Do you have a spring break tradition? Maybe spring break is a catch-up time when you go to your yearly doctor’s appointments. Maybe you see a different movie every day in theaters with your family. Or maybe you travel over spring break. Do you journey to the mountains for some skiing or travel to the beach for some sunny rest and relaxation?
No matter what you normally do, your traditions have probably changed over the years. What you do during spring break – whether there’s one built into your academic schedule or you have to take time off work to have a spring break – should match where you are in your life right now.
Spring break is short, so you want to make the most out of those precious days off. And one thing’s always true: it ends too soon. So don’t let your spring break pass you by! Do what’s best for you to help you recover – or reset – for the rest of the season.
A Quick History of Spring Break
It’s pretty widely known that summer break exists because, for most of human history, families needed their children at home during the summer to help on the farm. But what’s the origin of spring break? It turns out that college swimming is what began the whole tradition.
In the late 1930s, a Colgate University swim coach took his team down to Florida in the spring for extra training. Word quickly spread that Florida was the place to be during this time of year. Students would travel to Florida around their Easter breaks to spend a few days in the sun. Now, spring break is a widely accepted – and scheduled – tradition in the United States.
Why Spring Break Exists Now
While the original purpose of spring break may have been related to competitive swimming, that’s not the reason why so many institutions, from preschools to grad schools, schedule a spring break into their year. These days, spring break serves a much different function.
According to Dr. Michael Messina, “Spring break is typically scheduled around the middle or end of the month of March so that students can get a bit of reprieve from hectic school responsibilities before finals and the last part of the school year.” For many reasons, spring break is beneficial for students’ physical and mental health. The time away from due dates, classrooms, and laptop screens takes away some of the intense academic pressure of the school year.
Extra free time also gives students the chance to spend more time outside, whether they choose to throw a frisbee, watch some baseball, or just sit on the grass and soak up some sun. Reconnecting with nature can help students feel more human – which can be lost when you’re confined in a school building under harsh fluorescent lights for days on end and the warm weather is beckoning you outside.
Check Your Current Stress Levels
No matter what stage of life you’re currently in, if there is a spring break built into your schedule (or if you have the vacation time and you can choose to build one in), then you should!
When you start your spring break planning, begin by writing about how you feel right now. Do you feel excited about spring break? Or are you so stressed that you can’t imagine being happy in this moment? Take a look at this great resource from the University of Colorado at Boulder, which lists different signs of physical, psychological, and general stress.
You can also start your spring break planning by taking this stress quiz from Health.com. Taking an inventory of your stress levels will help you know more about yourself. Self-knowledge can help you gauge what you should – and shouldn’t do – over spring break.
Prepare for a Break
Depending on your stress levels, you may just need to relax for a couple of days before you can start thinking about what would help your mental health the most. If you’re totally burned out and exhausted to the point where you just need to sleep – then sleep!
Many people will be thinking about how they’re going to spend their spring break starting, at the latest, the Friday before break begins. Whether you decide to travel or stay at home, keep in mind that you should spend some time truly relaxing during your break.
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Adopt a True Relaxation Mindset
What does “truly relaxing” actually mean? Well, it means taking a real vacation from work or from school. That means intentionally choosing to ignore your work or school duties. No checking work email or trying to get ahead on assignments. As much as you can, limit your exposure to (and your thinking about) work or school-related tasks.
As you’re working on putting aside your regular daily duties, start your spring break planning by deciding what’s most helpful to you. Is it to write out a daily plan for how you’ll spend your spring break ahead of time? Or will you benefit more from just waking up and deciding what you’re going to do that day the morning of?
One thing’s for certain: don’t put too much pressure on yourself. If scheduling out your spring break sounds like just another boring task on your to-do list, then skip it. But if you think it would motivate you to know exactly what you have to look forward to, then take the time in advance to plan your spring break mental health reset.
Avoid Time Stress and Set Your Priorities
While it may be important for you to get to a few places on time during your spring break – like a doctor’s appointment, to the airport, or to a movie with friends – for the most part, you should try to relax and not worry about the time during spring break. Spend your days focused on relaxing and rejuvenating, and ignore the clock.
Prioritize doing whatever is the most valuable for you. If that’s going to a spa or getting a manicure, then do it! Take the time to do the things that you know will relax you, whether that’s reading a fun book, meditating, doing yoga, or going for a nature walk.
Spring Clean (Unless It Causes You Stress)
You may want to prioritize spring cleaning during your spring break. Because clutter is proven to have a negative effect on mental health, removing clutter can give you a mental health boost. Even if your home is already clutter-free, you may want to make spring break the time that you get to all those cleaning tasks that you’ve been putting off.
However, don’t clean so much – or worry about cleaning – that it takes away from the relaxing nature of your spring break. While you should always aim to keep your home free of dirt and dust, you don’t need to make spring cleaning a part of your spring break if it’s going to add more stress to your life. Remember, put yourself and your mental health first!
Focus On Your Favorite Hobbies
Relaxing is key to turning your spring break into a mental health reset. However, you should also make it a priority to do something that you find extremely fulfilling. Take the time to think about what brings you the most joy in life. We’re not talking about what helps you relax or unwind at the end of the day. What truly gives you joy?
Is it painting watercolors? Hiking somewhere new? Do you love to knit or crochet? You may want to think back to your childhood and try to remember what activities made you the happiest. While you can never exactly recreate a feeling, you can try to do what once made you happy and see if it still does.
Perhaps you feel stuck. Maybe you’re at a place in your life where what used to bring you joy doesn’t anymore. Check out the ideas in these different categories of hobbies for some fresh inspiration.
Spend Some Time Alone – Or Connect With Others
Last but not least, focus on your interactions with other people during your spring break. For anyone who works in intensely people-focused jobs – especially teachers, doctors, nurses, etc. – you may need to spend your spring break mostly in solitude to help you reset. This goes double if you’re an introvert working in a role that requires lots of social interaction!
On the other hand, if you’re an extrovert and you work primarily on your own – whether you’re a student who spends hours studying alone in the library or a professional who’s on the job by yourself all day long – take time over spring break to connect with others.
This could mean scheduling a coffee date with a friend, or it could involve seeking out a group in your area that has a meetup you’d like to attend. You can plan to visit extended family who you haven’t seen in a while or make a trip to see a friend who lives far away.
If you’d like to combine focusing on your favorite hobbies with connecting with others, try to find a local group online that hosts an event you’d be interested in attending. Meetup offers great opportunities for people to connect in our increasingly isolated world.
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