lady I know from Exmouth but that may have to wait till next year. I might also try to sneak in a little jaunt to Boston, Mass. to see a friend who has recently moved there. As for family holidays well I'm keen to visit the Lake District to take the children to Beatrix Potter's house. Also to Chester to visit the city and the zoo. 

What's on your list? A trip to the yurts perhaps? We have one more month before we close for the season in early October. We re-open at the end of March next year in time for the Easter holidays.

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