It’s over. The air is cooling. School is the opposite of out. You can probably feel the holiday spirit leaving your body. But what if you could capitalise on your holiday momentum and apply some of your novelty-seeking break from routine to, well, your daily routine?
Holidays are good for humans. A 40-year study in Finland that tracked the lives of 1,200 businessmen at risk of heart disease found last week that those who took three or fewer weeks’ holiday a year were more than one-third more likely to die young. The good news for those on a budget is that, according to the lead researcher, Timo Strandberg, the benefits were the same “whether you were in a holiday resort or just at home”.
Before you despair that the summer holidays are over, consider that immediately after a holiday is the perfect time to make changes to your routine. The plasticity in your brain – its ability to change and adapt to experiences – will be freshly stimulated by a combination of novel experience and physical activity and ready for the idea of positive change. So, with that in mind, here are 18 ways to keep the holiday spirit alive.
1 Be a home tourist
When did you last appreciate the place where you live? The chances are you researched your holiday destination, so why not apply the same rigour to your home town? Put your postcode into TripAdvisor or any other travel site and see what is nearby. (I have just discovered a clown museum, a graffiti class and birdwatching walks on my doorstep.) “Going on a guided tour may allow us to see our immediate environment from a new angle,” says Gosia Goclowska, a lecturer at the University of Bath who has studied the link between novelty and creativity. “Novelty can be found by looking at one place very deeply. There is novelty on your doorstep. Whatever street you’re in, each sunset is never the same.”
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
