Holiday Help!

Hi everyone,

I am due to go on a big family holiday next month! There will be 10 of us staying for 14 nights in a villa. I am looking forward to it but worried at the same time. My TMS symptoms are always worse during a holiday and as I keep a lot of my symptoms to myself I try and hide them which in turn makes them worse?? Anyway, I was just wondering whether anyone had any tips for me during the stay. Should I still journal? Should I take meditation cds with me? Or try and forget TMS (although im pretty sure this wont happen) Any Tips and ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you very much! This site is awesome!!!

 

Hi Kez,
Whatever you do, my advice would be to try to take some time for yourself, being yourself, enjoying what you want to do. I think the pressures of family time center around "being me" vs "being what I think I need to be for others." So I recommend you look for ways to have alone time, if that feels good, or whatever way you can be yourself in relationship with others. This might mean taking time for your TMS practices and excusing yourself from group activities. Or jumping in and asking for group activities that you like, that satisfy you. It might mean speaking your truth to others when conflicts come up. Hope this helps.
Andy B

 

Great post Andy. Kez Just go with the flow . Don't get stuck on form and forget the purpose. Do what makes you feel good.Journal if you feel like it.

 

Kez take each day as it comes & do what u can depending on how you feel. If hiding yr symptoms makes them worse then maybe at the beginning just warn ppl off there may be occasions when u r not feeling up to doing something & that u might need some 'me' time. Having said that u should tell them not to worry & to enjoy themselves.

Enjoy yrself, that's the whole idea of a holiday but remember that family holidays can be quite demanding so if u r overwhelmed then step back, breathe & do what u think is best for u.

I'm sure everyone else will be understanding. I found that I could get distracted from my pain if I was around ppl & then there would be times when I just couldn't face ppl & I would excuse myself.

If u feel the need to journal or meditate u can always find a private spot & spend a few minutes.

Have fun & don't feel guilty about anything.

Mala

 

I like Andy's advice on just being yourself vs what you feel you need to be for others. One thing that I struggled with around this for a long time was that I would try and do that, but found I didn't believe in it. The reason was that I wasn't doing a critical thing - being proud of who I was. If 'you' needs to take some time away from the rest of the group and decompress, then don't just do it, be proud of who you are and be proud of the fact that doing that is what 'you' does. It's the little things like that that give us all our identity. Often we can become so consumed with being who we think everyone wants us to be that we lose ourselves.

If you need some 'you' time, you don't need to justify it to yourself. Just do it. Do it because it's part of who you are, and it's what makes you you.