I know I can switch it on, I know I can!

Thank God, I am one of the few people who still hasn’t gone on holiday…. A hard summer of work, but with its sweet reward—when all the others have returned from their yearned for but short holidays where they weren’t quite unplugged, I will be off far far away, right out in the boondocks where there will be no human way to find me…

Within exactly one month my holidays will start. In fact at this very time in a month’s time, I shall be winging my way over Russia, while all my colleagues will be fighting the dreaded post-vacation  blues or syndrome. It is not even necessary to wait a month to feel the effects. Today the motorway was already clogging up just like the worst day in October, when schools, universities, etc, are in full swing.

Barely a few years ago, the “post-vacation syndrome” didn’t even exist, and now it is such a hot topic…. But how are we not going to go crazy, after waiting all year to enjoy these days—which always seem too few, and always, but always come to an end—only to catapult us back at break-neck speed into our crude day to day reality?

According to the University of Navarra, however strange it may sound this syndrome which has us in its grips summer after summer is caused by our “internal clock”. I always thought that we only had one biological clock just for women to warn us of the point of no return for making our contribution to perpetuating the species. Apparently we have another.

To explain it in simple terms for all of us to grasp, me included, supposedly for people to be at ease, they need a routine that matches their unique “biorhythm”—in other words, a series of activities that are synchronized with this internal clock which defines the state of our organism. These routines together with a set of incentives drive us to get ahead throughout our lives, and convert into protective shields that allow us to overcome adversities. A glitch in our regular biorhythm, like the absence of our motivations, as in the context of our return to daily life after a vacation, leads to this syndrome or attack of blues we experience summer after summer.

Over the holiday period, oh poor crazy humans, what are we thinking of? We are making the hands of our crazed internal clock go awry. We rest more, we take our siestas, we are night birds, we eat and not eat, and we shove our hated alarm clocks into a drawer.  This almost total lack of routine and chaos in our habits totally spins our biorhythm out of sync, and that is if we are even able to detect its mere presence.

Our return from holidays, or put in another way, our return to our routine, converts into a brusque change for our organism. If we don’t rapidly synchronise with this new (or old, depending on how you look at it) pace of life, total chaos ensues. Coupled with the lack of motivation that goes hand in hand with the return to work of any self-respecting human being, we view with horror the rest of the year until the next holiday break.

Whoever can pretty much identify with all these factors is guaranteed to suffer from post-vacation blues marked by general weakness, asthenia, night-time insomnia, day-time sleepiness, difficulties in concentration, apathy, boredom, and in more serious cases, depression.

So, in the face of our total inability to “self-heal” ourselves of this malaise, the best would be “prevention”. Listening to the experts in these areas, we have to follow certain guidelines such as returning to the routine gradually, as the holiday break comes to a close. Or rapidly return to our hobbies, like the gym, playing a game of pétanque, or whatever takes our fancy, undoubtedly this will give us a dose of motivation. Tidying up our desk or organizing our agenda, the first day back at school is yet another of the golden recommendations.

Although, if we were to be honest, I don’t think any of these pieces of advice can help our minds stop drifting towards our holiday destination, while our bodies organize their agendas or wipe away the dust on our computer monitors. I don’t see it happening… but one this is sure. Something is horribly wrong if this year we have 63% of people “suffering” from this malaise; last year it was barely 50%.

We yearn for the days we spend outside the office with too much strength, for the hours to while away quickly, and more often than not this time is not enjoyed 100%. All thanks to the thoughts that threaten us and remind us “its over and its time to get back…”. My advice is take it easy and just think of the now. There’s always time to go back.