Someone I was coaching recently told me, how he’s in great spirits when he’s vacationing in any place and how when he comes back to his routine life and work, it all vanishes. This is something that a lot of us experience. Feeling really excited when we go on a vacation, having fun, feeling lighter and even enjoying life overall; while we relate boredom, monotony and neutral emotions to our day to day lives.

Of course, there’s no taking away from the magnificence of monuments, the creativity in paintings at an art gallery, the quaintness of certain restaurants and cafés or even the beauty of landscapes. These are all part of our travel and vacation experiences and that’s awesome. As I worked with people and helped them experience more happiness in their lives, here’s what I realized. You don’t have to go on a vacation or travel anywhere to experience those great feelings. It’s about what you do, not about where you do it. As I kept asking people about what they did when they travelled, I noticed that there were a set of things that people did when they were on vacation that they hardly did in their regular lives back home. For example, if you visit art galleries, try out different cuisines, talk to interesting people or even just sit back at a public place watching the people walk by when you are on vacation. Then try doing those same things back home. Instead of sitting in front of the television, go visit the art galleries in your city and explore the art scene. Don’t just keep going to the same restaurant every weekend; try out new restaurants and different cuisines. Attend a workshop or some event in your city and meet and talk to some of the interesting people there. At least, go and sit at a convenient spot in your city center and experience the joy of people watching. By doing these things, in many ways, you bring the vacation and the travel experience into your life while you’re still in your own city. People often forget to do the things that they love in their day to day lives and some even save it only for vacations. Here’s what one of my clients told me. When she’s on vacation, she sits at a café and reads a book, visits old bookshops and strolls or walks around with no particular destination in mind, stopping wherever she felt like. Now when I asked her to do those exact three things when she gets a chance, at first she was a little uncertain. But the next weekend, she spent a day strolling through the heart of her city, she stopped here and there when she felt like and sometimes even at old book shops. She then spent a couple of hours sitting at different cafés reading one of the books that she bought that day. Just by spending a day this way, she had an epiphany of sorts. She realized that she could have a complete vacation experience anytime she wanted by just doing these things. A big part of why we enjoy vacations is because of the things we do. Most people end up doing a lot of things that they love and enjoy doing when they are on vacation. You could be on a vacation even in the most exotic location in the world and have a lousy experience if you spent the whole day doing all the things that you hated.

Look back at your past travels and vacations that you’ve been to. Spot all the things that you did that you really loved and enjoyed and that really made it a vacation for you. Identify which of those things you can do in your own city and you’ll be amazed how many such things there are. Whenever you feel like having a vacation, spend an afternoon, an evening or the entire day doing those awesome things that you otherwise do only when you’re on a vacation. This is the secret of bringing the vacation to you rather than taking yourself to a vacation. Because a vacation at the end of the day is an internal experience.