Stressed? You might need a micro-holiday

Your annual leave will thank you

The mental health benefits of a mini-break can feel immediate. Image: Pexels

Good news: feeling less stressed doesn’t have to involve quitting your job or escaping to a desert island. According to wellness experts, incorporating one tiny tweak into your day could be a mental health game-changer.

Sitting on the rooftop bar, drinking beers and looking out to the ocean, I can almost convince myself we’re on holidays. Work stress melts away. I even briefly forget about our looming mortgage rate rise and the fact our weekly shop seems to have doubled in price but not quantity. 

But my husband and I aren’t on one of those mini-breaks we used to take regularly before we became parents. It’s lunchtime on a Friday, and since we both have the day off after booking annual leave for a now-cancelled family trip (thanks, cost-of-living crisis), we thought we’d take ourselves out for an hour while our daughter is in daycare. It’s not the burnout remedy we originally had in mind but, surprisingly, the mental health benefits feel immediate. Psychotherapist Elizabeth Anile, from Lemonade Psychotherapy, isn’t surprised by the positive impact of short, travel-like moments, otherwise known as ‘micro-holidays’, considering the current state of burnout in Australia.

According to the 2023 State of the Future of Work report by the University of Melbourne, 50 per cent of us aged between 22 and 55 feel exhausted at work. Approximately 40 per cent of us have less motivation than we did pre-pandemic, and 33 per cent can’t focus, thanks to the compounding stress of responsibilities outside the workplace. Unhappiness aside, the problem with being perpetually burnt out is we’re cognitively unable to find the best solutions to escape this vicious cycle.

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“We all have a window of tolerance. When stress, burnout and life trauma pile on top of us, that window gets narrower and the smallest inconvenience can make you want to fight, run away or shut down. You’re not able to make the best decisions in these states, because your executive functioning is completely impaired,” says Anile. “Life is always going to be stressful at times. We need to learn how to keep that window of tolerance open so we can handle the stress when life throws us curve balls.” 

A micro-holiday is one of the simplest ways to do that, especially when financial or work commitments mean an actual holiday is out of the question. Tara Hurster, psychologist and founder of The Tara Clinic, explains the benefits: “If you think about a car that’s running out of petrol, the logical thing to do is stop at a petrol station to fill back up. If we used the hustle-culture mentality in this example, we would tell the driver to put their foot to the floor and then become perplexed when the car stops and rolls to a stop on the side of the street. Taking breaks is the equivalent of re-fuelling your body and brain to allow you to head out on the road again safely and create the life you want.” 

Ready to break up with burnout by utilising this science-backed technique throughout the week? Here’s how to bring travel vibes to the tiniest escape, for guaranteed mental health benefits.

You don't need international flights and a five-star resort to encourage your body and mind to rest. Image: iStock

Carve out time

The beautiful thing about a micro-holiday? You don’t need to accrue annual leave to make it happen. According to Anile, it can be as short as booking yourself in for a one-hour massage at a day spa (peak resort holiday vibes, in less time than it takes to smash out your daily commute), as low-key as heading to the beach after work to build sandcastles with the kids, or weekend lunch at a local winery or brewery with friends. “It just needs to be something that breaks your routine and takes you off the hamster wheel of life for a couple of hours,” she says.

Book it in

For many, the mere act of making time for a micro-holiday can help shake burnout. According to an oft-cited study by researchers at Cornell University, we tend to derive more happiness from anticipating a planned “experiential purchase” than the experience itself, whether that be an upcoming vacation or a glass of merlot with someone you love. Hurster explains that this state of anticipation is “when our brain’s dopamine levels are at their highest. That means the chemical that’s directly linked to a sense of survival is turned on when you’re planning or booking a micro-holiday. It literally tricks the brain into believing that we’ve survived the ‘tiger attack’ (ie, the stress trigger) and we’re safe again,” she says. So plan away.

Or don’t plan anything at all

How many times has one of your holiday highlights been something that was totally unplanned? Maybe it was tasting the best spaghetti aglio e olio in a trattoria you never would have found had you not got lost in Milan. Or discovering a cliff-side bar on the island of El Nido with a five-star view, without the five-star price tag. The mental health benefits of spontaneity come from its links to creativity, curiosity and play, explains Hurster. “When we’re stuck in our analytical mind too much, we can become rigid and stressed; when we’re leaning into our creativity, we begin to let go and explore new options – which often brings out completely new ways to solve our problems,” she adds.

For Hurster’s own recent micro-holiday, she and her partner threw a mattress in the car and went on a spontaneous overnight trip to the Blue Mountains. “The elements of this less-than-24-hour, basically free getaway resulted in me feeling as refreshed as I would have if I’d gone away for a week,” she says. “If you can unplug in the way that vibes for you – it doesn’t have to look like my recent trip – you’re going to see the benefits.”

Unplugging looks different to each individual. Image: iStock

Make it awe-inspiring

Another method proven to immediately snap us out of burnout mode? Moments that make us stop in wonder. But don’t just take our word for it. A 2023 study published in the Scientific Reports journal analysed the effects of daily awe on stress, somatic health symptoms and wellbeing. The clever folk in white lab coats found that on the days people experienced awe, they reported lower levels of stress, less headaches, fewer sleeping issues and felt greater levels of well-being. In short, some powerful stuff. Utilise it by booking ballet tickets and drink in the inspiring athletic performances, hit the road for a weekend hike and enjoy a jaw-dropping hit of nature, or go star gazing like Hurster did on her spontaneous overnighter.

Pair it with a workout

Seems counter-intuitive but, thanks to the endorphins, it works. For me, it’s meant replacing my weekly treadmill run (which I loathed) with a coastal run that always takes my mind back to hiking in Cinque Terre, Italy, one of my all-time favourite holidays. For Anile, it’s rock climbing with her seven-year-old son. “How many of us get to adulthood and don’t try anything new anymore? We just stick to what we know: the same cafes, routines and running tracks. What if you were to pick an activity that you haven’t done before? Would it feel like a break?” asks Anile. “I reckon it would.” So jump on a bike, book a round of golf, try ocean swimming or a ceramics class and get ready to reap serious wellbeing – and stress-relief – rewards.

Add connection

Spend an afternoon with your parents at a flower festival or have lunch with a friend at that new restaurant all the tourists are raving about. The reason? According to Anile, combining connection with your micro-break instantly amplifies the mental health benefits. “Data indicates the more connected we are to loved ones, the more joy and happiness we experience. This in turn reduces the likelihood of developing depression and anxiety,” she adds. “So if you only have two hours this week for a micro-holiday, and you spend it with a friend who makes you laugh until your stomach hurts, you’re going to feel so much happier.” One hit of soul-expanding joy coming right up.

Originally published as Stressed? You might need a micro-holiday