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You don’t need to plan a month-long vacation to get out of the house.
When this whole quarantine thing started in earnest, I admit, I was getting a little stir crazy. I’m not even an especially social person, but it’s still nice to have the option to leave the house if I so choose. Having that option taken away was wearing on me, to the point where I needed to leave the house or I’d go bonkers. So y’know what I did? I got in the car, cracked the window, and took a 30 minute drive to nowhere in particular, and afterwards, I felt so much better.
Recent psychological surveys indicate that that stifling feeling is pretty normal among Americans, especially as the pandemic cancels summer plans. But even if you can’t fly all the way to Hawaii or whatever, that doesn’t mean you can’t leave the house at all. Brain expert Mike Dow, Psy.D., Ph.D., suggests short day trips as a means of alleviating that quarantine burnout.
“Travel, especially quick, local getaways, are a valuable way to balance our physical health with our mental health and can increase connections in our brain, thereby improving both our current and future mood — so quickie getaways are actually an investment in your long-term well-being,” he told travel site Hotwire, which conducted the surveys.
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Americans have been forced to get a little craftier with their definition of a “vacation” to work around the pandemic, but like with a traditional vacation, you can still get out of the house, either for its own sake or to see cool stuff, as long as you do the proper planning beforehand. Dow recommends researching your destination to ensure no local health mandates take you by surprise or force you to quarantine. He also recommends departure be close to planning; new regulations keep coming and going, so you want to make sure you go while your info’s still relevant.
It stinks to have your vacation ruined, but you don’t have to sit at home and be miserable about it. If you’ve got a day to spare, hop in the car, put on some tunes, and see where the road takes you.
