The Difference Between a Vacation and a Wellness Retreat

So often, we find ourselves wanting to take a vacation from our every day lives. Stress infiltrates work and home, burdening us with feelings of anger, anxiety, and depression, leaving us longing for the holiday we think will bring us more happiness.

Wouldn’t it be better if we strived to create a life that we didn’t need a vacation from? Instead of escaping for a short period of time, only to find ourselves back home ruminating over a more prelapsarian past or felicitous future, why not make our own beings a belvedere for happiness?

This is something that a wellness retreat can help instill in us that a vacation, usually, does not.

Generally speaking, a vacation helps us park our problems at the curb for a short time, but once it’s over, we end up back behind the wheel of them again.

Vacations

• Include time away from work and responsibilities
• Can be anywhere you want
• May include friends and family
• End when you get home.

Whereas, a wellness retreat is geared toward providing us with ways to cope with stress and find more long-term solutions to our problems.

Wellness retreats

• Include time away from work and responsibilities
• Usually occur at a location staffed by expert guides
• Can be solo or shared with friends or family
• Often include experiential activities, healthy foods, yoga and meditation, time in community and in solitude
• Give you take-home tools for continued resilience, relaxation, and rejuvenation.

The logistics of packing, planning child or pet care, and carving out time away from work can, in and of themselves, create stress. Therefore, it would stand to reason that we would want to receive the longer lasting benefits of a wellness retreat in exchange for our energy, as opposed to the respite of a vacation.

By just picking a spot on a map to “get away from it all”, we are bound to enjoy our time away. But without a more concrete plan for addressing our needs, we are not as likely to derive the guidance necessary to facilitate long-term benefits and healing.

Wellness retreats are curated by professionals whose intention is to provide us with a well balanced itinerary that helps us address issues with specificity. They consist of rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, and resources for self-care as we transition back to daily life.

Uncooperative weather or cancelled excursions are unfortunate circumstances that can put a damper on a vacation, but don’t inhibit the nature of a wellness retreat. On a vacation, we are often left to our own devices and can miss out when unexpected things happen because we don’t have the necessary resources at our disposal.

On a wellness retreat, the possibility of inclement weather is taken into consideration and activities are sourced in-house, not subject to unexpected cancellations.

Overall, vacations are short and sweet. They have a more ephemeral effect on that which ails us. Wellness retreats cultivates a sense of mental, physical, and spiritual sustainability. You’ll return home with more energy, optimism, and the tools to thrive even when you aren’t on holiday!