Find holiday moments in your everyday routine

Holiday every day

Why live just for the holidays when you can have a bit of a holiday every day, asks Jani Augustyn-Goussard.

Summer lies deep and dense around our ankles, I can still smell sunscreen in the air and sweet watermelon … but itʼs January,

February is around the corner, the new year is here. Just as the early summer sun tears us from a blissful nightʼs slumber into a sudden and sharp day, so the first calendar days of 2022 and all the usual metaphors call us to new beginnings. And I struggle, as I do every year, to get my head in the right place.

I long so much for the holidays! The void that December leaves in us perhaps has something to do with how fast the month passes: One day we are still popping Champagne corks and swimming in the sea, and the next moment we are back at work, our clothes uncomfortable on our suntanned bodies. With legs that yearn for long walks and balmy afternoons next to blue water and lush greenery. The contrast between relaxing and enjoying life and the coldness of fluorescent lights at work and the daily grind is something that catches all of us. We are already looking foward to the next holiday! With a new calendar, without plans or pen marks, I eagerly count how many public holidays there are in 2022. And realise with a shock that if I donʼt find a new way of looking at the routine in my life, I am living for just a handful of days in the year! But what about all our wishes and dreams and passions and loves and likes? After

photo ED OʼRILEY

all, we canʼt treat every day as if it is a holiday and enjoy life to the fullest. Or can we? Perhaps we need to look more deeply at what makes us feel so deflated at this time of the year … obviously we have less time for hobbies and there are lists of tasks that need to be done. We must balance the books, pay the bills and keep a roof over our heads.

Holidays are when we can be ourselves, take the time for those things that make us feel truly alive. We can be completely and utterly absorbed by the things that feed our soul. But why not give ourselves a joyful chance in our everyday lives to lose ourselves for a few minutes in something that makes us happy? What about having a holiday while we work? It can become a ritual of satisfaction, a pastime that nurtures our love for life every day.

Itʼs time to make your ʻholiday selfʼ a part of each day. Give it some thought: What do you like doing most when you are on holiday? Do you sleep late? Walk along the beach? Enjoy a cup of tea at 11am each morning? Find a way to work these nuggets of pleasure into your daily routine ‒ it might be difficult initially to wake up at six instead of seven, but the sun is up long before you need to be at work and an hourʼs walk through the quiet streets or sitting with a book and a cup of coffee is a luxury that enriches your soul and creates holiday joy in every day.

Is the sea your happy place? Load a soundtrack of waves breaking on the beach and, later in the day when you feel overwhelmed and are drowning in work, pour a glass of ice-cold sparkling water, sit back and listen to the waves, feel the tingle of the bubbles on your tongue and lose yourself in the calmness that the sea brings. For five minutes, think about nothing other than the sea and the sun and the water … The emails can wait, for five minutes you are on holiday. Instead of scrolling through your social media when you are standing in a queue, read a book on your phone, immerse yourself in the story. Is tea your calm enjoyment? Once each day make a ritual of it, go and buy yourself the loveliest cups and the best leaf tea and observe how the colours and aromas of the leaves slowly infuse in a glass teapot.

Find ways to ʻgo on holidayʼ for short interludes throughout your day and tackle your year this way.

I invite you: Treat yourself to the happiness that comes from a day lived well and to the fullest. Fill the moments between your tasks with activities that remind you of who you truly are and what you love. From now on I am not losing a single day to wishing it was a holiday! Over the past two years we have all realised again how precious life is, how fleeting and how wonderful. Make every second count this year. Drench your days with things that bring you joy, and live the holiday every day.