Post-vacation blues are real.

You know the feeling. It’s the last day of vacation and you’re suddenly filled with so much dread. Or maybe you’ve been feeling those feelings of anxiety and fear and grief leading up to your last day.

I absolutely get it.

The last day makes official the last day of freedom. Freedom from routine, from work, from the day-to-day stresses that bind us to our realities—realities that are not so easily altered like a one-day itinerary or a place to eat.

One has to work again (make up for all the money just spent) and continue forward and onward where it might feel like there is less fulfillment home than whilst on vacation.

It’s all about intention and intending to be present.

I encourage you to stop for a minute.

Take a breath. Look around where you are and take a picture in your mind of where you are right now. What do you smell or feel, hear or see?

For me, recalling the last night, I see our quiet BnB in the middle of London, the white couch with a makeshift bed on top and a glass center table. I see the drapes leading to our balcony where there is laughter coming from the outside. It’s almost midnight on a Friday night, so upon peeking into the icy air, I see crowds standing around the curbs of the London street across a cathedral, perhaps on their way home.

Why did I tell you all this?

Simply because looking forward and trying to make sense of what is to come makes you miss out on the present. If your mind is elsewhere, you can’t be fully and unequivocally present.

24 hours, or 2 days, or 1 week from now and you might be home. Don’t let your mind go home while you’re on vacation. You only get a number of days and hours and minutes on your adventure.

You have to make them count and staying present, and intending to be present is the only way to do so.

It’s all about mindset (what you set your thoughts on).

I’m writing this from the airplane. I’m in the window seat looking over the clouds and I’ve got 30 minutes until landing.

I’ll just say it. I’m feeling anxious.

The idea of return makes me anxious. I feel stressed returning home because I am not sure what to expect when I return. I am not sure of my work schedule or school schedule and being on vacation was easier.

Much easier than reality.

But if I live in fear and anxiety, then the future has nothing to offer. I have to be intentional about believing that good things are in store.

I have to remind myself that I have much to be grateful for and to be excited for not only the next adventure away from home but for the adventures at home, ones I intend to make happen.

From where I stand, looking towards the future or pining over the past is how one misses out on the present.

And if the present is so important on vacation, then how much more is it important in one’s day-to-day, where most of one’s life is spent?

NOTE: Written on January 10 and 11, 2020 on my last night in London.