I’m aware this is privileged and pathetic but…

[Littleacornnut]

How do you shake that ennui/ Boredom/ depression after coming back from a really expensive holiday? (For me that is, it’s all relative i suppose)

honeslty since coming back to the drudgery of everyday I’ve felt really low. Normally I get a bit of post holiday blues I book somewhere else but now I can’t afford to.

I’ve been back a month and still feel pretty low.

yanbu this normal and everyone feels like this after a big hols. It takes a while to shift

yabu- bit of post hol blues is normal but not for this long. Take a wider look at your life

We start talking about the next one 😂

I feel exactly the same. The day I left my holiday destination it was 31 degrees, arrived back to 13, grey and raining.

I felt so low that I was crying all day.

Things have improved somewhat, but still feel like things are a struggle.

What has helped me is to book something else. Even though it's a year away, the thought of it helps.

Also, I've booked a longer break. I don't think I gave myself long enough due to rushing back to my dog (who was fine in boarding) so next time I will have longer.

Taking up something new. I enjoyed swimming on holiday, so I am going swimming at the local pool regularly.

I'm also learning a language.

I hope you feel better soon. The weather doesn't help does it.

I’ve never had this. Holidays are nice but god I love coming home. In fact towards the end of the holiday, I can’t wait to get home.

You seem nice

I really enjoy my job and am happily married but I feel the Sunday night / Monday morning blues, let alone post holiday blues!

I think it's that shift that you're not 'free' in the same way and that a lot of life is mundane. Now, I think there's a lot of joy and comfort in the mundane however on a Monday, when I'm reminiscing about my nice weekend and it's time to put the bins out and I'm not going out for dinner and I'm tired, the ennui is strong!

It does get better though and the better the holiday or weekend, the worse it can feel!

The lifestyles of the rich, the famous and the beautiful have never been more shoved into our faces and with seemingly all drama's and even soap opera's having to be turbo charged and exaggerated versions of life, it can make the ordinary seem even more dreary and drudgy?

As a matter of interest, what is it that adults like about Disney? I genuinely don't know anything about it, other than it has things for kids.

I get this sometimes too. The worst was after 2 weeks driving around California, completely free, so much healthy food, out in the sunshine and everyone was SO happy. And then you come home to grey skies, crap food and responsibilities.
It too me a couple of months to snap out of it. It actually felt like California was my home and I needed to get back home 😂

Same here! We only go for a week, by day 5 I’m desperate to come home to some home cooking, my own bed, my own things around me….

Well I think you hit the nail on the head. You had a taste of life you can't afford everyday combined with no work when you're away. No wonder you feel down.
Wouldn't you feel better with more regular holidays that just feel like a nice break but at your level of standard of living so that there's nothing to miss when you get back and not so long until the next one?

We're going in the summer and pretty much counting the days until we go!

I know you said you can't afford Disney again but could you book a cheap holiday so you have something to look forward to? I think we always have at least one booked, the last couple of years we've booked the next before we've even been on the first. Especially if you can pay by direct debit/pay deposit only for so long/put it on an interest free credit card and pay monthly.

I basically only work to fund our holidays so I get you!

So many of my people on here 😆

I agree that the only solution to this is to rebook even if it’s in a few years time! We last went in 2022 and said we weren’t going to go back until the kids were older…. And yet we seemed to have accidentally booked for this October 😂

That sounds amazing! We're going to LA next year and already started the planning 😁

@Blackfluffycats snap! Ours was Easter 2022 so was manic post-COVID so we had a year off but we booked last summer for this summer because other holidays just don't cut it!
I'd love to go in Oct, I wish we had 2 weeks for half term 😁

@GoingOnHol Nothing compares! Ours had been rebooked so many times because of covid! We have a toddler and a baby so making the most of being able to go in term time. We managed to do horror nights at universal last time and it was so good! Well worth doing if you ever do get to go in October 😊

I remember coming back from a holiday feeling exactly like this, on a few occasions. Eventually I started trying to bring aspects of the holiday experience home and working on making day to day life better. It takes time - but as you pay attention to small changes, the effects add up.

I remember coming back from a massage at a spa to our bathroom that had plastic bath toys scattered everywhere, and a while later spotting a big hamper in a charity shop. I put all the plastic and child toiletries in the hamper, folded the towels and a while after put up a high shelf for a basket with my bits and pieces. Added a bath tray (with room for iPad and wine glass), bath pillow and a candle.

That’s just one example (I also changed jobs, and ditched a boyfriend on other occasions) but it’s just about finding ways to make ordinary life lovely

We try and do something one weekend a month - not necessarily expensive - to get out and feel alive, so that we’re not endlessly counting down to another big holiday.

What was it you enjoyed about Disney? What was the feeling?

So what like staying in a self catering home just down the road?

I can’t afford Disney for 3 weeks every year that’s right but that doesn’t mean it was a holiday I couldn’t afford

I used to get this always when younger…I’d come back home and save up for the next holiday. I moved abroad at 23, haven’t had the feeling since, I think for me it was England 😂

Well I’ve got 2 kids so I just absolutely loved seeing them just beaming with joy and excitement from dusk til dawn. There’s also quite a fair amount of educational activities and good food!

now I’m not a Disney adult as such, although I do quite like the classic films. But there’s definitely an element of nostalgia and living your best millennial life there. There’s also an incredible attention to detail that’s impressive. But overall it’s this bubble that is just totally away from every day life. The rides are pretty fun too.

Envy is not a good look on you dear.

This is me as well 100% ☺️

Research the next one? 🤣

Oh, I think your entire being is telling you that your life isn't right. Cos I went to Disney and didn't get this at all. Yes, it was a beautiful fantasy bubble that I thoroughly loved - but my everyday life was what I wanted it to be too, so I also got that 'oooh, great to be home' feeling.

In the times when I did have that 'holiday blues plus plus' discrepancy, I changed something. When I hated coming back from Scotland (because of loving the country, the walking and the easy access to the historical records I was interested in), I moved to Scotland. When I was desperate to move to the sea, I moved to the sea. Whenever I hated my job, I resigned. In fact, I got to the point where if I wasn't lookng forward to my work when I woke up, I resigned.

I know I'm weird in that I have no fear about throwing my entire life in the air and starting again. Probably because I've done it so regularly. Also I was very lucky to have a job that was needed wherever I went.

But I also live a smaller life than many. My house and mortgage are small, but I'd still downsize if I needed to. I rarely buy stuff - for instance I can count on the fingers of one hand the clothes I buy in a year. I spend most of my time in activities that cost nothing. By having less of what doesn't matter, we can have more of what does matter, by not needing to be at the daily grind for so long. Apart from my recent misadventure of being employed by a would-be cult guru, I've not worked full time since 2001.

Lastly, I feel our souls just don't resonate with the lifestyles that modern society tells us we have to live. So let go of everything you think you know, and listen to your soul, cos it is speaking to you now. What is it that you really value? If you could start from scratch, what would your life look like?

Then make the assumption you can create that life. Because you can - the soul never gives you a yearning you cannot achieve because it values what is truly important in life.

Yeah, but if somebody was being paid to wash, dry, iron and fold it all, wouldn't that reduce the workload (and visual effect of a thousand pairs of socks draped everywhere) to just putting it away in batches, so it would have been done by now - especially as your DH wouldn't have done the washing, so would have no excuse not to do 50% of the putting away?

There's also the thing of only having a carefree (relatively speaking) existence on holiday, then it's back to 100% drudge and no rest - maybe you could justify outsourcing a few things that take up precious minutes where you could be doing something better like refereeing two kids trying to water the garden with plastic teacups or sitting on the sofa drinking tea for ten minutes whilst DH does the refereeing?

Once that precedent is set (we earn it, we are entitled to make our/my lives/life easier, so I've booked cleaner/windowcleaner/service wash/etc), there's a lot more you can do to improve your life now instead of stifling it down until some time in 2027 when you're next back from holiday.

Ahh so exciting!! I absolutely loved doing all the planning! Where are you planning on visiting?