Vacations, staycations, dancecations?
How do you spend your free time? Deep-shit question at the end!
It’s summer here in Europe.
Time for vacations = time off from work.
How do you spend your vacations? Do you take any, or none? Or not during summer?
Depending on the country we live in, the job we have, the culture we grow up in, vacations look different. And yes, also depending on our preferences.
Here in Sweden, people have to have a minimum of 25 days of vacation, excluding public holidays. Many have 30- 35. You can also have more depending on your contract.
Most people take 3-5 or even 6 weeks of during the whole summer. This is why everything slows down significantly & its more calm than usual.
For me, having my own company & a remote part-time arrangement with a journal, I am very flexible. I basically can decide when I take time off and how much I take off.
No one really asks, as long as my work is done and I take care of my client work.
When it comes to vacations, people have very different approaches.
Some say: “You need to have at least two weeks off!”
Swedes say: “4-6 weeks is normal!”
Some say: “I don’t need any vacations!”
Then you have the hotel-vacationeers, the campers & hikers, the cruise-vacationeers, the active-outdoor vacations, beach & sea vacations, family vacations…
And also: staycations at home. But somehow those are often disregarded as not proper vacations. As if you need to travel far away to take a rest…
And there we start with entering the potential of judgement around vacations. And pressure and “Looks”.
Cos if you don’t fly to X, Y, Z, for an x, y, z amount of time, people think its weird.
But is it really? I don’t think so.
For me personally, I LOVE to stay in Umeå where in live, in the summer, because it is amazingly beautiful, calm and warm, with light all day.
I would rather travel somewhere in the unpleasant month of November & get some sun instead of leaving in one of the best seasons of Northern Sweden.
AND: for this summer, I decided it will be my dance-summer! So kind of a dance-cation if you want so.
I started to dance Bugg & Fox & continue with my favorite dance West Coast Swing.
The whole summer we have trial lessons & social dances in the forest, we had a dance-week last week with live music & next week I got a ticket to a dance festival.
I decided to sleep there with my hammock the first time! And the week after another dance marathon! I LOVE IT!
And my yearly summer hike in august follows after that.
These are my summer vacations and I am very happy about them.
I don’t need to go to places far away to be able to say I am on vacations. I did that in the past, might do it again in the future, but I allso lik that my vacations can look different very time.
I went for a week to Norway in the winter for a winter-hiking adventure. It was great!
I used to have a hard time taking time off, felt bad about it & not deserving. Luckily that is not the case anymore.
What I am very grateful for is that no one else decides upon when I want to take time off. I don’t need to ask for permission and that is a freedom I value very much in my life.
This is also why I prefer to split my vacation times for adventures throughout the whole year.
Maybe in the future I will take 2 or 3 weeks off at the same time, who knows… but by now, I enjoy this way of designing my free time.
I wanted to share this with you because I noticed that this way of handling my free time seems to be uncommon, s goo’s good to know what is possible: basically anything you want ;)
Be it just for that you dont feel bad that you “do vacations” a certain way that might be seen as weird :D.
Important to ask yourself are the following questions:
How much time off do I need to recharge?
When during the year do I need it most? & when else do I want to take time off?
What do I want to do in my vacations and how to combine it with loved ones?
Where do I want to go? Or not go?
How do I want to travel?
What feelings do I want to get and have on my vacations?
I think for today, that is it.
If I am honest, todays post felt a bit fluffy, not much substance and written down in a free-flowing way, more than usual.
I think I just felt to share it, to also process it for myself, cos I have not yet spend my summer like I am doing now.
It does fel a bit weird, cos I am taking time off & for myself, while I also work here & there.
And maybe THAT is the weird thing! The combination of both…
And in a way, I feel that I always do it that way, cos I can fully decide over my time… does that mean I always have summer vacations?
Or: should our life be lived in a way that work, life, vacations, hobbies & loved ones are all a beautiful mix of everything, all at once?
HA, there you go, I ended up with a bit of a deeper question that came out as a surprise, also for me.
I will ponder upon it more, maybe life should be such an ongoing vacation…
Would love to hear your thoughts on all this!
Love,
Daria