Holding On to the Holiday Calm: Why It’s So Hard (and How to Make It Last)
by Marion Hewitt | 1 September 2025
Do you recognise this? You come back from holiday feeling lighter, more relaxed, and calmer than in a long time. You’ve been sleeping well, your shoulders aren’t glued to your ears, and you’ve remembered what it’s like to slow down.
You have good intentions to retain this state, to develop better habits for your wellbeing, then you return to ‘normal’ life. Your inbox is overflowing, meetings are stacked back-to-back, and the pace of life has snapped back to pre-holiday levels. The calm you felt feels like a distant memory.
So why does this happen, and more importantly, what can we do about it?
Why We Lose the Holiday Feeling So Quickly
Positive psychology research suggests we tend to return to a baseline level of wellbeing, a phenomenon sometimes called the “hedonic treadmill”. A holiday creates a temporary boost, but the demands, habits and environments we return to tend to pull us back to familiar stress levels.
There’s also the matter of cognitive load. When we’re away, our brains are freed from constant demands with no deadlines to meet, no endless micro-decisions, no pings from multiple devices. Once back in the flow of work, the mental load increases rapidly, stress hormones such as cortisol start to climb again, and the holiday mindset can fade within days.
Environmental cues also play their part. The moment we sit at our desk, open our inbox, or start the commute, our brains receive signals that it’s time to “switch on”. These cues can be so powerful that they override the mental and emotional patterns we established while away.
Why It Matters for Wellbeing
Letting stress creep back in after a holiday doesn’t just rob you of a pleasant feeling, it can undermine the deeper psychological benefits that time away provides. Chronic stress is well known to increase the risk of burnout, cardiovascular issues, and weakened immunity. But from a positive psychology perspective, a holiday offers something more profound than rest: it’s often one of the rare periods when our core psychological needs are fully met.
Self-Determination Theory developed by Ryan & Deci, (2000) identifies three universal needs that are central to wellbeing. They are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Research across cultures and settings shows that when these needs are met, we experience greater life satisfaction, resilience, and motivation. Holidays tend to be a perfect environment for fulfilling all three.
Autonomy is the sense of directing your own life and making choices that align with your values. On holiday, you decide when to wake up, how to spend your day, and how much you work – if at all. This freedom is deeply restorative because it reinforces a feeling of control over your own time and energy.
Competence is the feeling of being capable and effective in your activities. While work can sometimes provide this, holidays often create space for a different kind of mastery, perhaps navigating an unfamiliar city, learning a new skill, or even perfecting the art of resting without guilt. These moments strengthen self-belief and confidence.
Relatedness is the sense of connection and belonging with others. Time away often means more uninterrupted hours with friends, family, or even friendly strangers, free from the distractions and divided attention that daily routines can bring. These connections build emotional closeness and lift mood.
The challenge is that when we return to work, these needs can easily become sidelined. Tight schedules, constant demands, and workplace pressures often chip away at these elements. That’s why the boost we feel from a holiday can fade so quickly and why protecting these needs in our everyday lives is so important. If we can consciously design our routines to nurture them, we can move beyond temporary recovery and towards sustained wellbeing.
Strategies to Keep the Calm
One of the simplest but most effective strategies is to plan your re-entry. Maybe returning mid-week, rather than on a Monday, as a a shorter week allows you to ease back into your workload and regain momentum more gently. Equally, blocking out your first half-day for catching up, without meetings, can prevent the immediate sense of overwhelm and give you space to prioritise.
It also helps to deliberately preserve some of the habits you enjoyed while away. If your mornings on holiday began with a slow breakfast or a walk outdoors, see if you can keep a version of that in your routine. Research has shown that small, repeated moments of enjoyment can have a compounding effect on wellbeing over time. Maybe introduce a short walk before starting work.
Think, too, about creating “micro-holidays” in your week. This could mean changing your scenery maybe by working from a different location for a few hours, taking a walking meeting, or trying a new lunch spot. Even short breaks from your usual environment can refresh your perspective. You might also protect pockets of time where you disconnect from devices, mirroring the mental recovery time you had on holiday.
Another powerful approach is savouring. This is the deliberate act of noticing and appreciating positive experiences. Taking a few minutes to look at holiday photos, replay a memory, or talk about a special moment with someone can help reawaken the feelings you had while you were away. Savouring works best when you focus on the details: the colours, the scents, the sounds.
Workload management plays a big role too. Prioritising, negotiating deadlines, and delegating where possible can prevent the immediate post-holiday crash. Protecting your energy in those first days back increases the chances of sustaining your wellbeing gains.
Finally, keep an eye on your mindset. Psychologist Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory highlights that positive emotions help us think more creatively, solve problems more effectively, and build long-term personal resources. By protecting the positive emotional state you gained on holiday, you are not just preserving a nice feeling, you’re also supporting your resilience and productivity.
A Gentle Reminder
You don’t need to replicate your holiday to hold onto its benefits. In fact, trying to force relaxation can be counter-productive. Instead, focus on small, sustainable actions. Keep one or two habits from your time away, give yourself permission to rest even when life feels busy, and notice the small wins in maintaining your balance
#Wellbeing #SelfCare #MentalWellbeing #Mindfulness #MaintainHolidayCalm
Call 07980 513646 or send us an email marionhewitt@proteasolutions.co.uk