It’s officially summer. That means longer days, more sunshine and hopefully more time to enjoy friends, family and the outdoors. This year, start your summer off right with these quick tips for making the most of this sweet, sunny season.
Tips for enjoying the home – Use this summer to reclaim joy in your home and your town.
- Rediscover your yard – Sometimes all the nature you need is right in your own backyard. Have dinner as a picnic, plan a Friday night camp out, or even rent or buy a projector for an open-air movie night.
- Be a tourist in your town – All residents have places in their towns where they might go if they were a tourist, but have never gone as a local. Try a new restaurant, go to the town museum, finally make it out to the summer fair or festival. You might even find a new favorite place along the way.
- Channel your inner child – Think back to when summer was full of endless possibilities and reclaim that feeling by bringing a little silliness into your life. Plan a trip to the local water or amusement park, go to the park up the street, mow a maze into your lawn or start a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood. Just make sure it’s something that makes you smile.
Tips for enjoying vacation – Family trips are fun, but they can also be stressful and exhausting.
- Think small and more often – The temptation to make every trip “once in a lifetime” can be intoxicating, but big trips aren’t any more fun or memorable than smaller ones. For your next trip, take the pressure off by planning something easy to get to and less expensive. You might even be able to take more than one vacation that way.
- Enjoy the planning phase – Anticipation of a trip can sometimes be just as fun as the trip itself: picturing yourself on vacation, reading up on new foods or activities, talking to others about what you want to do. Revel in this process as much as you can, it can only make the enjoyment of the trip more fun.
- Manage your expectations – Try not to fantasize too much about your trip. You may need to work while you’re out, have a long drive ahead, need to corral children to different locations, do housework. Know these activities are in your future, accept it and focus on the joy that surrounds these less pleasurable activities.
No matter what’s in your future this summer, the best advice is always to try make the most of each moment. Take time for yourself, your friends and your family.