One would think that going on holiday is all nice and positive. However, to an anxious, perfectionistic person and a person who’s been through a non-stop black cloud of negative occurrences with health, life, people, living conditions etc. for a long period, a holiday may mean dealing with loads more tiring unknowns. For example:
- The holiday was booked with a completely new group of people
- In a country (Slovakia) which has a cold climate (i.e. completely against my wishlist for a holiday)
- One with long hours of hiking (i.e. opposite kind of sport that I’m used to + taps into the fears of whether my body, post-surgeries, would be able to handle that, therefore also dealing with fear of underperforming)
- Letting go of the control to organize and plan (once again, completely out of my comfort zone as normally I’m the one planning and organizing every single detail of my trips)
The mind of an anxious and perfectionistic person is very complex. It tries to ensure that the person is protected despite any unexpected outcome. One can imagine how much depth an anxious person has to go through in order to feel comfortable and secure going to such an unknown territory (hint: physical prep, mental prep, organization prep, among others). However, even though anxiety may sound negative but in reality, when taking a closer look, anxiety allows one to be curious, creative and acts as an initial protective barrier (i.e. always being prepared, and well-organised in everything). The trick to use anxiety to its optimal state comes through challenging it, i.e. pushing oneself out of comfort zone places, i.e, in this case:
- Going to the trip
- Leaving some room for spontaneity
- Be willing to experiment
- Explore and discover different environments and people, and
- Immersing oneself in all the emotions that come up at that moment in time while enjoying the process!
It may not always be a pleasant experience, but, with the right self-reflection, there will always be useful and fruitful insight that comes out of each experience.
One would ask why I chose this kind of holiday if I desperately felt the need to switch off and relax. The answer would be to make new friends, and because secretly, I would not have been able to spend a whole week of doing nothing 😀 . Was it worth it? 100%! Whereto360 made sure that there will be
- A good mix of activities (i.e. variation and change: right up my ally!)
- Laughter
- Great mix of people from all walks of life
- A sense of listening to what the people want and
- The right amount of gently pushing people to activities which might not have been experienced if it wasn’t for their encouragement
Sadly, most of the local people we met were really cold and distant which put a bit of a dent on the experience, however, the scenery and landscape experienced there is second to none! Now it’s time to get back on the wellness wagon and healthily lose the extra kilos I gained throughout this experience 😀
Thank you once again Whereto360!
