How do holidays improve your mental health?

• A study by the American Psychological Association (2015) showed that if you remove people from the places and routines they associate with stress you help them reduce their stress levels. Other studies in Canada and Vienna have produced similar results.
   
• Missing out on a holiday for even one year can increase your chances of heart attacks, especially if you are already in an ‘at risk’ group.
   
• Taking a break can increase your productivity at work by up to 8% for each ten hours of holiday you take.
   
• Holidays help silence Stress-related ‘mind chatter’ and improve the quality of your sleep, which also leads to greater productivity.

Holidays at home

• Don’t let work overlap; even if you are working from home. If you’re on leave don’t answer work emails or phone calls. That’s what the answerphone is for.
   
• Don’t let the DIY jobs you haven’t got around to yet encroach either, and don’t feel guilty about leaving them. This is your holiday and if you went away you wouldn’t get them done either.
   
• There’s no getting away from the fact that (unlike a hotel) at home you have to feed yourself. But try to eat different meals, that are simple and quick to prepare, or treat yourself to takeaways with some of the money you are not spending on a hotel. Check if your favourite restaurant is doing take-away, even if they don’t normally.
• Plan ahead so you know what you’re doing each day, but allow a bit of flexibility for ‘swapping’ days if it’s raining when you have planned an outdoor activity.

Inspired ideas for home-based holiday activities

• Borrow ideas from your favourite TV shows – ‘Taskmaster’, ‘Gogglebox’, ‘Lip Sync Battle’, ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ and ‘Come Dine with Me’ can all offer fun activities.
   
• Make the most of Virtual options – escape rooms, zoos, art galleries and museums are all offering experiences you can access from the comfort of your own PC, so you will be able to find something that suits your tastes.
   
• Have some games handy; board games for wet days, more active options like mini golf sets and similar in the garden when it’s fine. These can be purchased cheaply from websites like Amazon and eBay.
   
• Have a Fancy Dress competition using only what’s already in the house – include friends not in your ‘bubble' by using online services such as Skype or Zoom.
   
• Skype or Zoom can also lend themselves to virtual parties – have a wine tasting, movie night or book club meeting. Many traditional games like Charades (the things people used to do when they didn’t have TV!) also work well online.
   
• Try to walk somewhere different when you go out for your exercise, take a bird or wildflower book and spot as many as you can. Countryside is the obvious place for this but parks and open spaces in towns lend themselves to it as well.