Date of publication 28/04/2024
Feel Your Way with an Emotional Holiday
A practical guide to emotional holidays to help you prepare for your next adventure.
Would you like to reconnect with yourself and with the people you love most while traveling? On an emotional holiday, where every plan becomes a new journey inward, you can do exactly that. Adults and children can discover the fascinating world of emotions together at Iberostar hotels designed for families. Every mood is valid.
What are emotional holidays?
Emotional holidays create a safe space where emotions can be expressed freely. They are a mental space, but also a physical, shared home that travels with us: a home away from home where everyone can feel in their own way and be listened to with empathy and respect. Travel therefore offers a valuable opportunity to live in the present moment through emotions and to work on emotional intelligence as a family: that remarkable ability that allows us to recognize, understand and manage what is happening inside us.
Why do we need emotional holidays?
The ability to feel, the ability to learn
Emotions in children are closely linked to learning. Children learn and remember through trial and error, thanks to the pleasant or uncomfortable sensations they associate with their experiences. On a family holiday, everything is different and new, so their development can be enriched by a wide range of emotions and discoveries that help stimulate their flexible, developing minds.
Better emotional management in unfamiliar situations
The emotional intensity that characterizes certain stages of life, such as adolescence, may become more pronounced during a family trip. Travel brings unfamiliar situations that can trigger responses different from those experienced in everyday life. Experiencing them together, especially at an age marked by intense hormonal activity, can increase that intensity. This gives you the opportunity to work through emotions with teenagers as they arise and deepen your relationship with your Generation Z children.
The art of recognizing, naming and letting go
As an adult, do you sometimes find it difficult to understand and manage your inner world? Does the pace of everyday life make it hard to pay attention to it? During an emotional holiday, you have time to stop and feel. You can sit with your emotions, observe them without judgment, name them and then let them go with gratitude for what they have taught you.
Ideas for enjoying an emotional family holiday
Embrace the anxiety, or excitement, of planning the trip
Anxiety can arise when our thoughts move faster than reality, especially when we anticipate the future and focus on everything that might go wrong. This is a very natural response. Instead of fighting it, you can allow yourself to feel it and encourage younger family members to do the same during the preparations for a family trip. Involve them in simple decisions, such as what clothes they want to put in their suitcase or which excursions they would like to take. Booking accommodation with suitable rooms and activities for different age groups can reduce uncertainty. Before long, those pre-holiday nerves may turn into excitement.
Feel a little envy while the children learn and have fun
Would you like to return to childhood, experience things for the first time again, become excited by simple pleasures and rediscover the world? A little healthy envy is no bad thing. When viewed through emotional intelligence, envy can encourage us to reconsider our perspective, especially when it appears because your children are learning and having fun in a space created just for them. The Star Camp program is divided into age groups and designed to inspire eight types of intelligence through interaction and play. You may not be able to join in, but you can still adopt a more playful approach to life from the spa, and perhaps adjust your own perspective along the way.
Sing and dance, even if your teenagers find it embarrassing
The sometimes challenging task of working through emotions with teenagers can become easier with a little humor. Are your children at that age when almost everything their parents do embarrasses them? Use the holiday as an opportunity to show them that you also know how to have fun and enjoy new experiences. Watching you sing and dance along with the adult entertainment at the hotel may feel like a kind of exposure therapy for them. They may even catch your good mood and, despite the embarrassment, decide to join in.
Go beyond boredom and relax by the sea
When we stop constantly doing things, body and mind can become more aligned with the here and now. For this reason, the emotion we call boredom can sometimes be moved beyond, leading to a pleasant state of disconnection. Stillness can also help us rest and may encourage creativity. Imagine an exclusive beachfront resort where being bored is not only allowed, but where there are also peaceful spaces in which your only responsibility is to stay on a sun lounger with a juice made from exotic fruits in your hand. Spending quality time with the people you love can help quiet the impulse to always be doing something.
Let their joy rub off on you at a hotel with a water park
Of all the emotions children experience, joy is perhaps the easiest to recognize. Laughter can bring people closer together and also plays an important adaptive role by encouraging children to seek out and choose what makes them happy. And joy is contagious. Combine your days of sun and beach with a stay at a hotel with a water park and you may find that their excitement travels down the waterslides and reaches you too.
Channel anger with a yoga or meditation class
The emotional intensity of travel can appear in moments of excess energy, frustration or even anger. And that is completely human. Routines change, surroundings change, and so do the challenges we face. Feelings of anger can be channeled through mindful and dynamic activities that connect movement with breathing. Practicing yoga or meditation as a family can help restore balance. One of the best things is that anyone, regardless of age, can take part in a beginner class in either discipline.
Taste and savor, and reconsider what seems unpleasant
Some children find it difficult to introduce new flavors into their diet. Most people go through a stage when certain foods feel unappealing. Travel can help broaden the palate. Trying traditional dishes from other cultures also expands and enriches the senses at any age. At the buffets of Iberostar resorts, there are local and international food options for everyone, including guests with celiac disease and families following a vegan lifestyle. The themed restaurants also offer children’s menus. These dining spaces prioritize fresh, healthy and seasonal ingredients, sourced as responsibly as possible.
Your first time trying water sports: do it even if you are afraid
Fear alerts us to possible danger and prepares the nervous and motor systems for fight-or-flight responses. But fear can also add energy to a journey. When you do something for the first time, such as signing up for a surfing or snorkeling session, your survival mechanisms react to the unknown and can create a powerful rush of adrenaline. Older children may want to join you. Beach destinations with water sports can be ideal places for teenagers.
Accept the sadness when the holiday comes to an end
In nature, the only constant is change. This is true of our time in the world and of the emotions that arise, transform and eventually pass. Feeling sadness reflects human sensitivity, can strengthen interpersonal bonds and draws our attention to impermanence. Yes, your family may feel sad because an emotional holiday is coming to an end, but that should not stop you from appreciating it while it lasts or from starting to plan the next one.
