Have you ever arrived on Vacation with the vacation blues? That’s the name I gave to the feeling after waking up in the beautiful vacation home Me and Sam rented and had been planning for a couple of months. Things were finally opening up. The bleakest of the pandemic times was behind us and here we were finally able to vacation and rest with a degree of ease post vaccination and yet in still…. My emotions didn’t seem to line up with the situation I was in. Sound familiar?
Often I think we expect our emotions to line up in a particular way due to outside situations. On vacation- you should be happy, experiencing a loss- you should be sad. Having these pre-conditioned thoughts of how you “should” feel really messes with us. The truth of the matter is that they often don’t align. Why that is has a host of reasons that can be dissected and analyzed but the heart of the solution is getting back to the present moment. Embodying where you are. Sensing your fingers and toes. Feeling your breath move in and out of this physical body. Accepting what is. Pausing the planning and finding the “Being”.
As I write this my 9 year old has burst into the room asking/demanding to know when we will go to the beach in that incessant nagging way only a child who has been anticipating sand in their toes for weeks and can wait no longer. I took a breath, I felt the irritation in my body but choose to compassionately turn to her and say. "I know waiting can feel very difficult. Try to find ways to accept that we are not quite at the beach yet. Try playing with your sisters outside or sitting on the porch and coloring. The more you practice being in the moment and accepting where you are when you finally get to the beach you will enjoy it and be fully present when you are there." She gave me a half smile and went back outside.
I don’t know if that lesson landed on def ears for her but I heard it loud and clear for me. Practicing presence wherever you are will yield the act of presence wherever you are. So for me thoughts of getting here, planning the vacation and all of the home life thoughts have followed me here on vacation. The ease hasn’t come just because the geography is different. And for my daughter fun will not automatically come just because we are “finally” at the beach. I know her, it’ll get old real quick. Lol. Practicing presence is the solution for both me and the 9 year old.
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