Do you get enough play ?

Just collapsing into inactivity and hitting the bar on holiday may make you less happy than you might imagine, as simply sitting without activity can leave you less than refreshed.  However, a swim or learning to sketch can be sufficiently fulfilling in play mode to keep your reward mechanisms buoyant.  Accomplishing simple natural tasks in the fresh air will improve your sense of learned effectiveness, which leads to the happier mental state of learned optimism.  So going for a relaxed family stroll may leave you feeling much more positive than slumping in your bed with the TV on.  Just imagine, climbing a hill peak before breakfast, it may even leave you deliriously happy.

Holidays that offer a range of natural activities provide an ideal setting to develop your play capacity.  Determinedly ease yourself into activities rather than shying away from these events, as simply confronting that shyness or laziness can in itself give a massive sense of achievement.  Never neglect the social side of life, as we are essentially social animals and we always feel better and enjoy play times more if we make some new contacts and share experiences.  So do not leave it to the children to make new friends for you, join in some joint activity where socialising is made easy. 

Environments such as Eurocamp are ideal for rapidly de-stressing people without their having to be comatose on alcohol and they can certainly help deliver the play factor.  Optional quality activities are of far more psychological value in getting that ‘feel good’ factor on holiday than a bare beach, a bar and bored companions.  Children will also engage far more with the variety of activities on offer and be more content if parents themselves join in these activities instead of simply telling the children to ‘go away and play’. 

Not only will the children feel they can relate to adults more but the adults will learn the priceless skills of true play.  The type of play activity may be more a personal choice, but from the view of a psychologist, trying new things can add real value to a holiday.  Not only will you come away with a new skill, but you may also break that slightly boring mould you have made for yourself by sticking to the same familiar things from your work-dominated past.  Your play factor abilities may quadruple in a week and these are skills you can use all year round to bring your quality play quota up to a healthy weekly dose.