information addict

abbyjean:

How Vacations Affect Your Happiness - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

The largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks. After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. How much stress or relaxation a traveler experienced on the trip appeared to influence post-vacation happiness.

There was no post-trip happiness benefit for travelers who said the vacation was “neutral” or stressful.” Surprisingly, even those travelers who described the trip as “relaxing” showed no additional jump in happiness after the trip. “They were no happier than people who had not been on holiday,” said the lead author, Jeroen Nawijn, tourism research lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

The only vacationers who experienced an increase in happiness after the trip were those who reported feeling “very relaxed” on their vacation. Among those people, the vacation happiness effect lasted for just two weeks after the trip before returning to baseline levels.

This makes a lot of sense to me. Vacations are stressful. Traveling is stressful. Having to schedule things in an unfamiliar place, find your way around, etc. is stressful. I often come back from a vacation feeling like I need a vacation.

My new strategy is, don’t try to schedule too much for a vacation. Leave time for just relaxing in the hotel or whatever. I love hotels. They’re an excuse to watch bad movies on cable at two in the morning and not feel like you should be doing something else.