How to Make Every Day a Vacation

You don’t need a plane ticket and a poolside lounge chair to make every day a vacation. Sure, that stuff helps, but you can put little snippets of total relaxation, enjoyment and bliss into your daily schedule, so that stuff is not necessary.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Happy journal
• Small photo album

1. Take at least 1 solid hour of each day and hog it all to yourself. Don’t answer the phone, the doorbell or even someone when they are talking to you if you don’t want to. This is your hour to create, explore or simply lie on the couch like a lump. Whatever makes you happy.
2. Keep a happy journal. In it you will record happy thoughts, poems that make you smile and anecdotes that make you laugh. Add to it and read excerpts from it daily.
3. Carry a small photo album packed with photos of past vacations or sunsets or your pets in funny poses. Refer to it often when the daily grind gets you down. It’s a good tool for traffic jams and being on hold with an obnoxious insurance company.
4. Dress for fun. Even a corporate suit can be spruced up with something as simple as a jazzy scarf. Think of your clothing as a statement or a costume, not a drab cloak.
5. Meditate daily.
6. Surround yourself with positive thoughts and love. This can be done by writing down all negative crap, stuffing it in a jar and later burning it at the park. You can also try meditating every morning, asking for only positive things to flow your way. Or maybe you just need something simple, like frequent bubble baths, laughing out loud or sharing a smile with a perfect stranger.

Tips & Warnings

• Scheduling a real vacation also helps treat each day with bliss, since you know you’ll soon be leaving on a jet plane.
• In addition to the photos, scatter mementos from past vacations or things that make you happy around your house, your office and your car. You’ll be amazed how much a giant spider hanging in your car’s rear window can make you smile.
• Wear flip-flops whenever possible. Better yet, go barefoot.
• Send random funky postcards to people you like.
• Don't wear anything that constricts, makes blisters or pinches. That would make for one crappy vacation.
• Don’t let anyone bust your bliss, even at work.